Holiday Reading
Last night, in the twilight of a hot summer evening, six of us discussed books - the books read for pleasure; the books read because we want to keep up with current enthusiasms; the books read because they inform our hobbies and passions; and the books we have to read for work, for passing exams, or for academic research. Sometimes the categories overlapped. Then the question arose as to how we chose the books to take on holiday.
Apart from the 18-year-old, who thought his iPod would keep him happy and, anyway, books were heavy, there was a feeling that having a fair amount of surplus time, without most of the usual obligations of work, household (and church?), we could simply read for pleasure. However, some of us weren't entirely sure what we meant by pleasure, a measure of how difficult it was for us to relinquish the pressures of a driven life.
So, what shall I take on holiday? A couple of books by my favourite authors - Donna Leon, for the feel of Venice and Italian food; Patrick O'Brian, for the intricate details of ships and the lives lived in them and for the humour; a best seller to see what others are reading - The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, probably.
The Bible encourages us to take holidays - God commands us to take one day in seven, although sometimes it may be one hour now and again, and an annual holiday. We should take time to relax, to engage with significant others and enjoy their company, and to take pleasure in our world, created with such loving attention to detail and with such glorious over-the-top generosity.
So I take maps, a guide to the local area and easy to carry books on natural history. I love the way humans, with amazing detail and loving systematic ordering, name things and categorise them, and stick little symbols on maps, and measure everything. So the surveyors of the Ordnance Survey, who check every boundary, every right of way, field and hedge, and those who describe every petal and every insect, are doing Adam's work - for God invited him to name each living creature, and told the humans to have dominion over life on earth.
When I see a dandelion, I'm glad that in the universal Latin of biology, it is called teraxacum vulgaria. And when we walk a path into a deep dell, I'm glad the map tells me it was a quarry and the guide book tells me the stone was used for the local manor house.
What will you be taking with you for the long leisure hours?
Margaret Killingray
Comments
I'll be taking an old one: "This book will save your life" by A.M. Homes, because I missed it and it is prophetically funny. A new one, "On friendship" by the Dutch Benedictine philosopher Wil Derksen and a yet to be published manuscript by Dr. Nieke Atmadja on migrant Christians in this country and their experiences with living the Bible in a foreign (and often very strange) culture. And a laptop, for sometimes in cool summer evenings pieces of manuscript come visiting over cool juices and dry wines.
I love reading, but find reading hard. I love the process of story, of being taken on an adventure, of an author's gift of crafting language that excites us, frightens us, takes us out of our world and back into it in new, different, exciting ways, through the eyes of another. I find reading hard because I read, not slowly, but slower than most of my peers. As Christians, we are 'booky' people, and it's hard not to feel a lesser Christian when we don't (or can't) devour as many books as a friend or colleague. Recently I discovered the joy of audio books, and with it a sense of liberation, that once again I could enjoy 'reading'. As such, my iPhone was pretty much all I needed to take with me on holiday, to 'read' contemporary fiction through audiobooks, and engage with culture by listening to podcasts (I can highly recommend the audio and video that comes out of the TED conferences). So I was dismayed when I read the slightly dismissive comment in your first paragraph about "the 18-year-old, who thought his iPod would keep him happy and, anyway, books were heavy". There are lots of ways in which we can engage with Scripture, sermons, culture that are not limited to reading books, and are sometimes far more accessible to non-Christians, and indeed non-readers. Let's celebrate our engagement with this wonderful creation God has gifted to us, in the gift of free time, in whatever manner most liberates us to full worship the Creator. From a 30-year-old, liberated 'reader', longing to know more satisfaction in Christ and enjoy Him more.
Summer Reading (50 People Every Christian Should Know. Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith By Warren Wiersbe. 2009. Baker Books. Grand Rapids. MI. USA) Reading: Attentively Intelligently Selectively Discriminatingly Reflectively Biography And Christian life-story. Reading: Perceptively Critically Interpretively Discerningly, The music From the background Noise. Reading: Identifying Noting Remembering What’s worth learning. Taking encouragement And nourishment Diligently applying Principles and paradigms.
Date:
2010-07-28 16:28:53
Author:
brian wakeman