Sunday, December 26, 2010

More books!

In our household, books are friends. I drink in their splashes of color, their wondrous smell when new, the book jackets which distinguish them one from another -- and I take a moment to feel their weight in my hands. I don't think I ever could be a Kindle reader!

Under our Christmas tree were the following new friends:
American Grace: how religion divides and unites us, by Robert Putnam and David Campbell
Being with animals: why we are obsessed with the furry, scaly, feathered creatures who populate our world, by Barbara King
The dog who ate the truffle: a memoir of stories and recipes from Umbria, by Suzanne Carreiro
God drops and loses things (poems), by Kilian McDonnell
I love bacon! (recipes), by Jayne Rockmill
My reading life, by Pat Conroy
Psalms, v.4 from The Saint John's Bible
Sunday Soup: a year's worth of mouthwatering, easy-to-make recipes, by Betty Rosbottom

Thanks be to God for the gift of sight, that we may read these books; thanks for the authors who received the gift of inspiration.

2 Comments:

Blogger Castanea_d said...

I am glad that some Books have come your way. They sound like good reading in store.

One bookish pleasure of mine is the reading of an old "new" book. I have many, books that I have gathered over the years and never yet read. I am doing that with a couple of volumes at present, and am enjoying it very much. Occasionally it backfires – I have a good bit of science fiction on hand, and find that I am much less fond of it than I used to be, more aware of the atheistic materialism that underlies the world view of its authors and the vague hand-waving to conjure up limitless and free sources of energy, faster-than-light travel, and much else (e.g., the Star Trek universe). Both the philosophy and the science are in these matters untrue, not reflective of the universe as it is, and that makes it hard for me to enjoy the stories as I probably would have ten or twenty years ago. This is not true of all of the genre, thankfully.

But most often, opening one of these books is like finally taking the time to get to know someone who has been part of one's circle of acquaintances, but never a friend. And sometimes, I find Grace in the timing; I realize as I read that it is only now that I am ready for this book.

I did not mean to rattle on at such length. Mostly, I wanted to wish you, your husband, and son a most blessed and enjoyable week, and I want to thank you for your excellence in ministry, liturgical and otherwise. As you know, I have had some difficulty in coming around to Christmas this year. One of the moments when I “got” it was at the Proper Preface to the Eucharist on Christmas Eve, when you said it in such a way that it meant what it says:

“Because you gave Jesus Christ, your only Son, to be born for us; who, by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, was made perfect Man of the flesh of the Virgin Mary his mother; so that we might be delivered from the bondage of sin, and receive power to become your children.”

12:51 PM  
Blogger Castanea_d said...

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12:52 PM  

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