Tag Archives: reading

January 18, 2013 · 7:25 AM

Books That Make You Think

I like books that make me think.

I’ll admit that I’ve read a lot of fluff in the past. You know, that’s the kind of book you can skim through in an hour or two and by the next day you couldn’t even say what it was about. My daughters call them “bathtub books” because you can pretty much read a whole one during a nice long hot bath. Those are okay for the beach, but since I don’t get to the beach very often, I don’t read too many.

I look for books that will challenge me. Cause me to contemplate. Inspire and motivate me to grow as a person. As a Christian. As a woman. A wife. A mother. A writer. I’ve made a list of a few books I’ve read in the last year that have done exactly that. Some are fiction. Some are non-fiction. Some are by Christian authors. Some are not. Some I’ve read for the second or third time. But I’ve taken away some solid gold nuggets from each one. Nuggets of incredible insight and truth.

1. The Enclave – by Karen Hancock (one of my favorite authors)

2. Seasons – by Tim Gilligan (a very wise man of God)

3. Pathfinder – by Orson Scott Card (love his writing)

4. Crazy Love – by Frances Chan (worth reviewing on a regular basis)

5. Writing 21st Century Fiction – by Donald Maass (for anyone who wants to be a better writer)

6. Greater – by Steven Furtick (so motivating!)

7. Hunger Games – by Suzanne Collins (loved the book, the movie, and the book again)

8. The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale – by Lee Grady (wow!)

9. Garden Spells – by Sarah Addison Allen (light fiction, fun book, lots of wisdom)

10. Fablehaven Series – by Brandon Mull (my 11-year-old granddaughter just finished the 5 book series – she loved them too)

11. Agenda 21 – by Glenn Beck (lots of pondering here)

12. Creative Thinkering – by Michael Michalko (great for kick-starting the creativity)

13. Soul’s Gate – by James Rubart (serious make you think book)

14. This Present Darkness – by Frank Peretti (for the sixth or seventh time)

These books are not in any particular order, neither is this an exhaustive list of the good ones. I’ve read dozens more. Maybe even hundreds. But all of these have impacted me in some way. A good way, I hope.

So there you go. If you’re looking for something good and don’t know what to read, I’ve given you some suggestions.

Now go open a book.

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February 13, 2012 · 4:26 PM

The Happy Bookaholic

Is there such a thing as a Bookaholic? If so, I am a happy one. The picture you see above is just one of my many bookshelves, and the books in this one are three deep. That’s 25 books per row, 6 rows, times 3 rows per shelf, equals 450 books, give or take. I estimate another thousand or two in other shelves around the house and, since I used to own a bookstore, there are another three thousand or so packed in boxes in our garage. Oh, and my Kobo eReader has more than 600 books on it. No doubt about it, I am addicted to books.

I recently read a dystopian young adult novel where the society had destroyed all books. It was illegal to have one in your possession and if you were caught with a book, punishment for you and your family would be severe. I can’t imagine.

Those who know me well have often heard me say that books are my friends. Although I’m pretty sure I can distinguish between fiction and reality, the characters in my books are people I’ve come to know and love, particularly those in favorite stories I read again and again. Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, Clare Fraser in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Rigg in Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder, another Clare in The Time Traveler’s Wife, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Aibileen in The Help. I can identify with these fictional characters.

Someone once told me that they refused to read fiction. They didn’t see the sense in reading something that was, in their estimation, a book full of lies. As a fiction writer, I took exception to that. But I realized that not everyone has the capacity to lose themselves in a good story. I feel sorry for them.

Is every work of fiction I read one that changes me, shifts my paradigm, rocks me to the core? No. Absolutely not. But every now and then a story touches me and I am a better person for reading it.

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