What Are You Reading?
I mean… besides this…
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with reading. I want to read more. I know I should read more. I have dozens of books that I want to read, whether they be on my Kindle, on my shelf, or saved in my library app for future reference. I also don’t want to take the time to read — 4 years of seminary really burned me out on reading for a long time.
I have described myself as having “literary ADD”. At any given time, I may have 4–5 different books going. I will sometimes go from one to the next. Sometimes, one will particularly grab my interest, and I’ll bear down on it until it’s done.
However, because of this, I often feel overwhelmed by what I want to read, and I do the only sensible thing… I don’t read any of it.
Obviously, that makes no sense. So, I’ve been trying to be more intentional about my reading in the last year or so, and I thought I would share a little bit of what I’ve read lately. Generally speaking, my reading is falling into five different categories.
Just for Fun
As you can imagine, this is probably where I find reading the easiest. Lately, I’ve turned into a major Star Wars nerd in my reading. In the last year, I’ve read:
The Aftermath series by Chuck Wendig focuses on the final death throes of the Empire.
Thrawn Ascendency series: Chaos Rising and Greater Good by Timothy Zahn brings us the story of the Chiss and the character Thrawn, who became part of the new canon in the Rebels animated series. It was preceded by another Thrawn triology that depicts his rise in the Empire.
The High Republic series: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule and The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott focuses on the events of the early Republic hundreds of years prior to the Star Wars stories we are so familiar with.
Lords of the Sith by Paul Kemp is a story that centers on Vader and the Emperor, which is all I can say about it so far because I’m only a couple chapters in.
I also have The Rise of the Empire waiting in the wings, which is an anthology that includes two full novels and three short stories. As you can see, I’m reading a LOT of Star Wars books lately. I’ve always loved everything Star Wars, and I’m really enjoying the expanded universe of the new canon.
With the Kids
Every night at bedtime, my wife and I read to our kids. We alternate every night whose bedtime we are doing, so I typically have two books going at a time with them.
Hannah, my 6-year old, has been loving the Disney’s Frozen books that we have been reading. We are currently on the junior novelization of Frozen 2, but there have also been five or six small chapter books that we’ve read as well. In a sense, it’s like the Frozen expanded universe. We’re almost done with them, though, so I’m not sure where we are going next. I tried reading the Harry Potter books to her, but she may still be a little too young. She said a couple of the parts scared her — that’s NOT what we are going for at bedtime!
We’ve also read several other books together including Treasure Island (because I just finished reading it to her brother), The Wind in the Willows, and The Hobbit have all been finished.
Henry, my 4-year old, isn’t too particular about what we read, so I try to read some classics for him as well. As mentioned above, we’ve already read Treasure Island. We’ve also worked our way through Peter Pan, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
More recently, I’ve been reading a couple other books with him that are really more what I want to read than him. As a result, he may end up being a budding philosophy scholar, but more on that in a minute.
Biography
The world is full of fascinating stories, and not all of them are fiction. I try to read some biographies as well. Of course, as a huge baseball fan, the biographies I choose are more in line with those preferences. So far, in the last year, I’ve read…
Satch, Dizzy and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson by Timothy Gay. This details the barnstorming tours of Satchel Paige with and against Major League players headlined by Dizzy Dean and Bob Feller.
Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye. Another one on the life of Satchel Paige, quite possibly the greatest pitcher that most people know little about.
I’m currently working on Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Player by Jeremy Beer. Charleston is regarded as one of the best baseball players in history, but, again, most people don’t know who is was because he was black. Buck O’Neill once said that he saw legendary players play the game — black and white — and Charleston was the greatest.
I also have a couple books on Josh Gibson on my nightstand that I’ll be getting to eventually. Again, one of the greatest players in the game who is largely unrecognized by casual baseball fans.
Work Related
You would think that this list would be a little longer (and it probably is), but right now, there’s two books in particular that are fresh in my mind. One that I just finished, and have been using in a current sermon series (Shift 2.0 by Phil Maynard), and a second that I’m slowly working through (The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch).
Philosophy/Spirituality
I said above that Henry may end up being a philosophy scholar. Well, this is why. Because he isn’t all that interested in whatever I’ve been reading lately, I’ve started reading some philosophy with him.
I’ve been working through Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations on my own and a little with him, but lately, we have been going through Ryan Holiday’s Lives of the Stoics. As you can see, I’ve been interested in learning more about Stoicism, so that has been the focus of these readings.
I’m also slowly working my way through The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. I set up a reading plan in my Bible software, so I read a chapter at a time and take some notes along the way if anything sticks out. This, of course, is in addition to my weekly commentary reading related to my sermon prep.
So, that’s my list. What has been on your reading list lately?
