Reading

Last year I made a plan to read 75 books and once I started dating John that pretty much went by the wayside.  The reading I have done in the past has been a lot of audio books as I walk or live in the house.

These days most of my books have been on kindle reading books I get through the library.

Right now I have one book going - "Dinner With Ruth "- by Nina Totenberg which is about her relationship with Ruth Ginsberg.  I love it and am reading it slowly.  I am getting ready to go on a trip to Phoenix and Kim lent me the latest Louise Penny book and I look forward to reading that.

As I look through my books from the past year I can see there has definitely been a theme.  I have my regular authors that I read - John Grisham, John Sandford, Michael Connelly and Louise Penny.  None of these ever disappoint.  I started the past year reading everything I could by Adrian McKinty, who writes about an Irish detective.  Before that I read through Anne Cleves books about Jimmy Perez.  It is fun and satisfying to find a writer and follow a character. What these books have in common is a central character who is essentially "Good ."  I am at the point when I read books or watch TV or movies - that if there are no likeable characters I stop reading or watching. 

This past year I have read at least 10 books about the Trump administration and politics in general - like David Axelrod's "Believer", Lis Smith's "Any Given Tuesday", Mark Liebovitch's "Thank you for your Servitude", Peter Baker's "The Divider', Maggie Haberman's "Confidence Man."  I think I am done for a while. There is something about the political process that fascinates me.  It can be as  much of a calling as ministry or teaching. 

My guilty pleasure is reading biographies of famous people.  I really enjoyed "The Palace Papers" by Tina  Brown and "Live Wire" by Kelly Ripa.  We all have complicated lives and are working through questions of meaning and purpose and living in the wonder and messiness of family life.

And then there are the spiritual books that I slowly savor.  Right now it is "Common Sense Spirituality" by David Steindl-Rast.  I have been spending time with this book for over a month. 

As I write this I realize that reading is an important part of my being "centered."  Like every activity,  it is "both and."  Reading can be an activity that stimulates the mind and opens us to new ideas and it can be like a narcotic numbing us and closing us off from people.  Over my life, it has worked in both ways for me.

This year I am not going to guess how many books I will read.  I hope to read more "literature" and books that will stretch me.  I was looking up quotes about reading and like what CS Lewis writes:

"We read to know we are not alone."  YES - and it is a special blessing to share the books with others and understand that we are on this mysterious journey of life together.  And reading helps!

 Smith and Live Wire by Keppy Ripa.