Getting to Know People by the Books they Read
Part One of the “Talking About Reading” Series
When I got a new therapist several years ago, I took a careful look at the books on her shelf, to make sure they weren’t Christian fundamentalist bullshit, because if they were I would have left knowing she wans’t the therapist for me. She’s a great therapist and thankfully didn’t have any books that gave me red flags.
The point is that I can tell a lot about a person and get to know a lot about a person by the books that they read. If you took a look at both my physical and digital bookshelves, you’d see that I read predominatly for learning and for spiritual enlightenment. For myself, pleasure and learning are intertwined, and to divorce the two would mean I was reading neither for pleasure or for learning.
I see reading for mere entertainment as a legitimate reason to read, but I’ve not ever been able to read for entertainment. I’m glad some people can because that’s what makes them happy, and I’m all for reading being a happy thing. It doesn’t matter what purpose we read for, it opens our minds to other ways to see the world and that’s always of value.
Over the past few months, a friend and I have been discussing how we have settled down a fair bit with many things, and what we choose to read is part of that. We have started to realize that we cannot read everything, and we are middle aged women raising several children while homeschooling them. We simply don’t have time to read everything that takes our fancy.
I’ve always loved to read and write, despite what my mother thought of my writing talent. She said I didn’t have any talent, and that the stories I wrote as a child were soapies. I was not encouraged to write, and the list of books I was allowed to read was heavily censored.
Some books I read in order to enhance my own craft. I recently read a book because it was written by one of my professors in graduate school and I knew I could learn more from her by reading it. I was not disappointed. The book was No One Crosses the Wolf by Lisa Nikolidakis.
My mother had this rule that annoyed the fuck out of me about how I could only read one book at a time. That doesn’t really work for me and I don’t know why it mattered so much to her. I still think it’s as ridiculous now as it was then, and I read so much better when I read several things at once.
Here’s what is currently on my side table, perhaps you can learn some things about me:
Fiction
I don’t tend to read a lot of fiction, so I only read something that sounds really compelling. I don’t think fiction is inferior, it’s just not something I read a lot of out of personal preference. Once in a while there is a novel or short story that I absolutely have to read, the latest work of fiction I read was Stephen King’s The Green Mile.
I used to read more fiction when I read horror, but I don’t read horror anymore and it seems like most other genres except perhapst science fiction which really isn’t my thing, are centered around romantic relationships. I tend to have read more literary fiction than anything lately, simply because it interested me. Some literary fiction is incredibly boring.
Up Next:
Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain.
Spiritual
I always have something spiritual that I’m reading. Not spiritual as in manifesting shit, self-help (I do read books about recovery), or crystals, but books written by the saints, something about a particular topic such as stigmata, I try to have something Marian regularly.
Currently Reading:
Jaws of Death: Gate of Heaven by Dietrich von Hildebrand. I’m just beginning this, and I was excited to find it in a thrift store along with several Thomas Aquinas books, all vintage books (with the receipts still in them), that had never been read in immaculate condition. They were just a dollar each. Such a great find.
Up Next:
I haven’t decided yet.
Bibles and Prayer Books
Bibles and prayer books are ones that tend to be a more long term reading project and are books that I refer to over and over again.
Currently Reading:
The 500 page reading guide in The Catholic Study Bible, the sole birthday gift I received this year from my amazing friend. What I like about it is that it’s an entire overview of all the books, it does border on being something that can be difficult for me to understand in some places, but it’s for study purposes so that’s partly the point.
The Great Adventure Bible by Ascension, which I bought to go through the “Bible in a Year” podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. What I like about this Bible is that there is a full color chronological timeline of events, and that there are extra products like the full fold-out timeline that can be purchased. I’m not always fond of things of that nature as they often seem gimmicky to me, but for this particular resource, it works for me.
Up Next:
The Word on Fire Bible vol 2. Acts, Letters, and Revelation. I loved the first Bible in this series which was the Gospels. Bishop Barron’s objective is to show the beauty in Christianity and so these Bibles have a lot of artwork such as paintings and icons, as well as easily-accesible articles throughout. This is definitely a series for regular people.
Specific Interests
I try to keep most of my reading to topics that I’m actually passionate about. If it’s not on that list, there’s a good chance I’m not going to read it, simply because I don’t have the time and energy. The topics I like to read about are:
- Medieval Christianity
- Mythology (any of the mythologies of Western Civilisation)
- History of Western Civilisation
- Spiritual warfare
- Death
- The Rosary
- The Saints
- Memoirs
Currently Reading:
Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages by Jeffrey Burton Russell. The first two in this series are books I read some time last year and they are a good, academic survey on ideas about the Devil throughout history. I’m just starting this one but based on the other two I’ve read, it will be a good read.
Up Next:
The Shark God by Charles Montgomery. This is a memoir with many themes that interest me, and I bought it when it was in a Kindle Deal of the Day. I’m looking forward to it.
Reference
I’m probably more than a little crazy but I do reading longer reference books, they give an overview that can’t always be had by reading more specialized works, and at the same time, they bring up topics I want to read specialized works about. It shows me where my own areas of interest between a larger topic lie.
Currently Reading:
Caesar and Christ by Will Durant. It’s the third book in “The Story of Civilization” series. I found all but the first two in a thrift store. What I like about this series is that they are easily understood. They are not college level textbooks, but an overview for the regular, everyday person. I have a Master’s Degree and am able to comprehend academic books, but I’m also not in college anymore and don’t necessarily want to read heavily academic books just because I can. These are a relative quick read for me, which helps when it comes to the other reference books I’m reading.
Up Next:
The Growth of Mysticsm: Gregory the Great through the 12th Century by Bernard McGinn. It’s the second book in his series called “The Presence of God, A History of Western Christian Mysticism. This covers the Medieval period, which is the time period I’m most interested in.
As you can see, there is lots of overlap between topics and the reason I’m reading each text. What kinds of things are in your current reading pile? What do you think they reveal about you, if anything?
