Summer Reading List

Friends and I have been talking about our summer reading lists and planning for some overlap and related discussion.  (Overlapping titles are in bold.)  Here's my list, as it stands at the moment.  It will inevitably shift, as there other books will need to be read in planning for next year's readers' forum at my church, etc.  And, if I actually tackle Infinite Jest, then it's likely some of the other titles will go ignored.

• Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace  ::  This will be the second summer for which I've planned to read Infinite Jest.  Last summer, it never got past the planning stage. For fans of Wallace, if you haven't seen the recent short film composed to DFW's graduation speech "This is Water," you should check it out.

• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card  ::  This title has been on the periphery of my "someday" list for decades.  Chris wanted to read it in advance of the movie that's coming out, and that sounded like a good idea.

• Best American Essays: 2012  ::  I'd be reading this anthology anyway, but I'm also using it in connection with some of my summer teaching.

• The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning  ::  This is another book that's been on the to-read list for ages.  Seems like a good time to read it, since the Rich Mullins bio-pic, titled Ragamuffin, is on the horizon.

• Grace (Eventually), by Anne Lamott

• The Wisdom of Stability, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove  :: 

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J. K. Rowling  ::  This is the book I'm currently reading, in an attempt to stay ahead of my son, who, at the moment, is conveniently engaged in Eldest, by Christopher Paolini.

• Writing Fiction: Creative and Critical Approaches, by Amanda Boulter, and Writing Poetry: Creative and Critical Approaches, by Chad Davidson and Gregory Fraser  ::  For the fall of 2013, I'm switching up the texts in my creative writing class.  Need to get a firmer grasp on these two books before the class starts.

• Tinkers, by Paul Harding  ::  This summer, my Introduction to Literature course will be reading this novel.

• The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith, by Walter Brueggemann  ::  This book is related to some writing I would like to do over the summer.

• A Sense of Place: A Christian Theology of the Land, by Geoffrey R. Lilburne  ::   Also related to the writing project mentioned above.

Big Decisions

As Kirby and I were having coffee the other day, with my sabbatical departure just days away, he commented, "So, you're making some big decisions.... What books are you taking with you?"

This is one of the reasons I love Kirby. Big decisions relate--as they should--to reading lists, to "the company we keep" (CF: Wayne Booth). I figured that perhaps the contents of my book box would be an appropriate way to kick of the slate of sabbatical-related posts that are to follow. Thus, here's the list. (Subject to negotiation with my wife over how much of the space in the van can be dedicated to books, of course.)

Duh:

• Bible.
• Dictionary.

Spiritual Autobiographies & Memoirs:

• Augustine. Confessions.
• Annie Dillard. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood.
• John Hildebrand. Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family.
• Ted Kooser. Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps.
• Thomas Merton. The Seven Storey Mountain.
• Henri Nouwen. The Genesee Diary.
• Scott Russell Sanders. A Private History of Awe.

Ranching Books:

• Gordon Hazard. Thoughts and Advice from an Old Cattleman.
• Greg Judy. No-Risk Ranching: Custom Grazing on Leased Land.
• Allan Nation. Knowledge-Rich Ranching.

Essay Collections:

• Wendell Berry. The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.
• -----. Home Economics.
• -----. The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays.
• -----. What are People For?
• Best American Essays (2004-2007).
• Elizabeth Dodd. Prospect: Journeys & Landscapes.
• Scott Russell Sanders. The Force of Spirit.
• -----. Hunting for Hope.

Poetry:

• Scott Cairns. Philokalia: New & Selected Poems.
• Ellmann & O'Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
• Richard Wilbur. Collected Poems: 1943-2004.
• William Carlos Williams. Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems.
• James Wright. Above the River: The Complete Poems.

On Writing:

• Theodore A. Rees Cheney. Writing Creative Nonfiction: Fiction Techniques for Crafting Great Nonfiction.
• Forche & Gerard, eds. Writing Creative Nonfiction.

Other:

• Kenneth Davis. Kansas: A History.
• Betty Edwards. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
• Michael Francis Gibson. The Mill and the Cross: Peter Bruegel's "Way to Calvary."
• Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils.
• Elaine Scarry. On Beauty and Being Just.
• Shakespeare. Macbeth.

Because the Work of USF Must Go On:

• Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Eloquence in an Electronic Age: The Transformation of Political Speechmaking.
• James A. Herrick. The History and Theory of Rhetoric.
• Kennedy & Gioia. Backpack Literature.

A Remarkable Thing

Well, today is a better day, as the pre-semester funk has abated for now. One reason for this was the chance to talk with members of the freshmen class who chose to participate in USF's freshmen reading program. Last-minute preparations for our discussion of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead reacquainted me with the following quotation from the novel:

A good sermon is one side of a passionate conversation. It has to be heard in that way. There are three parties to it, of course, but so are there even in the most private thought--the self that yields the thought, the self that acknowledges and in some way responds to the thought, and the Lord. That is a remarkable thing to consider. (45)

That is a remarkable thing, and one so easily forgotten in the rush of syllabus construction, and photocopying, and scheduling, and anticipating the mountains of papers coming my way over the next few months.

