Books, Books, Books!

I'm thinkin' that more than one of you can relate to this sentiment. After all, you're here -- reading this blog.

The books that we choose to read are most often carefully selected as being ones that we will either find enjoyable or beneficial (if not hopefully both!) given whatever period of time we have to read. My guess is that you don't want to waste time reading worthless books. (And yes, I do believe in such a thing as a worthless book.)

A few months back I read Tuck Everlasting (linked to my review) and at the end of this particular edition, there was an interview by author Natalie Babbitt in which she expressed a desire that the publishing industry wouldn't publish quite so many books because there were plenty of older titles just waiting to be read. (I'm paraphrasing her remarks.) However, she said, authors (like herself) keep spitting books out and so they keep on coming and we readers are given more and more reading options.

I do consider reading time to be very valuable and I do guard it rather ferociously. I do so in a few ways. For one thing, I have always staked out my children's nap times as my own private time. If I am going to be able to read at all, it usually happens between the hours of 2 and 4 p.m. That time is for me and the books (and whatever housework or meal prep work is waiting for me.) Occasionally I do like having a visitor during that time frame, where I can engage in some sweet and uninterrupted fellowship with a friend. Every so often that's a lovely thing and I look forward to it because it's a treat! The majority of the time though, that's my time to engage with stories and spiritual instruction.

I also have become even more choosy about the books I select to read. I used to accept a great many more review copies, for example, than I do now. But as Babbitt said, there are so many older titles that are very much worth a read that I don't want to spend a lot of my time reading what is (more often than not) modern fluff. I'm very happy - and personally entertained - by a good middle grade adventure story and my reading time there serves the additional purpose of my building a good home library for our children to make use of when they are appropriate ages.

Ultimately, if I had to boil my selections down to a specific reason, I would have to say that I want to be choosing books that cause me to do the following:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Philippians 4:8

I don't want to be filling my mind with explicit scenes or foul language. I do not want to immerse myself in false doctrine in such a way that might persuade me that it is true. I want to read things that excite the imagination, engage the senses and thrill me to think noble and courageous thoughts. I want to be very purposeful to engage with things that are pure in purpose - where the message of the book is not so garbled that you cannot make heads or tails of it and its virtue is speculative. If reading time is short - I don't want to waste it. I would like it to be as profitable and satisfying as it can possibly be.

When reading time is so very limited - how do you go about selecting your books? Do you put conscious thought and effort in to it, or are you more of a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of reader? Do you read anything that is recommended to you, or are you a person who investigates their reads before agreeing to spend time with them?

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.” Theodore Parker (1810 - 1860)

“The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.” Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)

“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689 - 1762)