I love them so much that I braved the arctic snow conditions yesterday (hey I'm british, 3 cms of snow is a lot around these parts), and visited the library in the small town where I work. I had decided that the perfect antidote to staring at a computer all day was to have a little lunch time browsing, thus I went out in to the snow wearing heels. Yes, yes, your free to laugh at me too.
However, I did score some pretty dandy finds from a gentle browse of the shelves.
Number One: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.
I had read about this book somewhere before and the title jumped out at me and had stuck in my brain. I'm about two thirds of the way through this one now, and its quite an interesting read. I have an ongoing interest in religious philosophy and the forms that religious experience can take so I was immediately drawn to this book, which I suppose is best described as a memoir of religious feeling.
Number Two: Called out of Darkness by Anne Rice.
There is a bit of a religious theme developing here, but this is Anne Rice's description of how she left 30+ years of atheism and returned to the Catholicism of her childhood. I had read about her conversion else where and was interested to see how she reconciled this centuries old unbending faith with her modern (post modern?) attitude to the last thirty years of her life. Particularly with regards to the fact that her son was openly gay, not a life that the church would endorse. I actually finished this book yesterday. For a writer who is as good, and as experienced as Anne, I found some of the prose a little clunky, like she was trying to express her childhood in terms beyonds the means of words. Over all an interesting read but she seemed to dismiss recent church history and events, happy to live in a state oblivious to the recent developments within the church- concentrating wholly on the sensual and emotional experience of religion. A sentiment that the rational me found difficult to accept fully.
Number Three: The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski
I picked this up mostly on a whim. I would seem to be a mix of memoir and history based on the fall of the Ethiopian government in 1974. This is an area which I know absolutely nothing about about so should be an formative experience to read when it comes to my knowledge of recent (well fairly) politics! I also thought it was slim so thus would be easy to carry to work!
Number Four:A Thousand Miles of Dreams by Sasha Su- Ling Welland
Again this is another random pick that I found whilst browsing. I was not after this book. I was however attracted by it title and the fact that the jacket describes it as a mix between a novel with a large dose of anthropology- my kind of book!
Number Five: Life in the Medieval Cloister by Julie Kerr
Continuing the theme of by interest in orthodox expressions of religion I picked up this one. I think it is a brief historical introduction. Most of which I (hope) I will already know as this formed a rather large study component of my degree, but, what can I say I was feeling nostalgic! The writing style looks to be clear and engaging and it will be nice to used those brain muscles once more!
All in all a pretty good haul! Things to keep me busy during the snow for the next few days!
I hope the snow isn't affecting your life to drastically, and people, drive slowly and safely!
Lindy xxx
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