by John Chandler

I don’t often like to go back and re-read books…and I consider this a fault, more than a strength. But sheesh, there are just so many I want to read.

But I do have a list of books that I have intentions to get back to. Either because they were really good and deserved further thought even years later. Or because I wonder how much more I could get out of them in a new season of life.

The Prophetic Imagination has long been a stand out for me, and it was as valuable last month as it was 8 years ago. (And why, oh why, don’t I have any notes from my first reading of it in my blog archives?) There may not be many books I can compel myself to read again, but I’m glad this was one of them.

Welp, I’m lagging to posting books I finished two months ago. And yes this is also a book pulled from the Best of 2017 lists. Other than that, had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I was yanked in hard with the opening chapter.

One of the things I appreciate about literary fiction, if written well, is that I feel like it helps me identify with people who have a very different life experience than mine. That’s the case here. Hard to read at times, but of course that’s also an invitation to identify with and root for the characters.

Read this one with two of my kids after we culled it from a history reading list for homeschooling by Susan Wise Bauer. The book offers helpful historical context for first century Galilee and the tensions between Jewish hopes and Roman oppression.

The book is 50 years old — reminding me that much of this history was around but lost to me in my own childhood and early theological learnings. Glad to be able to remedy that with my own kids.

As we were preparing to go through Acts, I saw a respected friend had this in his Goodreads updates. We were preparing to through Acts this summer, and I thought it would be helpful to read something besides commentaries. It’s also thoughtfully charismatic and evangelical in a way that is outside my normal theological stream, or at least my more recent theological stream. I needed that push in some other directions, and I hope our church community is benefiting from it.

Another book plucked off the many Best of 2017 lists that I finally got to a few months in to 2018.

Intriguing and timely concept as magical doors appear throughout the world allowing refugees to leave one area and move to another. (I don’t think I’m giving too much away there.) But while the overall concept and storyline were interesting, the book lacked the level of character depth I typically prefer. So, in the end, I wasn’t left wanting to spend more time with them or know what happened next for them.

Some really good, and some really helpful, ideas in this one. The overall concept of focusing on 12 weeks at a time for goals and marking progress makes a lot of sense compared to the long arc of 12 months.

I’ve been trying to implement the timeframe for development of one of my side projects. Much like my experience with Getting Things Done (15 years ago!), I’d guess I will get more benefit and value from a second reading after I’ve engaged with the overall concept for a while.

To audiobook or not audiobook. Here’s a good example of why this question haunts me. I can’t get through all the books I want to read, and audiobooks help me find space to add 5-6 books a year to my reading list.

I’ve figured out that the kind of audiobooks that work best for me are narrative based, like history or biographies, or practical idea based, like this one. But the segmented nature of how I listen to audiobooks, and pay attention to audiobooks, oft makes me feel like I miss some of the big picture.

I chugged through this one in many trips to meetings, dance classes and appointments. I pulled away lots of interesting ideas about the value of naps, when it’s best to drink coffee, and why my current decade of life (my 40s) might be my least fulfilling. But I’m sure there were other great ideas that floated past my head and settled somewhere in the back of my car, never to be found again.

Maybe there should be a supplemental chapter on when it’s best to listen to audiobooks.

I’m intrigued enough to still have this on my list of books I hope to read ‘normally’ someday. But golly it’s a long list.

This feels like an important and timely book filled with important and timely ideas.

The topic of attention is one that has, um, had my attention lately. I’m aware how much I have to work harder to stay focused on a particular idea or task. I’m aware how much that this same struggle for attention is part of a broader conversation in our culture.

And in a twist of irony, I’m aware of how interested I was in reading this book. And how much I struggled to stay engaged through the whole of it.

A.J. Jacobs is one of my guilty pleasures, and I’ll read anything he publishes. He makes me laugh, often. I suppose it doesn’t need to be all that guilty though, because there is thoughtful engagement weaved in with the humor.

This wouldn’t be the first one I’d recommend to someone new to his books, if only because I didn’t find the subject matter as interesting. No regrets for the time I spent reading it, though.