Favorite Moments, Favorite Books
Do you remember where you read your favorite books over the years?
I woke up this morning thinking about the veranda facing West over a grand view at my college on top of Lookout Mountain. I often finished dinner and took my assigned book with a cup of coffee and set at a glass-topped table for a read. Frequently winds and storms would accompany me during my studies. The book that I remember one night was The Christian Mind by Harry Blamires. As the winds rushed by they seemed to blow the truths of this book into my soul. Now that's the way to study, learn, think and process life changing words. It is interesting that I remember vividly one of Blamire's tenets, that if we ever wanted to reach the hearts and minds of the younger generation we must never grow so analytical and abstract about beauty and truth that our hearts stopped swelling at the sight of a sunset or the glory of a rushing waterfall. That was 1971.
In 1968 as I was driving home on the bus in the forests of Colorado my senior year, surrounded by the mumble and jumble of highschoolers when I finished Of Mice and Men. My heart broke that afternoon. I wept, unable to wait until I was alone. I'll never forget Linnie pleading for his brother to describe their dream of the future, "Tell me George, what will it be like?" What he described resonated with the longing in me to reach Home. My worldview, which was agnostic at the time, did not give me the ability to read the ending of this book without feeling deep lose and despair. I wonder if Steinbeck wanted to break our hearts?
One of the first college assignments (1968) was Dicken's Hard Times. I read the first part of it while I had a long soak in the bathtub. What I remember most was, 'Wow, I HAVE to do this? I lovvveeee college.
In the summer of 1972 I gulped down C.S Lewis's Narnia Tales while on my coffee and lunch breaks, waitressing at George's Buffect in Colorado Springs. I found that his world often went with me as I served people, feeling like a fawn or maybe Rippichip was walking by my side. The second time I read this series I was pregnant with my 3rd child and it helped me rest and refresh myself at moments I'd steal away for myself. But the third time I (with my husband) walked through Narnia we took along our 3, 5 and 6 year old. They'd draw and color as he read. They enjoyed watching my engineering husband become choked up and misty over the many tender and poignant moments with Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund. And my saddest book reading experience was when we finished this series with 'Further up and Further in". I knew we'd never have this adventure together again. I didn't know that someday (2005) we would share this adventure together at the theatres. Though now ages range from 17 - 23 they acquiesced to my pleas, "Please, don't see it before we go as a family"? They love me and we enjoyed Aslan and his kingdom together.
My favorite novel was read while home from work with a cold (1974), when I was working at the University of Colorado: Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald. Many don't know this author and are missing out. He wrote 'for the child and the childlike'. He was a mentor to C.S.Lewis and used as a model for one of Lewis's characters in The Great Divorce.
While preparing to go to England and Scotland in 1978 I plunged into Dorothy Sayers light and fun Lord Peter Whimsey series. I felt I knew this country before I got there.
During that year I spent months travelling, visiting friends and friends of friends and studying at a christian study center, L'Abri. I will never forget the moments I read Os Guniness's, Doubt: Faith in Two Minds, in various rooms ot the manor house, including the drying room where the laundry dried. It was the warmest place to be in the winter time. It helped answer some of my deepest struggles in my life contemplating the problem of pain and suffering. Another time at this manor house I walked over to the stable apartment and was introduced to E.B White's Charlotte's Webb while listening to the Brandenberg Concertos.
As I traveled on the trains in England I immersed myself in my first Thomas Hardy novel. After returning to the states I went through the rest of his novels, keeping the aroma of England and it's countryside near me.
I can't finish this list without mentioning the most important words that changed my life in the Spring of 1969, sitting in a valley in Estes Park in the mountains of Colorado: "Then he (Jesus) said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me., For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self." I believed these words from Luke 9:23-25. The Bible still is my favorite of all my reads.
Not all of these books are a part of my Ten Favorite Book List, but their words and worlds are etched deeply into my heart and mind.
Tell me about your book experiences.
.
I woke up this morning thinking about the veranda facing West over a grand view at my college on top of Lookout Mountain. I often finished dinner and took my assigned book with a cup of coffee and set at a glass-topped table for a read. Frequently winds and storms would accompany me during my studies. The book that I remember one night was The Christian Mind by Harry Blamires. As the winds rushed by they seemed to blow the truths of this book into my soul. Now that's the way to study, learn, think and process life changing words. It is interesting that I remember vividly one of Blamire's tenets, that if we ever wanted to reach the hearts and minds of the younger generation we must never grow so analytical and abstract about beauty and truth that our hearts stopped swelling at the sight of a sunset or the glory of a rushing waterfall. That was 1971.
