A few posts back, I mentioned that I was trying to decide what to read for my special Lenten reading this year. In the end, I decided to keep it simple.
It occurred to me ("like an ox I'm slow") that when the church calls us to observe a Holy Lent, the call is to self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting and self-denial, but the only reading specifically mentioned is "reading and meditating on God's holy Word." Which of course makes perfect sense and feels like a no-brainer, but it did dawn on me that stepping up my reading of and attentiveness to Scripture in this season should be reading priority number one in Lent.
I've decided to take Michael Card's advice and "flee to the life of Jesus." I'm reading through the gospel of Mark, not in any overly planned way (x amounts of chapters per day) but as I feel led. Each morning I'm opening to that gospel and I read until I hit something that I think I need to chew on more and then I stop and try to chew. Or else (to be perfectly honest) I read until I'm interrupted or I read what I can before I feel the pull into a busy morning. At any rate, my goal is to keep reading the gospel of Mark. If I finish it (and likely I will, as it's short) I'll start over and do it again. It's my Lenten road-map this year.
A few posts further back, I talked about the possibility of implementing other reading plans (not just seasonal ones) and promised another blog post about that. I'm sorry I've not written more but I've reached the conclusion that formal reading plans don't work well for me. I have what I've always termed a "popcorn brain" with one idea leading me to another. Often the connections come quickly, much as kernels popping in hot oil, one right after the other. I am trying to be more disciplined about the kinds of reading I do (looking for more of a balance in fiction/non-fiction, scholarly/popular) and about giving myself more time to really read with attention, and for formation, in books which richly pay back that sort of investment.
But it's very difficult for me to decide in advance everything that I might read in a given time. I value the freedom to chase down trails, to follow my instincts on a topic. I'm also starting to map my popcorn strewn reading trails, noting the connections as they occur, or at least sometime soon after.
For instance: Dorothy Sayers. Her work is my most recent reading/re-reading passion. It was originally sparked by my watching of the Petherbridge/Walters BBC series of three of the Wimsey-Vane novels. That sent me back to re-reading all of the Wimsey-Vane novels. And they led me (follow the popcorn trail!) to begin reading a work of literary and cultural criticism on the Wimsey novels (called Conundrums for the Long Weekend), then to the first formal biography of Sayers, written back in the 1970s (Such a Strange Lady). When I discovered that Jill Paton Walsh had completed the unfinished Wimsey-Vane novel Thrones, Dominations (found in manuscript in Sayers' attic after she died in 1957), I knew I wanted to read it. But I wanted to find out what kind of mystery novelist Walsh was first, so I proceeded to read three of her mysteries (two of which I thought terrific). I finally started Thrones, Dominations today. I'm excited about it, both because of what I learned about the unfinished manuscript in Conundrums and because I'm interested to see how Walsh's writing will mesh with Sayers' and how she shaped the unfinished novel.
I like this kind of freedom to explore a subject thoroughly and from all sorts of angles. I plan to keep reading Sayers this year -- her work and writing connected to her work. I've not read her drama or theological work in several years and would love to re-read Mind of the Maker and The Man Who Would Be King (maybe my Easter reading this year?). Certain essays, books and plays I've never read at all. I've not read her translation of Dante. Despite John Granger's inspiration I still feel some trepidation about tackling Dante, whom I never seemed to 'get' (even though I was an English major and probably should have).
My reading trails feel too organic to call them plans, but they work for me. If anyone else has similar stories to tell of reading "trails" you've followed, I'd love to hear about them.
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