This quote, which I kid you not (I had already decided to blog about books when I found it) came up on my Goodreads quote of the day pretty much sums it up...
Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.
I thought I would share a few of my all-time favorite books today. I have many that I love, but will only choose a few in consideration of whoever out there might be reading this! ;)
The top of my list has to be The Book of Mormon. As a teenager, I just didn't get it. Of course, back then, I hadn't read it through, and therefore wasn't really qualified to make any kind of judgement about it. Well, 30+ years later, I have read it cover to cover many times. I now feel qualified to say that it is true. The principles in it can enrich our lives if we will let them. The Prophet Joseph Smith brought this book out of obscurity, translated it through the power of God, and made possible its publication. His sacrifice for this book and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is something I will always be grateful for. There is so much in this book that reading it one time will not suffice, and a continual study will only benefit the reader. If you haven't read it, do it!!
Now, to more secular books...
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, is a book that stayed with me a long time. It made me want to buy eggs from locals who didn't have to clip off the beaks of their chickens, and to buy beef that wasn't from cows fed in CAFOs. I read labels for many days after to see just how many products in the ingredient list were made from corn or corn by-products, and I envisioned the perfect life on a self-sustainable farm, complete with my own chickens who would live in a coop that I moved to follow the cows in the fields.
The author has an agenda, I'm sure, but I didn't feel he was pushing it on the reader. I felt he was just informing us of the practices used by food processors in the industry today.
I finally coerced our book club to read Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis, this month. It is deep, it is not a beach read, and it is worth every minute you put into it. So many things he talks about are so close to LDS doctrine, a person has to wonder if he didn't know at least a little bit about it, but I'm quite sure he didn't. You have to read a chapter, and then most likely read it again. I discovered some study questions that will help the next time I read it, and I will read it again. My favorite part? The Rat Analogy. Do I act like I should when I am caught unawares? That alone makes it worth my time to read.
My favorite classic, Pride and Prejudice, by none other than Miss Austen herself, has to be first, but admittingly, I also love Middlemarch by George Eliot, aka Mary Ann Evans. Two favorite parts from each novel. P&P - Mr. Bennet's declaration that Elizabeth will be lost to him if she marries Mr. Collins, or lost to her mother if she doesn't! Classic Jane Austen. Middlemarch's last page holds one of my all time favorite quotes spoken by Dorothea - "What are we here for if not to make life less difficult for one another." Timeless advice to enrich our lives as well as those we serve.
As for contemporary literature, The Poisonwood Bible gets my top vote. Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of an evangelical preacher who takes his wife and 4 girls to the Congo to save the natives. It is heart breaking to see the effects of life in the jungle on the patriarch, who is the classic example of power gone bad, and his family who are innocent victims of his attempts to save the world. Admittingly, I haven't loved most of the other books by this author, although Animal, Vegetable, Mineral was informative and well-done, along the vein of Omnivore. Following the lives of Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May will keep you engaged and turning pages. (And if you like pallindromes, there are more than a few in here. I found those quite fascinating.)
And finally, in full disclosure, my guilty pleasure would have to be Coming Home, by Rosemunde Pilcher. Unlike the book cover in the above link, my copy has a bunch of pink roses and looks like a totally shallow romance novel. Yuck!! I have read this book several times, and each time get swept up in Judith's life as well as the other characters developed by Ms. Pilcher. The descriptions of Cornwall cause me to want to look up flights to England and book a ticket. It isn't deep, the story is a tiny bit predictible, and (gasp) after my last reading, I found it doesn't fit my criteria for language! How did I miss that? But I do love it, and when I need a book to take me away, this is my go to! And it definitely qualifies as a beach read. I almost always scorn fluffy books, and some may consider this one. If that is the case, so be it! I don't care!
My son-in-law, Brandon, doesn't understand how a person could read a book again, (although I am sure The Book of Mormon is exempt from this to him.) I know there are many books out there that are on my list, and not enough time to read them all, but sometimes revisiting a favorite title is just the ticket to remind me how much and why I love a book or an author. I catch things I missed in previous readings, and am enriched by them. I am sure I will never be able to adequately explain this to him, but maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree on this point.
What am I reading now? Gulp, by Mary Roach. This author has a fantastic sense of humor, and somehow that translates in the books she writes. Now that may not seem so unusual, but consider the topics she has chosen to write about...the alimentary canal, cadavores, science and sex, life for an astronaut in space, the afterlife. None of these topics are particularly funny, but she is able to do the research and make an interesting and informative read out of them. I have admittingly only read the book about cadavores, and honestly, not sure how far I will get in Gulp. It could get pretty gross, but I'm willing to give it a try because I really like the author, and who wouldn't benefit from learning more about how our bodies, one of the great miracles of life, work? I will give an update after I am finished reading it.
Books have always played a huge role in my life. From Nancy Drew to Laura Ingalls Wilder to the Boxcar Children as a young girl, then on to bigger and sometimes, but not always better, characters, I have been grateful for the ability to read, and the love of reading my mom encouraged by making sure my siblings and I always got to the library.
So many books, so little time!! (Look it up, its a book also.)
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