Books I've been reading

 Some of my diligent readers may remember that I have been reading a lot of classic books over the past 3 years. It began with a radio show that I heard, you can read about it here: http://thywordisalamptomyfeet.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-good-book.html

I read in a magazine recently about this woman (the author of the article) who said that she was given a book list in high school of good books to read if you couldn't attend college, for whatever reason. She said it had several hundred books on the list and that she had begun at the top and read down the list, and she had been reading those books for 20+ years.

I have a book list and I've just been reading whatever book I liked at the time to read. After reading the article in the magazine, I thought that maybe I should just restart at the top of my list. Since I have done that I read books by Sherwood Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Pearl S. Buck, and Willa Cather. I read two other books by Willa Cather in the past few years, including My Antonia and Oh, Pioneers!

The next book on my list to read was called, Death Comes to the Archbishop, by Willa Cather. My personal rule for a new book that I am reading is that if I don't get into it by page 75 or even page 100, I don't have to keep reading it. There are plenty of other books out there for me to read that I would like. This was one of those books that I just could NOT get into! Oh, I tried... and finally gave it up this week. It was more of a chore to read it. The story was kinda dull and boring for me. I've not loved her other books either. They were okay, I don't know what it is about the author's voice, it just hasn't captured me in the novels. 

Part of the reason that I kept reading the book was that I know my Mom liked(s) Willa Cather. It felt to me like the character development was slow. She did not call the main character the same name. It was Father Latour, or Padre, or Jean, or "The Bishop." There were other characters/ fathers in the book and sometimes she called them Father Joseph and other times it was Father Vallaint. I was not sure if it was the same person. Since they were all named Father --- I began to mix them up!

I thought that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was good, and I liked it. I also read The Illustrated Man by him, and it was different. It was more futuristic about space, not something that I would have chosen. The illustrated man had tattoos that kept changing and told stories. 

I also enjoyed The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I liked reading about the family and following their lives from rich to poor and in between. The man married, had children, prospered in his area, and ended up having grandchildren. I liked the loyalty of the man's wife to him, I admired her character. It is fun reading a variety of novels too... futuristic to historical, war, family, small-town life, etc.,

My next book is The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. We own a copy of it, my kids read two books in high school that are in the collection with it, so we have that book. It is a little shorter though, only 160 pages. Then it is on to Theodore Dreiser and William Faulkner!

What about you? What have you been reading? 

Exodus 24:7
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

Esther 6:1
That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.

Psalm 139:16
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.