In 1968 as I was driving home on the bus in the forests of Colorado my senior year, surrounded by the mumble and jumble of highschoolers when I finished Of Mice and Men. My heart broke that afternoon. I wept, unable to wait until I was alone. I'll never forget Linnie pleading for his brother to describe their dream of the future, "Tell me George, what will it be like?" What he described resonated with the longing in me to reach Home. My worldview, which was agnostic at the time, did not give me the ability to read the ending of this book without feeling deep lose and despair. I wonder if Steinbeck wanted to break our hearts?
One of the first college assignments (1968) was Dicken's Hard Times. I read the first part of it while I had a long soak in the bathtub. What I remember most was, 'Wow, I HAVE to do this? I lovvveeee college.
In the summer of 1972 I gulped down C.S Lewis's Narnia Tales while on my coffee and lunch breaks, waitressing at George's Buffect in Colorado Springs. I found that his world often went with me as I served people, feeling like a fawn or maybe Rippichip was walking by my side. The second time I read this series I was pregnant with my 3rd child and it helped me rest and refresh myself at moments I'd steal away for myself. But the third time I (with my husband) walked through Narnia we took along our 3, 5 and 6 year old. They'd draw and color as he read. They enjoyed watching my engineering husband become choked up and misty over the many tender and poignant moments with Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund. And my saddest book reading experience was when we finished this series with 'Further up and Further in". I knew we'd never have this adventure together again. I didn't know that someday (2005) we would share this adventure together at the theatres. Though now ages range from 17 - 23 they acquiesced to my pleas, "Please, don't see it before we go as a family"? They love me and we enjoyed Aslan and his kingdom together.
My favorite novel was read while home from work with a cold (1974), when I was working at the University of Colorado: Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald. Many don't know this author and are missing out. He wrote 'for the child and the childlike'. He was a mentor to C.S.Lewis and used as a model for one of Lewis's characters in The Great Divorce.
While preparing to go to England and Scotland in 1978 I plunged into Dorothy Sayers light and fun Lord Peter Whimsey series. I felt I knew this country before I got there.
During that year I spent months travelling, visiting friends and friends of friends and studying at a christian study center, L'Abri. I will never forget the moments I read Os Guniness's, Doubt: Faith in Two Minds, in various rooms ot the manor house, including the drying room where the laundry dried. It was the warmest place to be in the winter time. It helped answer some of my deepest struggles in my life contemplating the problem of pain and suffering. Another time at this manor house I walked over to the stable apartment and was introduced to E.B White's Charlotte's Webb while listening to the Brandenberg Concertos.
As I traveled on the trains in England I immersed myself in my first Thomas Hardy novel. After returning to the states I went through the rest of his novels, keeping the aroma of England and it's countryside near me.
I can't finish this list without mentioning the most important words that changed my life in the Spring of 1969, sitting in a valley in Estes Park in the mountains of Colorado: "Then he (Jesus) said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me., For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self." I believed these words from Luke 9:23-25. The Bible still is my favorite of all my reads.
Not all of these books are a part of my Ten Favorite Book List, but their words and worlds are etched deeply into my heart and mind.
Tell me about your book experiences.
.
posted by Cathryn | 1:41 AM
3 Comments:
Blamires is especially good. I was assigned it by Dr. Wells at Gordon-Conwell. I appreciated it then. Now, many years later, it only appears the wiser. The man not only said things that are true, he said things that were central and would continue to be central for many years after he wrote.
This is a great post! Yes, I have some wonderful book-memories.
I spent a semester on exchange at the University of Texas, and the was a quiet reading room in the basement of my dorm, where I read Klaas Schilder's Heaven: What is it? and Theodore Cuyler's Recollections of a Long Life.
I have clear memories of reading G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy for the first time. It was during the summer, and I remember reading a portion sitting by the side of a small creek while accompanying my sister and brother-in-law on a fishing expedition, and another portion while spending a day watching a cricket match.
Interesting that though many books have impacted me - I rarely remember where I was when I read them. Maybe it is because I tend to block out everything else when I read. Anyway it is good to read that you have the extra bonus of remembering where you were.
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