Books (or Risk, Part 2)
First, to sum up my thoughts on risk:
It seemed that the little idea of risk that entered my brain last week was going to keep on growing and become a giant thing by the weekend. A group from our church went to be part of a conference in SoCal where we learned about embracing a people group. Here's the two-cents version: There are 3800 unreached, unengaged people groups out there (no Christian exists among them, and, as far as we know, no evidence of any engagement exists, either). There are tens of thousands of churches that could reach them, that could embrace them and give them the life and hope of Jesus Christ. Our church is praying about how we may be involved, and it is overwhelming, exciting, and quite terrifying. Talk about risk.
Second, I never told you what books I decided to read! These are the decisions I've made, and then I have a list of books I am interested in but have not yet purchased.
I purchased Tolkein's The Silmarillion and T.H. White's The Once and Future King on my kindle. I had tried to purchase a few others, but, alas, no kindle versions exist yet. These books are The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Watership Down by Richard Adams. These were all my safe decisions, I believe. Tolkein's an obvious choice; White's and Bradley's books are apparently the best King Arthur stories; and Watership Down is pretty much a classic, although I've never read it.
Other books/authors I'm interested in are: Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake (this was called a response to Tolkein LOTR...don't like the sound of that, but I am intrigued); The Farseer by Robin Hobb; The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (this is still iffy); The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (a Catholic man whose religious beliefs apparently come through his writings); The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle; Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (more sci-fi than fantasy, but makes many top lists).
Then just today I found this list and was happy to see most of the books I'm interested in reading are there, plus a few more I should have thought of but didn't. Of course, some books on the list would never make my top anything; Harry Potter isn't listed anywhere (Shock! Maybe because it's considered Young Adult? That must be the explanation...); and sadly C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy barely made it at #100; nonetheless, I find that this will be helpful in my pursuit of good fantasy (and sci-fi, as it seems they're lumped together) fiction.
If you've read any of the books, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Or if you get a chance to venture over to that list and find another title I need to read ASAP, let me know. For now, I am thoroughly enjoying my safe pick of The Silmarillion and looking forward to taking some bigger risks in the future.
It seemed that the little idea of risk that entered my brain last week was going to keep on growing and become a giant thing by the weekend. A group from our church went to be part of a conference in SoCal where we learned about embracing a people group. Here's the two-cents version: There are 3800 unreached, unengaged people groups out there (no Christian exists among them, and, as far as we know, no evidence of any engagement exists, either). There are tens of thousands of churches that could reach them, that could embrace them and give them the life and hope of Jesus Christ. Our church is praying about how we may be involved, and it is overwhelming, exciting, and quite terrifying. Talk about risk.
Second, I never told you what books I decided to read! These are the decisions I've made, and then I have a list of books I am interested in but have not yet purchased.
I purchased Tolkein's The Silmarillion and T.H. White's The Once and Future King on my kindle. I had tried to purchase a few others, but, alas, no kindle versions exist yet. These books are The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Watership Down by Richard Adams. These were all my safe decisions, I believe. Tolkein's an obvious choice; White's and Bradley's books are apparently the best King Arthur stories; and Watership Down is pretty much a classic, although I've never read it.
Other books/authors I'm interested in are: Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake (this was called a response to Tolkein LOTR...don't like the sound of that, but I am intrigued); The Farseer by Robin Hobb; The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (this is still iffy); The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (a Catholic man whose religious beliefs apparently come through his writings); The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle; Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (more sci-fi than fantasy, but makes many top lists).
Then just today I found this list and was happy to see most of the books I'm interested in reading are there, plus a few more I should have thought of but didn't. Of course, some books on the list would never make my top anything; Harry Potter isn't listed anywhere (Shock! Maybe because it's considered Young Adult? That must be the explanation...); and sadly C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy barely made it at #100; nonetheless, I find that this will be helpful in my pursuit of good fantasy (and sci-fi, as it seems they're lumped together) fiction.
If you've read any of the books, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Or if you get a chance to venture over to that list and find another title I need to read ASAP, let me know. For now, I am thoroughly enjoying my safe pick of The Silmarillion and looking forward to taking some bigger risks in the future.
Whoa the Silmaril-whatever. I tried...it's rough. Let me know if you can make it though...
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