Infernal Reading

I’ve been on a major deal-with-a-demon reading kick lately – from new release The Angel’s Game to the book that defined the genre, Goethe’s Faust, to the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. I’m on the second book, The Golem’s Eye, and so far I like it better than the first book, The Amulet of Samarkand.

The Greatest Thing in the World review

Looking at the last three books I’ve posted, one might reasonably assume that I’ve been on a Soviet kick lately. That’s true in both the short term and long term, considering I’ve been interested in Russian literature for over half of my life. Yet it is not the only kick I’ve been on this year. Take the 19th century Scottish kick, for example. In the past year I have read Thomas Carlyle, Sir James George Frazer, George MacDonald, and now Henry Drummond. I’ve read these authors more for their subjects than for their common background, but I do find that to be noteworthy as well. I read MacDonald because he was admired by an author whom I admire, C.S. Lewis. I read this book by Drummond because it impressed another man I admire, John D. Clemens, my grandfather. A few years ago my grandfather felt compelled to record some of the influences that helped him curb his temper. He put his recollections into a letter that he sent out to his extended family. I read this letter recently and discovered that this book by Henry Drummond had so impressed him that he intended to acquire enough copies to provide one to each of his descendants. Unfortunately he passed away before he could accomplish this goal. As a book buyer I found myself in the unique position of being able to carry out this wish of my late grandfather.

Simply buying the books isn’t enough to honor his legacy, however. His desire was that we read it and allow it to have a positive influence in our lives, as it did his. This book is a meditation on 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is the apostle Paul’s teachings regarding charity. Drummond asserts that love is greater than charity, as a whole is greater than one of its parts. Those who define charity as being the pure love of Christ will not need to make that distinction; Paul’s charity and Drummond’s love are interchangeable. Love is the greatest thing in the world according to them both. The book expounds on all of the aspects of love as defined by Paul. In regard to temper, Drummond says that it is the denial of love, and is therefore one of the most harmful sins, one that afflicts even the most noble characters. “The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous.” This book helped my grandfather rid himself of the vice of temper, and I intend to follow his example.

Commitment to Reading

Not all books are created equal; some take far longer to read than others. How much time can you invest in a book before the gains of reading it are lost? If you’re like me and have a stack of books waiting to be read plus a list of books waiting to be added to the stack, do you have a cut-off point at which you abandon one book in favor of another? I’m currently reading The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, a book that spent about a year in my stack prior to reaching the top. Now that it’s there, I’m wondering how much more time to put into it. It’s a slow read – I’ve made it through 175 pages in about ten days – and, at 825 pages, it’s a formidable read at that. It is an interesting book, along the lines of The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and The Histories by Herodotus, but it isn’t much of a page turner. I know this book has an intrinsic value, but is it worth the time I’m committing to it? I took a full month one summer to read The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and I wouldn’t trade that reading experience for four of lesser quality. I didn’t feel bad about putting down The Host after the first 90 pages, but it hadn’t been on my list for more than a year like The Golden Bough has been. I’m the type of reader who feels committed to the book at hand, even if there are other worthy selections waiting in the stack. Is reading a mental exercise, with some endurance training necessary, or is it an economic transaction, with a balance of time and money invested compared to the benefit yielded? Or is it more simple than that – if you don’t feel inclined to continue reading a book, should you?

Current Reading List

I’ve finished reading the two books that weren’t on my list and just when I was about to start The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov along came another welcome deviation, courtesy of my intrepid Book Travelers West rep Phoebe Gaston! She sent me an advance copy of The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell, which comes out next month from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Algonquin puts out such a nice selection I was inclined to buy everything in their catalog; it’s no wonder Phoebe is so enthusiastic about her line of work!

Mortality

A couple of days ago, for reasons unknown, I decided to deviate from my reading list and started reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (I also need to amend my list to include Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy). Roy introduces her protagonists, Estha and Rahel, twins who share a “Siamese soul,” at the same age (31) at which their mother died. Roy goes on to describe the age of 31 as “Not young. Not old. A viable die-able age.” I just happened to be reading this on the morning of my thirty-first birthday. Is that merely an alarming coincidence or fate? I wasn’t planning on reading this book anytime soon, let alone on my birthday while waiting to go out to breakfast with my wife. What are the odds of this being a random occurrence versus that of it being a portent? Who can say? All I know is it’s a curious event worth adding to my blog!

Current Reading List

1. Sign of the Book by John Dunning (a hard cover copy I picked up free at the university’s employee appreciation day)

2. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott (an advance reader copy; she’s coming to our store for a signing)

3. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

4. Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (the Coen brothers are making it into a movie)

5. White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov

6. Golden Bough by James George Frazer

7. Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boairdo

More or less in that order!

Current Reading List

The last two books I read were Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick and Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I recommend them both to interested readers! I am just about to finish George MacDonald’s Phantastes (a book which inspired C.S. Lewis), but that one has a narrower appeal. Next on my list is the new novel by Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book.