I used to love reading at school. I remember the time at primary school when I had gone through the twenty or so book-reading list that my teacher had given me and through all the books in our small year 5 library in less than half a term. I never read because I was forced to read. I loved it. I loved the way the stories gripped me, sucking me into their world and the inventiveness of the author in creating all sorts of strange plot twists and turns.
And then I got a life... well I actually just grew up, became interested in other things; started to learn to play the piano, took more dancing lessons, made more friends and also discovered that I just loved to be outside and doing things rather sitting down to read; and school got harder, I received more homework, had more revision to do, tough exams to sit and plenty of core reading material to chew on, so unfortunately I read a lot less.
I found it often so at university that after a long day (especially after the trek onto campus and back from Leamington Spa!) and after reading for pretty much the whole day, that I couldn't bear to turn my eyes and hands to open another book, even if it was just for pleasure. I also experienced the dangers of getting caught up in reading by feeling so utterly consumed by the volume of it. It became a chore, probably because I was forced to read; it was a requirement.
So here's the funny thing. Now that I am not obliged to read anything (well, ok so the Bible is a must really) I find myself very, very content to sit for hours and read a book. I don't get bored, tired or even resentful because I am not forced to sit there. I am doing it because I want to do it. Oh how that rebellious streak comes out in such weird ways. It's the same with quiet times. I will do them, but not when someone tells me I have to do them. I'll wash-up, clean, cook...but not when someone is forcing me to do it there and then, or at least I will do it but I will become resentful. How ridiculous that attitide is not to mention how far from being Christ exalting!
Anyway, these three interviews are quite interesting in the way that these three different men approach reading. Fred Sanders, I think, is very wise in being strategic in what he reads and in deciding beforehand which texts he will deal with. I feel this is especially useful:
'It’s especially important to keep your wits about you like this in reading theology. Oswald Chambers asked himself, “In my study, am I a woolgatherer, or like a man looking for his Lord?” Attention is a precious commodity: we pay it. We should pay it well, with the right currency for the right books.
By the way, this need for pre-deciding about your level of reading commitment is one of the reasons that our new and emerging habits of reading online are dangerous. When we’re browsing and scrolling and following links, we tend to make all those decisions about attention with less reflection. We tend to make them with our eyeballs, fingers, and central nervous system. These technologies make it easier and easier to fall into bestowing our limited reading time on things that don’t deserve it.'
...hm, I guess I'm guilty of that! It is definitely one of the reasons why even now I am probably not reading as much as I could. I spend too much time on the internet reading things that I have stumbled across, which yes could be interesting and even quite edifying, but which often simply diminish the time I have to sit down and actually do some self-prescribed reading! Technology has made it easier to impart knowledge but it has likewise made it easier to ignore wisdom. Only the most disciplined can really stay afloat and not fritter away precious time -which is very short (1 Cor 7:29)I think the above quote could also be applied to university studies. It is very easy when preparing for seminars to simply read the prescribed material without guarding your mind and heart first. Only last year did I realise the folly of firstly not praying before I engage with a text (christian or secular), and secondly how quickly the tally of time I spent on reading secular, philosophical texts soon outweighed daily Bible reading, and believe me, that began to take it's toll on my mind and soul!
Our eyes, ears, mouths, hearts and minds all need to be guarded well and this only comes by feasting daily on God's revealed truth: 'Your Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.' Psalm 119:11. By having the Word in our hearts constantly, not only is our conscience pricked thus deterring us from sinning, but we have in our minds the things of God, those 'higher things' that we are told to keep our minds on. I believe then we begin to see other texts in the light of God's glorious wisdom and so are thus more able to weigh up the text's worth, how much (or little) of the truth and of Christ is displayed, and whether or not it is edifying to the reader and so worth our time.
So the books I'm currently/have just finished reading/on my reading list are:
Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis). --Very interesting read. Reading up a bit on Kafka was pretty interesting too! Thank you Warwick University for Research Pro.
John Piper, Think -The Life of the Mind and the Love of God
Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer -- so I reckoned it was about time I read up on this guy seeing as I am in Germany and everyone at church seems to be talking about him!
James G. McCarthy, The Gospel According to Rome.
Rainer Moritz, Madame Cottard und eine Ahnung von Liebe -- this is quite an easy read novel that was a christmas pressie from a colleague. There's a publisher called Piper here (in massive white letters), which really confused me at first; no points for guessing why.
Randy Alcorn, Heaven --yes. I am still reading this book! It's quite dense to be fair and so it's not exactly a pocket-guide heaven travel book that I can skip around town with. Still, it is making me think :)
Yet to read...
Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra -- both names I find incredibly difficult to spell! This was a hard-back gem that I picked up in Leipzig for less than 5 Euros, woop!
Balzac, Le pere Goriot - started and got bored so must return to it at some point. I got bored probably because the french was a bit of a chore...
Helen Roseveare, Digging Ditches.
Faith Cook, Lady Jane Grey
Werner Gitt, Zeit und Ewigkeit and FRAGEN.
* My aim is to finish at least all of these books before returning to the UK in June (where I have yet more books on my impending waiting-to-be-read-getting-dusty-on-the-shelves reading list)... hehe it means I can post them and not go over the 40 kilos at the airport and still keep my books!!
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