On My Bookshelf

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I thought I would post a short list of books that are currently on my bookshelf, or rather, my bedside table. Before I had Piper keeping me awake at all hours, I would often need to read myself to sleep. I've not had so much time lately, but as I'm learning to use only one hand as I nurse, I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

Sheldon Vanauken's A Severe Mercy has been on my shelf for a while. I read it years ago, but Pete and I have been enjoying it on our drives between Connecticut and home. We've decided it's our travel book for now.








I've been slowly working my way through 'Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I decided I probably needed to consider the perspective it offered on true love as I thought about the love I wanted to offer my children.







Also on my bedside table is a book called Divine Nobodies by Jim Palmer. Pete and I are working our way through this one as well. It is very similar to a recent read of ours, Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller, but written from an ex-evangelical perspective. We've gotten through two chapters so far, and we have thoroughly enjoyed the read.






Two nights ago, Pete started reading to Piper her edition of Winnie the Pooh. She's too young to understand it yet, but she enjoyed listening to his voice as he read. Who knows how many times we'll read through that over the years?









Finally, my current favorite read is a book by Madeline L'Engle, the fourth in her series of Crosswick Journals, called Two-Part Invention. One of my favorite bloggers recommended this book last week, and the quote she shared made me want to read the rest of the book. It is very rich, so I am enjoying each small bite I get. I offer a few quotes that caught my eye:




"Great Talent or small, it makes no difference. We are caught within our own skins, our own sensibilities; we never know if our technique has been adequate to the vision. Without doubt, this is true of my own work, too. I never know, when I have finished a book, how much of what has been in my mind and heart has come through my fingers and onto the page. This inability truly to assess one's own accomplishment is what makes rejections so bitter. When I was receiving rejections from publisher after publisher, I wondered sadly if the book I had conceived in my mind had failed utterly in getting onto the page. This lack of knowing makes the artist terribly vulnerable."


A quote she recorded from Chekhov: "If you never commit yourself, you never express yourself, and yourself becomes less and less significant and decisive. Calculating selfishness is the annihilation of self."

From Plato: "He who having no touch of the Muses' madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple with the help of art--he I as, and his poetry are not admitted..."

(Special Note: This post made possible in part by $15.00 baby swing from consignment shop in Purcellville. Piper is sleeping sweetly.)

1 comments:

the Joneses said...

Long live baby swings!!

--DJ

Post a Comment

Talk to me, if you like.