Jan 12, 2009
What I’m Reading
I’ve had a growing reading list of books these days that I’m trying to plow through. Each meets a different interest or need, so I thought I’d share some reviews according to my categories.
For the Blog
David Sanford’s latest book, If God Disappears, confronts nine ways our faith can be wrecked and then offers nine of his own faith builders. The book is packed with anecdotes and stories that show Sanford is no stranger himself to suffering and difficult times, if not deep doubt and despair. He’s walked through the valleys dealt with in this book, and so he is never lacking in compassion and empathy as he unravels a wide variety of scenarios where faith may take a hit.
The narrative has a nice movement from story to teaching and then back to story, and his own reflections are particularly powerful. I haven’t quite finished it yet, so I hope to blog on it again once I wrap it up, but for an accessible read that deals with the weighty matters of doubt, losing faith, and finding it again, Sanford’s book is a solid buy. If you have a skeptic or someone going through some doubts, I highly recommend this book as a Christmas present.
On one other note, the design itself is excellent. Salt River is an imprint of Tyndale, and they’ve been putting out some great books with a clean, minimalist design for their compact hard backs. This means the books are affordable, sturdy, and attractive. With the changes coming to the book industry, I suspect these will be the kind of books readers will want in the future when the more affordable kinds of paperbacks will be replaced with digital formats.
Pleasure Reading/Learning to Write Better
Stephen King advises would-be writers to read, read, read. As someone who wants to try making a living as a writer, this means I’m always looking for a good writer to not only read for pleasure, but to learn from. A.J. Jacobs’ book The Year of Living Biblically fits that bill nicely.
A self-proclaimed agnostic, Jacobs has a penchant for taking extreme projects upon himself when he’s not writing for Esquire Magazine. His last project, The Know-It-All, involved reading the Encyclopedia Britannica in one year and the ensuing misery who brought on his family with a perpetual onslaught of facts.
I picked up Jacob’s Year of Living Biblically expecting him to mock the obscure laws and commands of the Bible, setting up unrealistic stunts that fail to help anyone figure out what the Bible is all about. And while he certainly has a few of those moments, as in his attempt to “stone” an adulterer with a pebble, Jacobs comes to appreciate the Bible in its context and discovers a God who is merciful and practical.
He consults a wide variety of Christian and Jewish leaders as spiritual advisors, so his quest is always grounded in reality to a certain degree, while also providing insight into various interpretive traditions. Whether riding on a dinosaur at a creationist museum or chatting with Christian activist Tony Campolo, Jacobs finds a lot to like about this project, even if he has some disagreements with the people he meets.
