How do you decide what to read?
Working in a nursing home I met people who no longer read. Maybe they couldn’t, due to deteriorating eyesight or because of mental condition simply lost the capacity or interest to do so.
I resolved, then, to read all the books I could, especially the great books, so that if the day came when I also didn’t read any more, I would have read as many as possible.
Reading the great books
I have in mind some of the classics. Homer, whom I’ve never read. The existentialists Kierkegaard, Dostoyevski. The great Russians. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Of course, Shakespeare. I have him on audio CDs, and listen to one or two plays a week. Don Quixote has never held my attention for more than 100 pages, but one of these days…
I get distracted. I like biography. Bonhoeffer’s biography by Bethge is terrific. That led me to others of his works. The Cost of Discipleship. Life Together. Required reading for those of us who dream of a family-based monasticism. Mother Teresa’s Come Be My Light. Compelling, heart-breaking.
Distractions
At the moment I’m into C.F. Andrews. I noticed his character in the film Gandhi, and want to understand how this Englishman realized who Gandhi was and what was happening in India. So I read The Ordeal of Love by Hugh Tinker (Oxford, 1979), and I have Charles Freer Andrews (Harper & Brothers, 1950). The latter is more personal, lyrical, and more positive. I’m looking forward to two of Charlie’s books What I Owe to Christ, Christ in the Silence. These will shine light upon his religious quest, from High Church Anglican to some degree of Hindu and finally back to the person of the Christ.
I’m also reading Tagore. Gitanjali, for which he won the Nobel Prize. Sadhana: the Realization of Life. Selected Poems.
I also love liberation theology. We Drink Water from Our Own Wells I carry around with me. And I found Liberation Theology Resources Online.
Deciding what not to read
You realize that I don’t have all that much to do but read.
I’ve gotten to the time in my life when I realize doing one thing means not ever doing ten others. Younger people think they’ll get around to everything. But decide comes from the same root as suicide, a root that means to cut off.
I feel conflicted. On the surface are the waves, the winds; in the depth is the Gulf Stream. You get to do both. Read the acknowledged classics and also read the blogs, some of which are emerging classics.
How do you decide what to read?