The Books I Read
Yesterday morning I did a little straightening after some grandchildren turned a bedroom into a playhouse. Finding a couple of sad-looking, deflating balloons hidden between the bed and a wall, I took them downstairs and caused their final demise with a kitchen knife.
That scene in my kitchen reminds me of something that happened the night before. While straightening a different room (do you see a pattern here?), I continued listening to a biography about one of my favorite authors. The subject of the biography lived two centuries ago. The biographer obviously did not. Finally, after she made one more attempt to impose her modern thinking on my heroine, I gave up. I hit the pause button and continued my housework sans book. That’s it, I decided. I’m done.
Stopping in the middle of a book is not easy for me. I really want to finish them when I start them. Now I don’t get to write it down in my little green book log! I’m only half teasing.
But stop I did. I didn’t want the biographer to burst my bubble of admiration for an author I have long enjoyed. This is not the proverbial hiding my head in the sand. I’d rather stick to the facts than drink in her suppositions.
Wow, I thought. People certainly have to be careful when they read modern history and biographies! Please do be careful and be especially careful about what your children are reading.
Now I’m glad that I’m not writing that book in my little green book log. On the outside, it says, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” On the title page, I wrote, “This journal belongs to Charlene Boyd Notgrass. Life Book List.” The books I read need to reflect this truth that Jesus told us:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10