The Best Kind of Lists
I used to keep everything in my head: appointments, to-do items, school plans, menus. The last few years, though, after some embarrassing moments when I forgot to show up for a few scheduled events, I realized that my brain was full and that I needed to start writing things down. I do not use a Daytimer or put appointments on my iPhone, yet. But I do put things on my wall calendar (which is why we didn’t miss the six dentist appointments scheduled for today), and I try to make lists for shopping and other things I want to remember. I just need to remember to look at my lists. And where I put them.
There is one kind of list I like to keep and refer to often: a book list. Sometimes it seems like all the good books have been written and that I have read the best ones already, but then I get a recommendation from a friend and find the joy of discovering a new author or work. Those are the moments I understand how Columbus felt when he saw the new world— and realized his crew wasn’t going to throw him overboard after all. I was excited to read in one of Randy Alcorn’s books that not only does he think we will be reading in heaven, but he believes that new books will be written there, too. Won’t that be heavenly? In the meantime, I am grateful for book suggestions from other booklovers.
Introducing his literary lists, George Grant quotes T.S. Eliot: “I love reading another reader’s list of favorites. Even when I find I do not share their tastes or predilections, I am provoked to compare, contrast, and contradict. It is a most healthy exercise, and one altogether fruitful.” Tim Challies has been working on compiling book suggestions from godly men, posted at Discerning Reader. Most of the books are theological, but it’s fun to read their lists and perhaps add to the master list of books which I will not finish in this lifetime, but may have a chance to continue working on in the next.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:29 am
I, too, love book lists and that is how I’ve found many books I would never have come across otherwise.
I have an old, crumbled photocopy of a list published in one of the homeschool magazines circa late 1990’s. It was a treasure house of titles, including Louis L’Amour’s The Education of a Wondering Man (which is a book autobiography where he shares how he educated himself before and after the Depression by reading).
I only began keeping a notebook of books read last year. How I wish I’d started it as a child!
September 19th, 2007 at 3:31 am
That should be Wandering Man, although perhaps Wondering Man would fit.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:27 am
Oh, friend, you are singing my song!! I have an overflowing three-ring binder full of book lists and book recommendations, including George Grant’s list.
Back in 1986 a Christian radio station asked Christian leaders what five books (other than the Bible) they would want if stranded on a desert island. I was intrigued that the book which showed up the most was The Brothers Karamazov and took the summer to read through it.
In Disciplines of a Godly Man, R. Kent Hughes has an appendix with the same idea: asking current Christian leaders favorite books in different categories. That’s where I read that Kristin Lavransdatter was Elisabeth Elliot’s favorite book.
It’s grand fun to revisit lists and check your progress, isn’t it?
I know I’m being wordy, but I can’t contain myself. We tend to think of the Puritan’s as wordy, and to an extent that is fair. But I have found J.C. Ryle, Thomas Watson and Jeremiah Burroughs very, VERY, readable and incredibly profitable.
I’m gearing up to read Calvin’s Institutes with a dear, dear friend who has moved across the country. We are planning a slow read and, I hope, emails as we process through it.
Like Brenda, I only began keeping a notebook of books read last year. I remind my youngest son, who reads a lot, to mark books down.
Oh, Carmon, you’ve got me going! I’ll be bouncing through my day today! Thanks!
September 19th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Calm down, Carol
. You are so funny…and something else is funny:like you and Brenda, I only started keeping a list of books I’ve read this year! Since some big trials a few years ago, my concentration has diminished and so has my reading speed. One of the reasons I highlight books so much now is that it helps my retention tremendously. Because of the way we homeschool, I have had my children keep a list of all books read for many years. I am glad I finally decided to do it, too…I just put down titles but I should start writing a short summary, too. I would love to review every book I read and put it on my site, but I’m too much of a perfectionist about public consumption (something the Lord is working on) and it takes me quite a long time to write a review…time is not in abundance around here!
