I May Be Bored to Death

October 10, 2009

For those who know me well at all, you know that I read a lot. Every day. At minimum, I read an hour a day. As well, if you know me at all, you’ll know that I (unlike my industrious wife) pretty much exclusively no longer read non-fiction. The page detailing the books I’ve read so far this year pretty much bears this fact out.

The thing is, I find fiction both more engaging for reading purposes and more valuable in the information it conveys about the world around me (us). Still, self-experiment is the orchard of all manner of strange fruit, so for the next four weeks, I embark on such experiment.

For the next month, I am focusing exclusively* on non-fiction in my reading time. I do not expect this to be a fun experiment. The writers of non-fiction genreally find themselves at a loss when it comes to stringing words together in ways that actually encourage readers to continue the task laid before them by a book’s remaining paginations. Non-fiction authors are, generally, in a word: dull. I have other issues with non-fiction as well, but those can hold for now.

In any case, I have a new stack of books sitting by my bedside and awaiting my thorough and undivided attention. I don’t expect to be able to finish all of these in four weeks, but I hope to make a sizable dent in this list. I am also willing to add a book or three to the list if you have one that you would thoroughly recommend (so please do!). These are the books I propose to engage over my alloted term:

*note: exclusively is here meant to be read fairly elastically as I have a shipment of ten 100+ page comics arriving tomorrow (and will squeeze them in) and I am being delivered a graphic novel specifically for review in late October, which will take precedent over my other reading.

CATEGORIES: Books / Life

3 Comments

  1. Scott October 11, 2009

    Probably the most engaging and thoughtful theological book I’ve read in the past three years was Douglas Knight’s The Eschatological Economy: Time and the Hospitality of God. It borders on the philosophical theology side, but only barely, providing the reader with some provocative suggestions about the relationship between Israel and the Church, between the Trinity and Election (what it means to be a Son of God), these questions given new depth with special attention to a Christian view of time. And, lest you worry that this “time” he speaks of is some dry map of eternity and history and the relationship between the two, Knight takes great pains to understand time in terms of the liturgical rhythms of Israelite culture, paying special attention to Leviticus.

    The book is so stimulating (at least for its genre) that its flaws are easily overlook-able. I’m constantly fighting the temptation to re-read it when I’m supposed to be reading other books, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with even the vaguest interest and drive to be challenged a little bit. (If for no other reason than I want someone to talk about it with, as it’s not a widely read book, even with a number of excellent reviews.) Peter Leithart has a couple good plugs for it here and here. (Check those out.)

    Also, I just noticed there’s a Kindle edition, too.

     
  2. Seth October 11, 2009

    Thanks for the recommendation, Scott. I may actually bump that in somewhere and maybe bump Continuity and Discontinuity further down the list. (Not that I’ve created an order of reading yet.)

     
  3. Scott October 13, 2009

    Cool. I hope you get to enjoy it.

     

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