in 52 Weeks
The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year. It runs from April to March. Below is the current booklist. Prior year booklists are 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007, and 2007/2008. Read on!
October...
28. A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again: essays and arguments
Wallace, David Foster
NY: Little, Brown, 1997
Revealing non-fiction, as the (non-fiction) author's voice can be trusted to be more fully indicative of the author's self. Wallace didn't just write in a neurotic tone, these essays suggest, but was in fact markedly neurotic -- that was his voice. I found the first ("Derivative sport in tornado alley") to have the most power, in its eerie climax and autobiographical focus on Wallace's childhood.
27. Learning Unix for Mac OS X, 2nd. ed.
Jepson, Brian and Dave Taylor
Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2002
Low level intro to shell commands on Mac OS X. Does just what it says -- it got me over the hump.
26. The Dalkey archive
O'Brien, Flann
London: Macgobbon and Kee, 1964
The final novel from a post-Joyceian master; I picked it up because I saw a description of it as being along the lines of Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. It's less weighty and more comical-pastoral than that -- deals with an everyday Irishman's relations with a mad scientist, a non-bike-riding bicycle policeman, and an addled James Joyce (who disavows writing Ulysses and longs to become a Jesuit priest). Slightly more than a diversion, but I'm told I should read some of his earlier novels (At Swim-Two-Birds and The Poor Mouth, specifically). Maybe.
September...
25. Orthodoxy
Chesterton, Gilbert K.
NY: John Lane, 1921 (1908)
How Chesterton found Christ, and what he believed that led him there, presented for your edification. Glorious.
24. Flatland: a romance of many dimensions
Abbott, Edwin
feedbooks/http://gutenberg.org (1884)
A cautionary tale about the dangers of a totalitarian society to people of faith? A straight-up math analog? A satire on Victorian class-based society? Not a very long or taxing read, at the very least.
23. The Yiddish policeman's union
Chabon, Michael
New York: HarperCollins, 2007
The 2008 Hugo award winner (the man has a Pulitzer and a Hugo; what more, a Nobel?). At its most basic, a good detective novel, imagining that the Jews were given a portion of Alaska after failing to win the Holy Land in the 40s, and are now facing exile again, as the gift reverts to its owners. Chabon (though he frustrates me, with his pet themes and personal fascinations) spins some really good accents, grace notes, layers, levels on top of that frame. He's got a way with words, at the very least, and the end made me tear up (I'm kind of emotional right now, though, so it could be that).
22. Infinite Jest
Wallace, David Foster
New York: Little, Brown & Company, 1996
My second time. Better, now that the hard work of figuring out what the hell is going on in the narrative has been done already. And I can better sum up the main theme, too, which is: the nature of addiction. And the author committed suicide while I was reading this, his magnum opus, which this reading will be forever connected with that fact in my mind, probably. I unequivocally, unreservedly, urgently, utterly recommend this book.
21. Building powerful and robust websites with Drupal 6
Mercer, David
Birmingham, United Kingdom: Packt Publishing, 2008
A not-quite-as-in-depth-as-I-would-have-liked overview of Drupal -- how it works, how it runs, how to put together a site with it, published a little early in the maturation cycle for version 6. But a good high level overview, for that.
20. The weight of glory and other addresses
Lewis, Clive Staples
NY: Macmillan Co., 1949
Most would recognize the quote from the titular essay regarding our lack of imagination being akin to a child who prefers to go on making mudpies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. This occurs surprisingly early in this slim volume. I was more taken by the address on 'Membership,' which advances a theology of personality that's terribly compelling and almost infinitely promising.
August...
19. The shack
Young, William P.
Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007
This generation's Hinds Feet on High Places, it's a fantasia on meeting with the living God. Not terribly well written, but it's got most of its theology right on, with especially good things to say about God's orientation to himself and to us.
18. Monster, 1959
Maine, David
NY: St. Martins Press, 2008
Maine trys his "sto[ry/re]telling" skills on a modern trope (as opposed to a biblical episode) -- the B/Monster Movie (specifically King Kong) -- and fails dismally. I cannot recommend this book, which is a shame, since his previous efforts have been rewarding.
July...
17. Genome: the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters
Ridley, Matt
NY: Harper Perennial, 1999
Using the 23 chromosomes as a vehicle for discussing the science, sociology and secrets of the human genome, Ridley presents a highly readable pop-science introduction to genetics and genes, capping it all with a look into the false dichotomy of determinism vs. free will (with interesting implications for those who follow Jesus). Well worth it.
16. New birth or rebirth?: Jesus talks with Krishna
Zacharias, Ravi K.
Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books
A short, imaginary dialog between Krishna and Jesus attempting to explicate the differences between the two approaches to God and truth. I'm not sure who the target audience is: Hindus seeking to understand Jesus, or Christians seeking to understand Hinduism? I think it's more likely the former, but only the latter will read it, and it doesn't do the best job of making Hinduism clear (if that's possible for someone not brought up Hindu).
15. The once and future king
White, T. H.
London: Collins, 1958
The third of the recommendations rising from this post. Way different than I expected; I somehow thought this was written much earlier than it was. Makes a definite slide from light and comic toward exceeding grimness, with inventive language and a sly way with human nature in between. Glad I did.
June...
14. His illegal self
Carey, Peter
NY: Knopf, 2008
This is my fifth Carey novel; all are on this project. A wonderful writer, one of the treasures I've found explicitly because I started this meme. This one, no exception. A priviliged NY child, transplanted into the feral Australian bush, and all the language that implies. I still have no reservations recommending Carey.
13. Dubliners
Joyce, James
NY: The Modern Library (Random House), 1969 (1967, 1914)
The second of the recommendations rising from this post. Could this be the gold standard to which all other 20th century short stories struggled to attain? With a minimum of fuss, Joyce nails the inner life. What a pleasant surprise.
12. Mr. Pip
Jones, Lloyd
NY: The Dial Press, 2006
Great Expectations, and the principled, troubled white teacher who introduces it, gets a young islander through her country's terrible civil war. The book is a reimagining of Pip's story through multiple iterations -- the narrator's imagined version, the narrator's actual life (escaping the war and winding up in London), the teacher's offering of a way out of the horror of war, and countless other iterations. A good read.
11. Brave new world
Huxley, Aldous
NY: Harper Colophon, 1960 (1932)
The first of the recommendations rising from this post. A screed in defense of liberty and an absolute morality, described by the author as a vision of a "negative utopia." Much easier to get through than 1984 or Fahrenheit 451. Made me re-evaluate Lowry's The Giver, which may be described as Brave New World for children.
10. Selected poems: expanded edition
Lowell, Robert
NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007
Thought I'd take the plunge and suss out one of the most famous of the American 20th century poets. Beautiful, and endlessly imitated, and essentially dark, self-loathing/self-worshiping at the same time. "My eyes have seen what my hand did," he can't explain his actions, only describe them.
May...
9. The constant gardener
Le Carré, John
NY: Scribner, 2001
A British Foreign Service officer wakes up to his human responsibility in the face of rampant corruption, except it takes the death of his wife to get the ball rolling. Took me a few tries to crack this one, but it delivers exactly the pleasures it promises, being Le Carré.
8. Mobile web design: a web standards approach for delivering content to mobile devices
Moll, Cameron
Salt Lake City, UT: Cameron Moll, 2007
A brief, packed overview from someone who knows. Good as an intro, good as a reference.
7. Working the angles: the shape of pastoral integrity
Peterson, Eugene H.
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998 (1987)
Referring to a triangular metaphor, wherein the visible aspects of the triangle (its sides: preaching, teaching, administration) can be any size, but only if the invisible aspects (its angles: prayer, scripture and spiritual direction) are maintained with integrity. A meditation on keeping integrity in the angles.
6. The death of Adam: essays on modern thought
Robinson, Marilynne
NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1998
Robinson points her razor sharp mind at a "priggish" modern culture, which can't be bothered to read the writings of those historical figures it casually denigrates, and which flounders for lack of an understanding of its own history, at the expense (ultimately) of civilization itself. Deeply concerned with the dignity of the human being.
5. The children
Halberstam, David
NY: Random House, 1998
An account of the Nashville student movement in the early 60's, and of the lives of the major figures involved. Another view of an endlessly fascinating subject; this one is much, much easier to read than some of the others I've tackled (Branch, Arsenault). Having not finished Branch's trilogy yet, this was my first pass on the events in Selma which finally brought the Johnson administration -- and the American people -- to pass the Voting Rights Act.
April...
4. Angels
Johnson, Denis
NY: Knopf, 1983
A seriously poetic character study of men and women at the bottom of American life. A little like Dead Man Walking without the Catholics. Bruising.
3. The life you've always wanted: spiritual disciplines for ordinary people
Ortberg, John
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997
Dallas Willard for Dummies, as Ortberg readily admits. But this condensation is really well done; might be an easy way to get into some of the ideas Willard has about the well-ordered life. A valuable read.
2. The broom of the system
Wallace, David Foster
NY: Viking, 1987
A fantastic headtrip concerning Lenore Beadsman's attempts to find Lenore Beadsman, and everyone else's attempts to own her, largely through language.
1. Electric universe: the shocking true story of electricity
Bodanis, David
NY: Crown Publishers, 2005
An enjoyable popular history of the discovery, use and impact of electricity, the electron, QED and electromagnetic fields. Focuses on the characters involved; very accessible and an easy read.