Remembering Reading

I have decided to also post anecdotes about reading on this site because it is fun to think about the pleasure of reading. I think I was too young to remember when my love affair with books began, but I do have early recollections of the way reading made me feel. My favorite series growing up was the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I don't know how many times I read this series as a girl. I can still recall vivid images of Pa playing his fiddle as the wolves howled in the distance, I remember Laura and Mary throwing the pig's bladder back and forth after the family hog was slaughtered, but mostly I remember Almonzo coming to pick Laura up to bring her home for the weekend when she was teaching school. I always thought I was like brown haired, slightly naughty, Laura, while my sister Michelle was like blonde haired, always perfect, Mary. I feel like I lived those years with Laura and if I met her today, I would expect that we would sit down and visit like old friends.

What books did you love as a kid?

#2 The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Book #2 is The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. I have mixed feelings about Bohjalian's writing. I read Midwives years ago and the story still comes back to my mind occasionally which for me is a sign of a good story. It brought me in and kept me interested throughout the book. I also read Before You Know Kindness which made less of an impact on me. The story was slow and I didn't feel as strongly as the topic. So when I saw The Double Bind on the library shelf, I thought it would be worth a try. The book is about a girl who survives a brutal attack that occurred in college while she was riding her bike. We meet her a few years later after she has graduated from college and is now working as a social worker in a homeless shelter. She meets a mentally ill homeless man who had been carrying around a box of photos for years. After he dies, she takes the photos and begins some research to attempt to uncover the story of the man's life.
The story doesn't really get more exciting than that. Throughout the book I caught myself asking, "Who cares?" more than once. The book is redeemed by it's ending which is clever and unexpected. If you know the ending, please don't leave any spoilers in your comments, just in case someone wants to pick this one up. One thing I liked about the book is that Bohjalian had gotten the idea from the story from an actual homeless man who had been a photographer and left behind a box of photos when he died. These photos were included throughout the book which gave the story some reality.
So if you have picked this one up or read any of Bohjanlian's other stories let me know what you think. On another note, I am finding it hard to check out and read books from the library. Most of the books I want I have to put on a waiting list and when they come in I am usually reading another book and I don't have time to pick the new one up. So then a few weeks go by and the book is due at the library. I am grateful for the library system, but it is a bit tricky to create a system of picking up, reading, and returning that actually works. Anyone else have this problem?

#1 The Shack by William P. Young

This book is the first book I read as I began my project. I found it on the New York Times best seller list and it had an interesting premise. A man loses his young daughter in a horrifying kidnapping and murder crime and struggles to deal with his feelings of guilt, anger, and loss. God invites him to come back to the shack where the crime takes place and spend the weekend with him. So far it sounds pretty interesting, right? Things get a little strange when he gets to the shack and God the Father is represented by a large black woman, Jesus is represented by Jesus, and the Holy Ghost is represented by an Asian woman.

Although the strange portrayal of God didn't appeal to me and I grew tired of the long sermons on how things really are, I still liked the story. We all have demons in our lives that haunt us for years and the truth is we need God, maybe not God as a large black woman, but God Himself to help us work through them.

Let me know if you have read this book or have any insights to share.

An introduction to Heidi's list of 100 books

A few months ago, I decided to make a list of 100 books I want to read. I consulted many lists. Lists of the best books of all time, lists of books you should read before you die, lists of best sellers, and friends list's of their top reads. I currently only have a list of about 50 books, but I am confident by the end of this experiment I will find my list of 100.
Although I selected books that looked good to me, I am not claiming that this is a list of 100 books you should read before you die or 100 of the best books of all time. Instead, it is a list of 100 books that looked interesting to me and I hope it will be a list of 100 books that other people will share comments about.
I am not sure how long this project will take, but I am guessing it will keep me busy for a long time. So I hope you will come along with me and maybe will read a few books together.