Life Goal #52

Well, I finished reading War & Peace this week. (I don’t really have a list of life goals of which this was number fifty-two, but perhaps I should have such a list.) I ended up not reading it as I had intended… slowly over time with plenty of time for reflection and digestion. No, like most other books I try to read that way, I ended up getting absorbed into the characters and the events and spending hours and days immersed in it all. I wonder what power this is that allows authors to make me care so much about the people and situations they invent? I don’t understand it, but I love it. I love seeing my life through the eyes of all the various characters, and I inevitably find myself in most of them.

My goal is to try to gather up some of these thoughts about the various characters and write some about them soon (before they really fade from my mind). I don’t know if I can really write much about the plot. I’ve had a hard time identifying the normal structures I expect in a narrative. It’s so sprawling and huge. The characters seem to be more important to me (especially Pierre), but really I’m just in my first stages of trying to understand it all. More to come soon (I hope).

Plato

So I finally did it. I bought Plato’s collected works. I realized yesterday that I’ve been reading about Plato for some time—mostly summaries and introductions in larger books—but I’ve never actually read Plato. So, I tried at the public library yesterday to find some of his dialogues, but their entire philosophy section consisted of two (small) introductory summary-style books. I was very disappointed. So when I got the Borders 40% off coupon in my email this morning, it seemed obvious what I needed to do.

Summer Reading List

One reason I’m not taking classes for the Summer term is because I have so much I want to read to get ready for classes in the Fall. For some reason, I feel like I’m so far behind where I need to be. So here are (some of) the books on my Summer Reading List. If I can make some progress in these, maybe I’ll add a few more.

Oh, and there is always the reviewing I need to do for the next Hebrew class I’ll have. (So I moved my coffee maker into my bedroom… you know… so I can get an early start on it all.) The way I figure it, the more work I do now, the easier time of it I’ll have in class later, and (hopefully) I’ll also get more out of it. That’s really the main goal.

War & Peace, Vol 1, Part 2

I finished reading the second part of the first volume of Tolstoy’s War & Peace. I got a little sidetracked and had to put it down for a while. School got a bit more demanding. Because of that, I’m glad that I’m keeping my own summary of the events of the story.

The scene has shifted away from the drawing rooms of the Russian aristocracy and to the war with Napoleon. Only a few of the characters introduced in the first part are present here (Prince Andrei and Rostov). However, several new ones make an appearance. My favorite two, although I don’t know what kind of parts they will play (if any) in the rest of the story, are the calvary officer Denisov and the artillery commander Tushin. I hope we meet them again.

In the narrative arc I mentioned a few posts ago, I think the story is still in the introduction of the characters and in the description of the setting. I’m still not sure what the main conflict is going to revolve around. The next section has 24 chapters. So you can probably expect the next update in about a month. But don’t hold me to it.

Book Reviews

It’s been a busy week at school. I turned my first writing assignment in this week: a book review. I may post it here in the future, once I find out how well I did. But it was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve done so far this semester. I struggled with it, though. It has been a long time since I had to write anything for a grade. But the struggling was good. Because I actually had to think about the author’s argument and goals and method, well, I got way more out of the book than I would have otherwise. Normally I read something and and say to myself, “I really need to think more about that.” But then I never do. Writing a review makes me wrestle with it.

My teacher gave us a helpful format for doing the book review. It involves asking only three questions:

1. What is the author’s goal for writing?
2. How does the author try to achieve that goal?
3. Does the author succeed in achieving that goal?

That’s it. But that produces some really fruitful thoughts. The first question helps me to keep the big picture in mind as I read. The second question not only helps me to come up with a summary of the material, it also helps me to consider the method the author is using to reach his goal. Is it just laying out information? Or using examples? Is he arguing from experience? How much does he cite other authors? How does he use the Bible in his arguments? Etc., etc. I can’t explain why this is so helpful, but it opened up a new view of reading for me. The final question forces me to do some critical thinking and come to some conclusions. I have to decide if the method was helpful or correct. And I have to decide if the argument was a convincing one.

Children’s Stories and Narrative Arcs

Before I left my job in Atlanta to start at seminary, one of my co-workers told me a strategy her brother had used while at school to help him deal with the complexities of theological education: he read Winnie the Pooh. I think that’s outstanding. So, in my own way I’m starting to copy him. I’ve been visiting the library near my house and going into the children’s section and checking out Roald Dahl books. I’m not embarrassed. I’m already reading his short stories for adults. So it kind of fits with what I was already doing. It’s nice though. I missed all these books when I was growing up. I saw Willy Wonka, of course, but I never knew the book it was based upon. The simplicity and straightforwardness of the children’s story helps me just to decompress from the weightyness of all the other reading. Next up: James and the Giant Peach.

Has anyone out there read Dahl? What is your favorite book by him?

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In hermeneutics class this past week we’ve been talking about interpreting narrative portions of Scripture. One of the things we’ve talked about is just being able to see Bible stories as stories. They follow the basic rules for stories that are encapsulated in this illustration:

I find this incredibly interesting, not just in understanding the Bible, but also in other stories I’m reading. I’ve never really read stories with this kind of thing in mind before. I think I might begin practicing on the Dahl stories as a kind of game. Maybe it will be fun.

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(On another note, I haven’t given up reading War & Peace yet. I’m still plodding along. I expect to have another section completed by next week.)

For Hours On End

What kind of books did you read when you were a kid?
What were the classics for you?

I don’t remember many books before late elementary school. I don’t know if I just didn’t read any, or if the ones I read just left no impression upon me. The first series that I really got into was about The Three Investigators . . . a trio of kids who went around solving mysteries using sharp thinking and courage. My mom would find them for me in the used book store, and I would read them as fast as I could. It was a good deal for me.

The next book that captured me was J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which I had to read in seventh grade. I got the set that included the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On the weekend I got it sat up in my room and read it straight through. And even though the other books weren’t assigned for the class, I read them anyway. For hours on end. Multiple times. Still some of my happiest memories.

Those two series of books were what really made me into a reader. So if you’re a reader too, what were the books that gave you that love?