Library issues reading challenges
In the public library not long ago, I noticed a bulletin board offering reading resolutions for the new year. They were an interesting challenge for us to read something different instead of just scanning the library shelves for a new romance, murder mystery, science fiction, or whatever is your particular weakness in light reading.
I started with the easiest one, to read a book you enjoyed as a child. Of course, that is not a new departure for me. There are a number of books I tend to reread every few years. This time I chose Anne of Green Gables. Having watched the video a few weeks ago, I was definitely in the mood to return to the book. Rereading this book is like coming home to all the warm, funny, eccentric and lovable people in Avonlea. See if you don't identify Anne with the girl you once were.
Another suggestion was to read a classic you somehow missed in high school and/or college. In spite of having majored in literature, I have quite a list of those. I'm sure I won't complete the list this year (or this lifetime, for that matter), but I want to read at least one. I'm thinking of George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss or Adam Bede. Although Eliot is one of my favorite authors, I somehow failed to get around to those. If they are anywhere near as good as Silas Marner and Middlemarch, I have a treat in store. I blush to admit I have never read a novel by John Steinbeck. What I've heard of them always sounded unbearably depressing, but perhaps I should bite the bullet and give myself the experience.
Another suggestion was to read a book published the year you were born. I find that The Grapes of Wrath could fulfill this resolution as well as qualifying for a classic I've missed. Other options include The Long Week-End by Robert Graves, Inside Asia by John Gunther, the complete English translation of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce and The Family Reunion by T. S. Eliot. Obviously I have a wide array of choices, but I doubt if I'm up to tackling Mein Kampf or even Finnegan's Wake.
I don't really remember all the resolutions, but I gathered the whole idea was an effort to jar library users out of their comfortable ruts. Most of us probably need that now and then. As long as you are not into hard porn, I believe any kind of reading can be worthwhile. A good mystery or romance may not be a life-changing experience, but they can offer an escape from day-to-day worries, frustrations or just plain boredom. I make no apology for enjoying Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart and Mary Higgins Clark. Although I'm not a big fan of the type of romance novel published by Harlequin and similar companies, their readers need make no apologies either.
However, there is a whole world of books out there which can challenge our minds, broaden our perspective and enlarge our experience. Once in a while, we need to break out of our little boxes and read something to grow on.
Don't you remember reading a book which deeply influenced the way you view the world, one that stretched either your mind or your spirit? One which did that for me many years ago was Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It is one of the few favorite books I have never read more than once. It is a long and rather difficult book to read, but it is well worth the investment. This may be the year I get back to it.
Another author who had a tremendous spiritual impact on me is C. S. Lewis, particularly The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. He has written a number of books I haven't got around to reading, so other adventures are in store for me whenever I choose to partake of them. Incidentally, if you have children, his Narnian Chronicles are some of the best children's books ever.
Let the librarians' suggestions be a jumping off place for your reading adventures in 2004. You don't have to follow through on every resolution, but think about ways you can enrich your reading life. You may be getting in a rut, as I sometimes do, and someone has pointed out that a rut is nothing but a shallow grave. Expand your reading horizons and enjoy!