I know the parallel between preaching and teaching is potentially problematic for many. (And for me, depending upon how one defines/characterizes those two endeavors.) But, as I conceive the two, the parallel seems to resonate. Almost eighteen months ago I found myself considering a similar notion.

Aslan's Forum: 2005-2006

For the past couple of years, I've facilitated a readers' forum at Oak Hills Baptist Church. The forum, titled Aslan's Forum, was started in the late 90s by Wendell Hoffman.

The forum was a big reason why my wife and I chose to attend Oak Hills. Moving from the Dallas metroplex to Sioux Falls, I had pretty much given up on the possibility of having a thoughtful, intellectual reading group, or something like Denton Bible Church's Lay Institute. But, when we visited Oak Hills, the sign for Aslan's Forum was stading smack-dab in the middle of the hallway. The group became a real blessing for me.

Now that I'm facilitating the group, the hardest part of the job is compiling the list of books to be read during a given year. I get several helpful suggestions from group members, but much of the process consists of me putting together a list of books that I find compelling, and then tweaking the list in hopes that it is perceived as intellectually rigorous and compelling without being too academic. I'm never sure if I succeed.

The reading list for 2005-2006 was generated with a loose theme centering on the senses. Four of the seven books have some connection with one of the senses. Of course, some of those books are more closely connected with the senses than others. In any event, here's the reading list for the next year. It goes public in September. Anyone interested in participating can obtain more details from the web site for Aslan's Forum.

• October 2005: C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  
• November 2005: Philip Yancey's Rumors of Another World
  
• December 2005: Bill McKibben's Hundred Dollar Holiday
  
• February 2006: Henri Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son
  
• March 2006: Robin Jensen's The Substance of Things Seen
  
• April 2006: Michael Schut's Food & Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread
  
• May 2006: Richard Mouw's The Smell of Sawdust
  

Jayber Crow: The Second Time

My Interim course concluded by reading Jayber Crow, a novel by Wendell Berry. It's my second time through the book, and different things jumped out at me this time around. Here's the passage that has continued to linger:

My mistake was not in asking the questions that so plagued my mind back there at Pigeonville, for how could I have helped it? I can't help it yet; the questions are with me yet. My mistake was ignoring the verses that say God loves the world.

But now (by a kind of generosity, it seemed) the world had so beaten me about the head, and so favored me with god and beautiful things, that I was able to see. "God loves Port William as it is," I thought. "Why else should He want it to be better than it is? (250-51)

All of us have heard folks talk about how being a parent opens up a new understanding of God's love. In my four years of fatherhood, I've sensed this to be true. Felt it to be true. Berry has helped me to understand how it is true. Our society is one that tends to equate love with an uncomplicated acceptance. The key word there is "uncomplicated." Love includes acceptance. There is no question that I will accept my kids in any situation. I can't help but to do so. But that acceptance is complicated. There's more to it. It is because of my love for my kids that I want them to "be better." That desire for betterment doesn't negate acceptance. The two are intimately tied to one another. The presence of one to the exclusion of the other is necessarily a diluted love that more poorly reflects God's love for us.

Practice

For the next Aslan's Forum at Oak Hills Baptist Church, we're discussing Lauren Winner's Mudhouse Sabbath. Having grown up Jewish and converted to Christianity in her college years, Winner reflects upon Jewish practices that she misses, "places where Christians have some things to learn"(ix). The following passage convicts me every time I read this book.

Jews do these things with more attention and wisdom not because they are more righteous nor because God likes them better, but rather because doing, because action, sits at the center of Judaism. Practice is to Judaism what belief is to Christianity.(ix)

Certainly, I'm thankful that my ability to have a relationship with Christ is based upon faith rather than works. And, certainly, in a mature Christianity the dichotomy between belief and practice becomes almost a false one, as the two undergird and support one another. I do think, however, that perhaps the pendulum has swung a bit too far in one direction. I fear that most of us--myself included--too easily dismiss the spiritual disciplines meant to enrich and deepen our faith and steady us in those times when belief lags or wavers. Combine this tendency with R. R. Reno's discussion of acedia (see previous post), and we risk cultivating a faith that remains incredibly abstract and qualified.

As an academic, I believe in critical distance. I sometimes wonder, however, if our embrace of critical distance is pursued as a corrective to an un-practiced belief. I suspect the conviction I feel from Winner's passage is sparked by the likelihood that critical distance (which comes fairly easily) must be combined with spritiual discipline (much more difficult) if our belief is to purposeful, tangible, and vital.