What I'm reading

And how

I am a giddy kid-at-Christmas this weekend because my house is full of my people, and that is my favorite. Friday night was our quarterly Family Life Group with our kids and grandkids. Most of them stayed the night, some woke up early to go hunting together and others will hang here at the house for the day. There will be football on, the snacks will be out, and I will happily make breakfast in three different shifts as my people wake and stir.¹ Pure joy.

I’ve spent the week preparing for company and plugging away on my book proposal, so here’s a quick review of what and how I’ve been reading lately, instead of another essay:

1. Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep, by Tish Harrison Warren. I’m about halfway through this book but I have so many highlights. Harrison frames the book around the nighttime prayer of Compline, working through specific griefs in her own life as well as the griefs faced by others. I can always use help with prayer, and this book has given me good reason to look to the written prayers of church history to find words when life just really bites.

   I’m reading this one on my kindle paperwhite at bedtime. I prefer a paper book forever and always, but the paperwhite is great for reading in the dark without disturbing Tim. I use the highlight feature excessively, bookmark the table of contents, and review review review—this helps me remember what I read the night before because bedtime-me is not great at retention. When I finish I write the best highlights on index cards for my commonplace box.

2. The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien. I homeschooled all my children without ever reading this book, so I am mending my ways. It’s as good as I’ve always been told—friendship, danger, moral determination and self-sacrifice. All the good stuff. I’ve watched bits and pieces of the movies and I can do without the visual imagery on screen. The book is better.

   This is a library book and so far I’m on renewal number two…thank God for my library’s auto-renewal, and the grace that they no longer seem to charge overdue fees? I can’t mark this one up with my pen and so far I haven’t been disciplined enough to copy sentences or passages that are brilliant, and there are many. I am simply reading and enjoying it.

3. Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith. I loved You Could Make This Place Beautiful and Smith talks a little about her process with that book, and really has several practical exercises and ideas for shining up your writing. My favorite suggestion was to type all the sentences from a piece of writing as separate lines, to see the flow and structure of each sentence and find any repeated syntax.

   I listened to this one because it was free with with my Spotify subscription. I really don’t suggest the audio. This is a book you need in your hands. Also, Smith’s narration is lovely but her voice and diction are very “poetic” and it glazed me over a bit.

4. The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life by Vinita Hampton Wright. I am at the very beginning of this but it looks promising, with some practical exercises and a lot of wisdom.

   This is a real paper book I own so I am marking it up freely. Lot’s of nuggets so far, like this one: “Creativity is God’s way of teaching us to pay attention, to think and to dream.” When I finish this book I will go back through all my marginalia and underlined sentences and write the gems on notecards.

In an ideal world all my reading would happen with physical books I own, held in my hands, with lots of underlines and notes in the margins. But I am thankful I have other options because that ideal life is not real life—the Kindle is great for reading in the dark, library books save money, audiobooks are a gift on my long commutes, and physical books I own are marked up and well loved. That’s my real reading life.

Off for round three of breakfast!

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Fall, around here:

1. Update: I made the first round of breakfast, and one son-in-law made the second round after he unloaded the dishwasher, all without being asked. Who am I and what is this life?!