Read, grow, think…
January 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
I love it when I’m on Facebook and someone throws out a status update on what they’re currently reading. I don’t know about you, but I usually have up to five books open at the same time. They’re scattered all over the house.
I struggle when I hear someone say, “I’ve not read a book since high school”. Books make you see the world through a bigger lens. It helps you experience different cultures, viewpoints, and experiences of other people. It broadens your understanding, so that when you speak it’s not solely out of your own worldview, because frankly the world is vastly larger than what happens in our back yard.
Every Thursday we’ll read, grow, and think together. I want to hear what you are reading. I want to know what you are thinking about those books. I’ll share what I’m currently reading and what I’m learning. Throw out ideas for books that you want to talk about.
Nonfiction
50 Ways to Feel Great Today: Keys to Beating Stress, Worry, and the Blues
by David B. Biebel, Dmin, James E. Dill, MD, Bobbie Dill, RN
Nonfiction; 222 pages
When I first picked up this book, I hoped for something really great. I’m an optimist and love the idea that the authors chose to focus on 50 great ways to feel better.
Perhaps because I’m an optimist, it didn’t set off any fireworks. Some of the suggestions are to lift weights, brain job, mentor someone, renew your hope, go to a water park.
I love books that challenge me, and going to a water park does make me feel better. Sunshine, water, flavored ice freezies — who wouldn’t feel better? But in a world where the economy is depressed, where marriages are strained, where families are struggling, I’m not sure going to a water park is going to be super helpful.
But there are interesting aspects in this book. It did prompt me to think about ways to brain job (change the way you do things and exercising your brain) to keep the brain cells sharp.
It’s informative, but not necessarily life altering. Just my two cents. Maybe you see it differently. Let’s talk!
William Henry is a Fine Name by Cathy Gohlke (Civil War Series #1)
Fiction (Youth); 256 pages
Thirteen-year-old Robert knows his dad is doing something at night, but he’s too involved with his best friend, William Henry, son of a freed slave, to worry too much about it.
One night a man is shot. A wagon with a hidden trap door pulls into Robert’s barn, and the reality of slavery causes two young boys to grow up and decide if they can still be friends.
His mother and grandfather are pro-slavery. His father puts his life on the line to help runaway slaves. Which way will Robert go?
It’s a great discussion starter for your young teen on issues of racism, or a good book to read on your own. The story unfolded, letting the reader discover the larger issues, and their views on it, through the characters and the story. Robert grows up when he has to choose between his mother and his dad, between a friend and trouble, and what he was going to do in the hard spots of growing into a young adult.
If you like to read fiction, She Reads is a great resource. Interviews with authors. Giveaways. Recommendations and reviews and great conversation.
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Over the past ten years I’ve actually enjoyed reading books. I never cared for reading much unless it was an assignment in school. I don’t always comprehend what I read but I still read. I have seven books I need to read that my mother gave me but the struggle I’m having with doing this is that since I’m blind I have to scan the books into my computer and It takes around one to two ours per book. I do have two computer CDs that contain over 1500 books, articles, historical documents, etc. and I’m currently listening to them on my computer. Currently I’m reading “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Your post today has encouraged me to try and read a little every day even if I can’t quite comprehend or explain what I’m reading. My goal is to eventually get some of the books offered through Proverbs 31 once I can afford it.
January 28th, 2010 at 4:17 pmI am always in the middle of five books or so, too!
January 28th, 2010 at 5:08 pmHere they are:
Desiring God by John Piper
Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Invitation to Solitude and Silence by Ruth Haley Barton
and my one fiction:
Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch
I have several books that I need to be reading but, I have been busy with school. So my books I’m reading now are Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy and Counseling Diverse Clients. In my very little spare time, I have been reading Lysa Terkeurst’s book “Becoming more than a good bible study girl” I also have her “What happens when women say yes to God” book. I’m looking forward to being able to finish reading both. I have a vacation coming up and those will be two of the books I take with me. I hope to get some serious reading done. O…and I have been reading my Bible almost daily. This is something new for me. I haven’t always read the bible everyday. But I decided this year I needed to start reading it through. And you know what I have found, familiar stories of the bible that I had always heard about. Well, now I’m actually reading it. It great! and I love it. When this year is over I will have read the entire bible for the first time. That is if I will stick to my reading plan.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:11 pm