I read a lot, a habit I bave carried all my adult life. These days, my reading is varied. I read history, theology, science, biography, and all manner of fiction. I enjoy history a lot, particularly if it is well written. No one writes history better than Babrbara Tuchmann (recently deceased). She can make the most inconspicuous moment in history read like a thriller.) Carol Off was a surprise as an historian. Draws out the drama.
Theologians are a so-so writing group. Some are terrible crafters of sentences. Karl Barth comes to mind. Footnotes two pages long! Crossan and Borg write well. Some biographies are really good stories if the author knows and loves his/her subject. Others are tedious, published only because the subject is famous. Ditto for Autobiographies.
The science I read is for knowledge and understanding, which is hard for me to come by in this area. I am not a science nerd, rather more a curious dunce, seeking to grasp what appears to be going on around me in the world. I am currently attempting to grasp and understand quantum physics and mechanics. VERY slow going. But I am determined!
I like reading fiction for two reasons: the stories are often gripping, and sometimes the author gets an issue in her/his teeth, and uses the story to unpack that issue and the dilemmas that accompany it, so that you must think and decide what you would do, and what the right thing is to do.
I recently finished the Hunger Games Trilogy. Quite a facinating story, but it gets tedious further along, as the author (quite obviously) draws the story out so that resembles a movi script. The writing is not bad writing, but it isn't inspired either. It serves only to draw the story along. The further one gets into the books, the less the language draws you, and the more it tantalizes you with sudden (and irrelevant) twists and turns.
I enjoy Linden McIntyre's writing. Heplows into an issue and keeps you focused on it with great intensity. Not 'hard work' reading, but not light reading either. Recently I discovered Jodi Picoult. She always builds around an issue - termination of life, divorce, religious delusion…and weaves a gripping story around the issue. Her characyers are quite strong, and her plots are human and accessible. You can imagine it happening to you. "What would I do here?"
Then there are thrillers, those volumes of puzzles and evil characters who try not to be discoverd, along with those whose mastery of the unmasking of robbers, killer and kidnappers is supreme. Ina Rankin, 'from the Kingdom of Fife,' Louise Penny, Peter Robinson, Ellis Peters… all of these and more feed my periodic need for a mystery that requires a superior brain and some good luck. I can usually never solve the crime before the last page, or the last chapter.
One of the joys of 'retirement,' such as it is, involves immersing oneself in a world of another person, another time, a different concern, and experiencing that as fully as you can. For me, books are a better way to do that than movies, because movies tear along at their own pace, and many are so poorly made, that disappointment follows. "The book was better" is my frequent chant.
I know that many people, in their working life, don't read a great deal. They may have tediius material from work to digest regularly, which will tend to blunt their interest in other reading. Despite the lure of TV, to which I succumb regularly, reading remains a strong passion for me. I invite you to test the water or taste the wine (whichever image pleases you more.)
Theologians are a so-so writing group. Some are terrible crafters of sentences. Karl Barth comes to mind. Footnotes two pages long! Crossan and Borg write well. Some biographies are really good stories if the author knows and loves his/her subject. Others are tedious, published only because the subject is famous. Ditto for Autobiographies.
The science I read is for knowledge and understanding, which is hard for me to come by in this area. I am not a science nerd, rather more a curious dunce, seeking to grasp what appears to be going on around me in the world. I am currently attempting to grasp and understand quantum physics and mechanics. VERY slow going. But I am determined!
I like reading fiction for two reasons: the stories are often gripping, and sometimes the author gets an issue in her/his teeth, and uses the story to unpack that issue and the dilemmas that accompany it, so that you must think and decide what you would do, and what the right thing is to do.
I recently finished the Hunger Games Trilogy. Quite a facinating story, but it gets tedious further along, as the author (quite obviously) draws the story out so that resembles a movi script. The writing is not bad writing, but it isn't inspired either. It serves only to draw the story along. The further one gets into the books, the less the language draws you, and the more it tantalizes you with sudden (and irrelevant) twists and turns.
I enjoy Linden McIntyre's writing. Heplows into an issue and keeps you focused on it with great intensity. Not 'hard work' reading, but not light reading either. Recently I discovered Jodi Picoult. She always builds around an issue - termination of life, divorce, religious delusion…and weaves a gripping story around the issue. Her characyers are quite strong, and her plots are human and accessible. You can imagine it happening to you. "What would I do here?"
Then there are thrillers, those volumes of puzzles and evil characters who try not to be discoverd, along with those whose mastery of the unmasking of robbers, killer and kidnappers is supreme. Ina Rankin, 'from the Kingdom of Fife,' Louise Penny, Peter Robinson, Ellis Peters… all of these and more feed my periodic need for a mystery that requires a superior brain and some good luck. I can usually never solve the crime before the last page, or the last chapter.
One of the joys of 'retirement,' such as it is, involves immersing oneself in a world of another person, another time, a different concern, and experiencing that as fully as you can. For me, books are a better way to do that than movies, because movies tear along at their own pace, and many are so poorly made, that disappointment follows. "The book was better" is my frequent chant.
I know that many people, in their working life, don't read a great deal. They may have tediius material from work to digest regularly, which will tend to blunt their interest in other reading. Despite the lure of TV, to which I succumb regularly, reading remains a strong passion for me. I invite you to test the water or taste the wine (whichever image pleases you more.)
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