I would love to hear more about the Calvin project. When I first read that I thought you wrote “a slow and painful read”
.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Yes, I just started being more methodical about my lists as well, wishing that I had written in each book the year acquired and/or the reason. Thankfully, there are lots out there to keep me from reinventing the wheel.
Tomorrow’s post will be the recommended list from Carolyn James’s book…as requested
See ya ’round.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I LOVE book lists, but have never thought of keeping one for myself. I guess I ought, and it would be fun to add thoughts about the book. Have you ever noticed that your impressions of books change as you “mature”?!! Since I absolutely (ABSOLUTELY) do not write in my books, it would be nice to have a journal of those thoughts. My sweet mother always writes her name in the front cover of the books she reads so that she knows she has read it. I have asked what she does if someone gives her a second copy of the same book, but she said that at her age she probably reads them again with no recollection of the first time:-)
Speaking of lists, I have been waiting until you recovered from your trip to see if I could convince you to give us a list of what your lovely 16 year old daughter might be reading? I have enjoyed perusing the lists you posted for four of your children recently, but I am especially trying to put together an appropriate high school list. My shelves are appallingly bare in that section even though I have children who have already completed their home studies:-/ Our lives and schooling methods changed drastically about the time my oldest reached high school age. At the same time I was also displeased with many of the “wonderful classics” – think Lord of the Flies – that were being recommended for high schoolers, so I have never really supplied that part of my library.
As for you Book Markers, I am sure you will be pleased to note that both Wes Callihan and Albert Mohler recently had blog or newsletter articles actually encouraging the marking of books!!
Thanks for sharing!! You inspire us, Carmon…
September 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I have a list of books and media resources that I put together for my girls and I to look into using over the next several years. You can check it out at http://ellarayjs.com/index2/?page_id=14.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
My daughter, Bethany, keeps book lists because she is the biggest bookworm in the family.
She is always an easy person to shop for when her birthday comes around! 
She always has 2 or 3 books going at once, all the time! She loves to go back and see what she’s read
and sometimes re-reads them just because they “were sooo good!”
I, on the other hand, keep reminder lists,”to do” lists, grocery lists and calendars all the time.
When I say that I keep calendars, I mean I keep calendars. I have a detailed calendar
for every day of every year that we have been married (23 yrs). At first they were just kept to keep me more organized, but over the first few years, they evolved to mini-journal keeping, although I have always kept a journal, too.(not daily though)
My calendars keep many things such as a short summary of what we do everyday, even if it seems insignificant.
Like one everyday entry might say, “School, took walk, garden work, had spaghetti, played games” or “Went to city with (one of my children), lunch at Mac. Grill, thrift shopping and Costco. Left at 9, home at 6pm. Great day!”
It has been a wonderful thing for me to do all of these years. I can go back 20 years ago and tell you what we did.
My calendars have now become family heirlooms! It is a very simple way to bring back to memory everyday events that would normally get lost in the hustle and bustle of life.
One time, while antique shopping, I found an old diary from the 18oo’s. It is very detailed in places with grocery lists, current prices of the day and just the writer’s work schedule. I love it.
Sometimes I sit back and imagine what my children’s children will think when they read what “grandma” did when raising the family. They will see how much we all weighed and when, (ugh!:-) when we found out we were expecting, what little day trips we took, how much the gasoline ran, and what we had for dinner, etc, etc. I think they will love it!
September 19th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Kim, I love your idea about the calendars. How I wish I had thought of doing that long ago. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book A Midwife’s Tale is similar to what you found in the old diary.
Pat, I’ve been working on her reading list, but it’s not done yet! I planned to finish it after returning from our trip, so I will be working on it the next few days, and I will post it when it’s finished. As I wrote to someone today, these lists are not set in stone: if we find something that catches our interest, we may add other books as the year goes on.
September 20th, 2007 at 2:09 am
http://hiddenart.blogspot.com/2007/09/book-lists-buriedtreasurebooks-is-one.html