Book Shopping

Hey, guys! Sorry for not posting last Thursday. It was not only finals week last week, but also my 21st birthday. I worked today. And then, just in case my December wasn’t busy enough, a good friend of mine is getting married on Saturday and I’m one of her bridesmaids.

Anyway, the family of a friend of mine makes a big deal out of 21st birthdays. (It’s a good thing I figured this out now, before my friend turns 21 this summer.) In addition to buying me some alcohol (of which I’ve only had a few sips), they gave me a gift card to Books-a-Million. I knew that I wanted a box set of the Lord of the Rings series. A while back, I purchased a very large one-book volume, but I can’t get myself to read such a huge tome. So I went and got me a nice little box set, complete with The Hobbit which I already have, but who says you can’t have more than one copy of the same book? I’m looking at starting a home library anyway, once I get an apartment instead of a dorm.

I still had some money left on the gift card. So I started poking around. I was planning on buying more Tolkien books, but I could find those used online for far cheaper. Maybe something modern? Something by one of those big-name authors. Maybe Outlander (no, too romance-y) or Dune (am I really in the mood for a sci-fi epic?) or The Pillars of the Earth (that’s a dauntingly thick book). So I kept looking. Oh, here’s Mark Twain! Oh, here are some classics. I could get Dante’s Inferno or Huckleberry Finn or Jane Eyre–

I stopped. I realized that I’ve been so focused on reading classics and schoolbooks that I’ve forgotten my own taste in literature.

My friend recommended a novel by Francine Rivers, and I’ll be reviewing it before too long. It might be a while–you know, because my December is so completely empty and boring. But this whole mess got me thinking. Where else in life am I trying so hard to keep up or fit in that I’ve lost sight of more important things? My faith is a big one. I’ve realized that I’ve fallen into a habit of reading my Bible every morning and spending hours at church every Sunday, but not doing much else. I’m sort of stagnating in my walk with God because I’m too focused on keeping the status quo.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. I just spent eight hours proctoring tests and making sure that the seventh graders didn’t stab one another while playing Spoons, so my mind is rather tired. (I got some writing done, too–over two thousand words of editing!) But maybe my point is something along the lines of–just because things have been a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean that they should stay that way. Just because I’ve been trying to read classics doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t branch out and read something written by an author who’s still alive.

What’s a modern book that you’ve enjoyed reading–besides Where the Clouds Catch Fire and Where I Stand, of course! Let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear readers, and don’t forget to review us on Amazon!