Thursday, December 20, 2012

In which we talk about... books.

A. Larry Ross Communications contacted me about reading and reviewing Midnight in Aisle 7 by Jay Lowder. I might have liked the book more if I hadn't read it immediately following A Big Life. When I finished reading A Big Life, I was hungry for more missionary stories. Midnight in Aisle 7 is about people meeting God in everyday places in everyday America.

I tried to like it but couldn't immerse myself in the book. I'm not familiar with the author and don't want to make any assumptions about his ministry or his spiritual life. But the book was disjointed and I couldn't really see how people were "experienc[ing] an encounter that brings significance to life" (from Amazon's book description). It felt more like the author had an idea for a book, realized that these types of stories sell well today, and threw something together. Each chapter was separate from the rest and read more like a short story or a written version of a story shared at prayer meeting. There wasn't anything remarkable about the book, unfortunately. I was really hoping to read something special but the book fell short.


The Fall into Reading challenge ends tomorrow. I have finished half of the books I set out to read. North and South is the only book I have completely finished. I am still working through The Brothers Karamazov, currently at page 571 of 776. I am determined to finish before Christmas! And I was never able to locate the Bill Clinton autobiography, despite searching several times. My library catalog shows they own it but I was unable to find it on the shelves. Even though I didn't finish everything on my list, I did push myself to read two books that I had been procrastinating!


I currently have 42 books checked out at the library with another two on hold. At the end of the year, I'm going to return everything and start over. It bothers me to no end to constantly feel like I'm "behind" with my reading because I have a number of books due back with not enough time to read them. As much as I love browsing the stacks and coming home with a HUGE number of books, I think I need to limit myself to only what I can actually read within the loan period. I visit the library almost every single week anyway so I can always pick up more books.

That's probably enough book talk for now. I have two more review books to read as soon as I'm done with The Brothers Karamazov. Then it's time to look forward to 2013 and all the reading it will hold!

4 comments:

Margaret said...

We readers get enthusiastic about books don't we?! I have two weeks holidays now for Christmas New Year and in order to ensure I didn't run out of books, have 25 beside my bed. Far too many for two weeks! C S Lewis is reported to have said "you can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me".

make.share.give said...

Keep up the book talk! I appreciate the great suggestions and honest opinions from your lists.

Anonymous said...

I have the same problem with library books.

Anonymous said...

I have the same problem with library books.