When things don't quite go to plan
A reading goals update
Back in January, I came up with a brilliant list of books I hoped to read this year, with the ultimate goal of reading an average of two books per month - some for work, some for pleasure. I can report, here at the almost end of July, that I have indeed read more than two books per month, with a couple of volumes ongoing.
But they’re not exactly what I had planned so far.
I’d say ‘oops’ - but some of this is because of my D.Min. program, which required some very different reading.
So here’s where I am so far:
On the Original Plan
Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures - read (and preached on)
How Long ‘til Black Future Month? - read several of the stories
The Last Devil to Die - read and loved, and now awaiting both the film version of the Thursday Murder Club series and the first in Osman’s new series, We Solve Murders
Possession - three chapters in, I realized I had read it before, and found myself fairly bored
Toksvig’s Almanac - this one is ongoing, as I’m taking in each month’s entries, well… each month
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year - ditto, except it’s weekly
Not Planned but Definitely Read/Reading:
Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods (also preached on)
Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde - Fforde fans were surprised this spring with the announcement of this second novel in the Shades of Grey series was coming out - 13 years after the first novel. I finally have enough bandwidth to read, and I’m about a third of the way through
Drama Ministry by Steve Pederson
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Wit, by Margaret Edson
Scripture Windows by Peter Pitzle
Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
and about a dozen essays by Baldwin, including “The Devil Finds Work”, “The Price of the Ticket”, “To Crush a Serpent”, “Stranger in the Village”, and “Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood”
So what this means is I’m quite happily meeting my goal, even if it’s not meeting it as planned. How’s your reading plan going? Any surprises, or recommendations? Clearly I’m not sticking to a list.
Programming Note: I’m hoping to have a column next week, but I am also traveling to Albuquerque to attend the AUUMM1 Conference, so things may get a bit too much. If there is one, yay! If there isn’t, yay! I’m sure I’ll have plenty to report, consider, and snark upon when I get back. I’ll certainly have some new songs under my belt.
Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries
I've recently discovered the spiritual psychotherapist David Richo. A very good read is "The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them," Shambhala Press, 2005. The five unavoidable "givens" in life are: 1) Everything changes and ends, 2) Things do not always go according to plan, 3) Life is not always fair, 4) Pain is part of life, 5) People are not loving and loyal all the time. It's interesting how he uses various spiritual traditions, mostly Buddhism, to arrive at a point of acceptance for these five givens, which he claims are primary sources of our unhappiness. I'm also currently reading Matthew Fox's "Creation Spirituality," which has a really impressive rewrite of Genesis.