I'm A Book Glutton

I can only go so long without reading a good book, and then all of a sudden I'm reading 4 of them simultaneously!

After writing about artistry I was inspired to search for a quote that I remembered Frederick Buechner wrote in one of his books - I haven't found it yet, but I did revisit his book WishfulThinking: A Theological ABC where I did find this wonderful reminder of God's mercies being new every morning (Lamentations 3: 17-33..."because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, Great is Your faithfulness"). Buechner says: "Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire and water, every 24 hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you're seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you're crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either."

I also picked up Buechner's Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought To Say): Reflections on Literature and Faith. The book jacket says: "Buechner invites readers to discover the deeper joy and purpose of reading. He shows how these writers--by putting their passion and pain into their work--have enabled him to bear the weight of his own grief and sadness by "speaking out from under the burden of theirs." I didn't know Gerard Manley Hopkins lived such a depressing life, although I loved his answer to the question of how a man who loved art and literature became a priest--"You wouldn't give only the dull ones to Almight God". I am going to have to revisit Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn - the story will have new depth for me now that I know some of the details of Twain's childhood. I still have to read the chapters on G.K. Chesterton and Shakespeare.

A new author for me: Ivan Doig (Ryan, you would love this author). I picked up at the bargain price from B/N of like $3.50 The Whistling Season. It was so good - it reminds me in an odd way of Peace Like a River in that it is a good yarn, yet interspersed with so many wonderful memories of the 1 room schoolhouse, and childhood memories, and wanting mothers. What ever happened to the 1 room schoolhouse, and spelling bees, and memorizing poetry and having programs for parents that were a BIG THING! An event that the community would never miss for a million years. We need to try to recreate this in today's society.

I have now picked up his This House of Sky. I'm not very far, have only really read the forward, but evidently this was the first big novel he wrote of his memories of his family and living in Montana. I liked what he says in the forward, and I think it describes the way he writes: "It would be magnificent to do the entire book with this slow care, writing it all as highly charged as poetry..." (from one of his journals).