Ready and Willing

I'm the kind of person who, if a friend mentions a book that he or she is reading, I'll read it, too, so we can talk about it together. That's always my hope, anyway.

Once I slogged through an 1,100-page biography of American actress Lilian Hellman because a friend said she was reading a biography of Hellman. It didn't quite work out as I thought, though. The book I got from the library was a biography of Hellman, but, unfortunately, it wasn't the same biography as my friend was reading. Imagine being famous enough to have two fat biographies written about you! Anyway, we never did discuss it.

Then there's my Spanish-speaking friend. "I'm reading Robinson Crusoe," she announced one day. "I've already read it in Spanish, but now I'm going to read it in English."

Wanting to encourage her, I said, "That's great! It's been a while since I've read it. I'll read along too and then we can discuss it!"

As this was a relatively non-busy time for me, I whipped through the library copy fairly quickly--a week or less. I was ready to discuss!

"How are you coming along with Crusoe?" I asked one day shortly after that. Well, now that school was back in, it was a relatively very busy time for her as she was taking six courses, and Robinson Crusoe was left on his island by himself. Another book I never discussed!

Now it's summer again, a time for relaxing and, yes, reading the afternoons away. Having abandoned Crusoe, my Spanish-speaking friend is braving Wuthering Heights. This time, I didn't have to run to the public library to get a copy. Right during our Skype conversation, I pulled my own copy off my bookshelf, noting that I had read it during a fourth-year Women and Literature course in the Spring 1996 semester. Fourteen years ago! No wonder the details were foggy!

I promoted it to my bedside table and am making my way across the heath and cliffs. Last MSN conversation I had with my friend, I casually asked, "How are you making out with Wuthering Heights? I'm on page 48."

"Ahhhhhh!" she shrieked. "I haven't even got my copy yet."

Is this another not-to-be-discussed book? I hope not because my copy is a veritable rainbow of highlighting--blue for the supernatural (devil, angels, hell, heaven), yellow for banishment or exile, orange - Nelly, pink - forgiveness, and green for references to the landscape. Such a shame to let all that work go to waste! I'm not sure if the discussions will ever take place, but I'll keep on reading, just in case.

Tonight, I was talking with a friend whom I haven't seen for more than 30 years, but who recently reconnected with me. You guessed it. She mentioned a book she's reading: Why I'm Not a Calvinist. "Ah-ha!" I pounced. "I have the companion volume, Why I'm Not an Arminian. You read yours, and I'll read mine, and then we can talk about them."


Even as I said these words, I was reminded of some verses in James:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

As a strong believer in the sovereignty of God, I rephrase: "You read yours, and I'll read mine, and then we can talk about them . . . if the Lord wills."

Letting Go . . .

We are preparing for the grandmother of all garage sales being held this weekend by a group that I’m in. We’re looking around our house to see what we can contribute. What do we have the most of?? Books! So we start there, scanning each shelf to see what might be redundant or no longer of interest. Women’s Studies—I don’t want to count the dollars that I spent over the years I was teaching this subject! Literature—lots of stuff here that I won’t look at again. Business Communications? What are the chances that I’ll teach that again? Pretty slim, I tell myself.

And then there’s the wide swath of books that I read when I was writing my thesis. Oh my, did I actually read all this stuff? I flip open several volumes. Yes, there’s underlining, highlighting, and my own notes neatly written in the margins, from the first chapter to the last.

I start pulling books off the shelves and quickly fill four boxes. I survey the shelves, ready for a second pass. I marvel that although I have removed 67 books, it hardly seems to have made a dent. Admittedly, I did pull some books from on top of the bookcases—not actually a shelf but drawn into service several years ago because there was no room for yet another bookcase! And I rearranged some, sorting as I moved from shelf to shelf. Hmm . . . what’s this Atwood doing over here? Back where it belongs it goes! Three copies of The Handmaid’s Tale??—There’s a reason: one for home, one for the office (so I don’t have to carry a copy back and forth every day), and a previous edition that has many useful handwritten notes. I decide to keep all three—extravagant, I know, but I’m not ready to part with them—or maybe it’s just with something they represent. A George Macdonald separated from its siblings! Ah! a happy family reunion.

The books may be a little looser on the shelves, making them easier to take from their formerly too-snug spot, but really, the shelves look pretty much the same: full. I must keep culling.

The problem is that as soon as these are delivered over to the garage sale organizers, someone will ask me for a book, and I’ll say, Oh, yes, I have a copy of . . . oh, no, actually I just got rid of that!

But such is life. There is a time to let go of stuff. And for me, this is It.

Well . . . some things.

It's Christmas All Over Again!

I know Christmas is over for another year (although driving past a friend's house this morning on the way to work, I noticed their Christmas tree still lighting up their living room window!), but a delivery card in my mailbox let me know that a parcel for me was waiting to be picked up at the post office. I went down after supper and yes, it was Christmas all over again! A box of books. Can there be anything better!

This delivery brought a treasure trove: The Geneva Bible, 1560 edition. Advertised as "the Bible of the Reformation," this Bible is a bit different from what we used to. Who knew that the letter "s" used to look like the letter "f" or that "v" looked like "u"? What this means is that "love" is "loue" and "bless" is "bleff." So it will take us a bit longer to get through this than perhaps we anticipated. The interesting thing about this edition, though, it that it contains notes in the margins by various Reformers. We think these annotations will be precious and revealing. (This book really was a Christmas present that didn't arrive in time!)

The other book was The Reformation: A History by Diarmid McCullough. I'm looking forward to reading this. It's quite hefty, but I want to make more time this year for reading.

The last thing I uncovered in the box was a five-set DVD on the history of the Bible and of the Reformation. These I plan on watching while walking on the treadmill. Talk about redeeming the time! The minutes and miles just flash by!

Although I receive lots of e-mail everyday at both my work e-mail and personal e-mail addresses, I'm still excited to receive a box of books from the post office!