November Books
how we read and how it (doesn't) matter
Last week I eagerly opened a Substack post on reading. Reading about reading is a delicious treat, a dessert with coffee on a Tuesday afternoon when normally one is sitting at a desk. I agreed with a lot of the post. I also interact with books, making notes, underlining, occasionally drawing a star. I too read multiple books at a time, cycling through them by something akin to whim. But I got bored quickly when the writer started to denigrate auditory learning in an effort to make reading cool again.1
My guess is that most people who love to read are visual learners. We need to see it with our eyes and we’re not as good at comprehending via listening. That’s fine. That’s why books are so great. But to assume that everyone is like us an error. Though often not malicious, it is arrogant. I personally like to hold the physical book and not read digitally. I am also a very tactile, kinesthetic learner. But I’ve learned that not everyone feels that way and they don’t need to.
My husband has a Ph.D. and I could not tell you the last time I saw him holding a book. But he listens to books and podcasts and knows more than I could ever learn on subjects in and around his field. He retains that information, uses it, interacts with it. One of my sons has dyslexia. Reading is never going to be as strong a skill for him as it will his younger brothers.2 And that’s ok. We are strengthening his auditory listening skills and that. Is. Just. As. Good.
I actually didn’t get on here to hate on this post; that’s why I didn’t link to it. That one post is just an example. Everyone doesn’t have to like the same things we like or learn the same way we learn. What is true is one situation is often not true in another. Maybe reading with your eyes is best but if you’re dyslexic, it’s not. Also if you hate reading but will readily listen to audio books, I think you should just listen to the audiobooks instead of trying to make yourself into a different person. Lean into your strengths and enjoy what your own preferences are without putting down other options.
Reading is great. Listening to audiobooks counts. Reading on a kindle or, heck, your iPhone—which sounds like a nightmare to me—counts. Reading isn’t an elitist sport. Rant over, I’m done. Thank you for listening.
Some posts are saved for paid subscribers because they take a lot of work or are on a more sensitive topic. These reading summaries are both: the posts take longer to put together and I want people to feel comfortable sharing whatever they are reading. We’d love to have you participate if you’re interested. Upgrade your subscription or, if you cannot afford it, send me an email and we’ll work it out.
November Books
Telling the Truth by Frederich Buechner
This tiny book that has been sitting on my shelf for a year or two was listed in my syllabus for “Methods of Embodied Preaching.” In the book Buechner describes the gospel as a comedy (who on earth would do the things God does?), a tragedy (the world is fallen and the effects of that fall are tremendous), and a fairy tale (the story is so amazing that it feels impossible for it to be true). The part on the fairy tale was my favorite part. I’ve long been draw into the way story can shape and reshape what we believe and expect from the world and I’ve not forgotten that nothing made me more excited for heaven than reading The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis.3
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
When I was on Instagram, I recorded by my reading there. I snapped a picture of each book and posted it to stories, saving them to a highlight. I got tired of that because people either wanted a review, which I often didn’t feel like writing, or people had opinions on what I was reading.4 Since 2022, I’ve simply kept a a list in a Word doc. When I caught up on this month’s list, I realized that Dillard had written the book blurb that was on the front of Buechner’s book. Tiny moment of serendipity noted.5 In this book of essays, Dillard mentions an encounter with a neighbor who drove to Lynbchburg (Dillard was an hour away in Roanoke) to attend Jerry Falwell’s church. Yes, I did roll my eyes.6 A book of essays is one of my favorite things and this one was fabulous. I’ll continue to work through Dillard’s writing.
Minoritized Women Reading Ethnicity and Race, edited by Mitzi J. Smith and Jin Young Choi
This was assigned reading for my seminary class “Race, Religion, and Theology in America” and it read like assigned reading in a graduate-level class. One of the things I love about Fuller is that they pull diverse resources from class and assume that students are mature enough to read things that they might disagree with. I disagreed with a lot of this book but also contemplated over and over what happens when we privilege our own power in our reading of the Bible. We can drive people from Jesus by the way we use Scripture and that should be a mighty weight, a caution as people who teach and study and, in any way whatsoever, speak with God’s authority.7
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
This book was right over 500 pages of bad news. Told from the vantage point of the five females of the Price family, the book describes their move to the Congo by the force of their pastor husband/father who was determined to bring salvation to the Africans. The book alternates narrators, telling the stories of their whole lives, each changed by Africa in ways that could never be undone. 500 pages of holding your breath for the next blow but simultaneously being unable to put it down.
Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright, oops, I mean Tom.8
Unfortunately Wright doesn’t answer the question humans have been asking for millennia: “where did evil come from?” But, as it seems we will truly not get that answered in this lifetime, he does the next best thing in outlining what evil is and how the Creator God answers evil decisively in the cross. “Jesus on his cross towers over the whole scene as Israel in person, as YHWH in person, as the point where the evil of the world does all that it can and where the Creator of the world does all the the can.” The Gospels tells the story of Jesus “as the story of how cosmic and global evil, in its supra-personal as well as personal forms, are met by the sovereign, saving love of Israel’s God, YHWH, the Creator of the world.” Because it’s Wright, he’s not content to stop there but instead spends the last two chapters teaching how to make sense of that conquest of evil in this life. “God’s future had already broken into the present in Jesus, and the church’s task consisted not least of implementing that achievement and thus anticipating that future.” There is much to be learned here and I plan to return to this again. 10 out of 10 stars even though I don’t give star ratings.
I’m still slowly working through The Silmarillion. I got to work Monday and a coworker had left his copy of Nobody’s Mother, featured in the picture, on my desk.9 I texted him mid-morning and told him that the self-control I was exercising to work instead of reading that was impressive. I expect it will get a fuller review than most books get. I also started You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston.
Please share what you are reading in the comments!
Not just audio books but podcasts too!
People with dyslexia differentiate between eye reading and ear reading and it’s important to know that.
Hat tip to Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright, or Tom, as his friends say. I’m gonna call him Tom.
Who knew there were so many wrong books to read?
Please take a moment to read the three short paragraphs on her website. It’s worth your time.
Once, when I was at the beach, I chatted with a woman at the pool. We discussed where she lived and when I told her I lived in Lynchburg, she paused and tentatively asked, “Isn’t that where Jerry Falwell Jr. is from?” Why, yes, yes it is.
Yes, Instagram counts. So does Substack.
See footnote 3.
What a fabulous book name. Props to Dr. Glahn.
I read The Poisonwood Bible 20+ years ago but there are still so many things about that book that I remember—and remember exactly how I felt (even where I was) when reading.
I can't wait to read Nobody's Mother.
I've never understood the hate for audiobooks. I love to listen when I'm driving alone, doing daily walks alone, and if I know I will be listening to a good book, I actually look forward to cleaning the house. I always have 3-5 books going at once and one is always an audiobook. I prefer to read non-fiction in physical book form because I annotate heavily. But I prefer to read fiction on my Kindle. Like you said: everyone doesn't have to like or prefer the same things!