Sunday, September 14, 2008

Love to read

Today was filled and I spent the afternoon at home beginning to sort through my books in order to get rid of some. I have boxes of books that until recently were stacked in my garage. I understood as soon as I began going through them why I have so many; I love books and have a hard time letting them go. As I pulled many of the novels I have read out of boxes I felt a struggle with wanting to keep them! So, tonight I began compiling an annotated bibliography to track all the books I am letting go of. I should have began this bibliography years ago because I have read so many books that at times I have purchased a book and realized when I began reading it that I have already read it before. I love books - I have loved books for years. Novels especially - because there is so much reality, so much truth, so much life in the stories that I learn about life from reading. I think people feel more free to express reality in novels than they do in non-fiction. Somehow, non-fiction seems more controlled, or more edited - as if the person writing is telling us what they want us to know rather than telling us the truth. In fiction you can tell the truth - blatantly and bluntly simply because it is called fiction. As a theologian, I love fiction because I see God in all of life, in all relationship, and always in the world working for reconciliation. There is no place, no heart, no life, no part of creation that God is not present. Reading reinforces this for me. I love to read theology, but that's just thinking about God and then writing about what we think. Fiction is writing and then thinking about God in the context of real life. I have been a member of reading groups before and I love them. An opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts about life and God from the perspective of the things we've read. I haven't had much time to read lately, but I am going to try and get back to reading because of the life and stories it gives me to draw from.

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