What are you reading?
In 2021 I went through Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book again. Plus C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, which I have read once a decade since I was ten.
I started 2022 with Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. And discovered the author published Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, a text I used to teach English at Jordan College!
In February, I read A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. New to me. Great fun.
This summer I wanted to learn how Agatha Christie began her novels. Good grief. I read two stem to stern. Body in the Library and Murder at the Vicarage.
- Johnathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. One for the abortion debate.
- Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — This story bored me in high school, but this summer I loved his intro!
- Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice — I loved the banter of Chapter One.
- Bram Stroker’s Dracula – Didn’t hold my attention.
- Washington Irving – Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Boring.
- W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk – Boring.
- Alexandre Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo. Nice, but Dumas needs to join a critique group.
This fall (2022) I’ve been reading more heavy-duty books:
- Becoming Elijah, by Daniel C. Matt. Fascinating!
- Elijah and the Rabbis, by Kristen H. Lindbeck. I’m working on it, ha!
- Everyday Life in Old Testament Times, by E. W. Heaton. On most questions, too vague for accurate research, but I keep it handy.
I asked our local library for a novel by Colleen Hoover, so I could learn from a farmer whose romances outsell the Bible. Every large print copy was out on loan. When they finally got one in, I read the first chapter and a half. Skilled writer, but the content is not for me, sorry.
