Tag: reading

books

Brian Doyle’s life reading list

Sally4 Comments

Brian Doyle is easily one of my favorite writers. When I found this little essay of his, I laughed out loud all the way through.

“Age one: Pat the Bunny. Arguably the most intimate reading experience of your lifetime. Read it every night with your parents. Where’s the bunny? There’s the bunny!”

“Age two. Reread Pat the Bunny. Try not to eat the pages this time. Write a paper of no fewer than three pages (single-spaced) on … the whole peekaboo blanket thing — does Homeland Security know?”

Doyle lists books and commentary on all those developmental years: “Age three: read Goodnight Moon while listening to Courtney Love on your headphones….” “Age four: you can ease up a little this year, go on cruise control. Ronald Reagan’s letters, the speeches of Marcel Marceau…”

Et cetera.

“Age twenty-two: Scotland, that moist mud puddle north of Manchester! Now that you are legally able to imbibe the whiskey of life, do so on January 25, celebrating Robbie Burns, while reading Robbie Burns aloud until the wee hours, in the company of lots of your friends. Do not eat haggis. Haggis is disgusting….

I stopped there, thinking about our upcoming Burns celebration. I’ve got the haggis and people had better eat it. The question is, should I bring whisky?

books

12 months to read 12 books

Sally6 Comments

In a recent brief foray into Facebook, I happened to see this challenge: read twelve books in twelve months recommended by twelve friends.

Easy-peasy, right? Except I read very little fiction these days. I look at my current pile of books. I’m rereading Pascal’s Pensees. I’m starting over on Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, a book I started years ago and never finished. Then I have unfinished books by John O’Donohue and Brian Doyle that I want to tackle. Again. I’m mostly stuck slowly reading thought-provoking books.

12 books in 12 months? I saw that and thought, Pshaw. Literally. That’s what I thought.

Except there’s this. In the post-election numbness, I stumbled across a years-old recommendation from a friend to read a young adult book. (Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow recommended by my friend Leah) I zippity-doo-dah-ed through that book and was glad I had.

The truth is I LOVE children’s books, early chapter books, and young adult books. 12 children’s books? Yes, that I could do.

So my question for you is, do you have a book you remember reading as a child that you loved? Or a book you recently read to your child or grandchild that you thought was amazing or even just worthwhile?

I’ll take the first twelve that I haven’t yet read and make a list for 2025.

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The Last Page

Sally3 Comments

Here’s an author’s perspective: We work REALLY hard to tell a story in a certain way–we edit and re-edit and agonize over what parts to tell in what order, because the *way* the story unfolds is integral to the story itself. And the ending–specifically the surprise of the ending–was, for me, the thing I literally worked toward for ten years. It’s like tasting one ingredient of a cake before it’s been mixed with everything else and allowed to cook. If the author wanted you to have that last page information at the beginning of the book, he or she would have set it up that way and told the story as a flashback. Last page readers: I beg you all to cease and desist. Repent, ye!

Andrew Peterson, part of a Facebook thread on reading the last page of a book while in the middle of a book

Dear Andrew,

You’ll be pleased to know that I have repented.

Your reader,
Sally

Mary reading one of Andrew’s books (2016)

It hit me the other day as I refreshed my favorite news site yet again, that my news-junky-ism and my back-of- the-book reading are symptoms of the same problem — a lack of faith in the author or The Author, as the case may be.

This morning as I was praying over the big things happening these days — things over which I have NO control — I was so convicted. 

Do you trust me? God whispered. 

“Yes, God,” I said. “I trust You.”

Wait patiently, He said.

I refreshed the news site a few more times while I waited.

Sally, do you trust me?, He whispered again.

“Yes, God,” I said. “You know that I trust You.”

Wait joyfully, He said.

I tried to focus on happy things while I waited… but the news on the screen caught my eye and my hand wandered over to keyboard so I could hit refresh.

Sally, do you believe me, He whispered a third time, not believe IN Me, but believe ME?

And I was grieved — not at Him, but at myself — because He had to ask me a third time.

I searched my heart before I answered. “Lord, I’m trying,” I said. “It’s just that I NEED to know what’s going to happen. What’s going to happen on January 6? What will happen on January 20? When will COVID be behind us? Just let me know a couple of pages out — I don’t need to see the last page.”

Hush, He said. Live today. Live it well. Tomorrow will be here soon enough.

I’m pretty sure He also added, And stop reading the last page when you’re in the middle of a book.