VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

Lots of traveling is keeping me from doing much reading. I’m hoping August is better!

How you all doing? Wheat you guys reading?

I got Journals of Jim Elliot for Books by or about a Missionary and Extra Nos by Flame for either Christian Living or Theology from Hoopla as bonus borrows.
I am in the midst of Whatever Became of Love by Thomas C Pfizenmaier for... uh I did not add it somewhere.

Looking at my list, I got 23 prompts left. Time for the hardest ones...

The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes by Nancy R. Pearcey, Susan Hanfield, et al. is a book that I'm reading with my church book club. It will probably fit in a theology category.

Still working on 4 Chair Discipling: What Jesus Calls Us to Do by Dann L. Spader as a book my pastor recommended.

Current Events and the Issues of Our Age: America in the 2020s by John F. Di Leo for a book on current events. It is a collection of articles/essays of the author over the past couple of years. He writes from a politically conservative viewpoint.

I've got about 40 books to go and like you Ian, it is getting harder to pick what goes to where and/or to motivate myself to read in certain areas. This would be why only 2 of the books that I read in July actually made it onto this challenge list.

I'm still reading The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh - I'm 300+ pages in and have about 200 pages left to read.

Also I'm still reading The Lord by Romani Guardini.

I'm starting to reread The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

On audio, I'm reading another novel by Kate Morton. This one is The Lake House. I've enjoyed three of her other novels and now have decided to read them all.

I don't expect to read all 104 books this year, and I'm way behind on reading theology.

Ok. The first 2/3rds of the year is done.

Best: The Savior's Book Cafe Story in Another World by Kyouka Izumi (All 5 volumes). This was a touching and lovely story. The message was impactful about setting down roots impacting the world.

Worse: The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. It was 2 books combined into one and kept bouncing between the 2 plots with an unsympathetic character. The premise was great (a species has to eat books to survive and learn through eating) but the author does so little with it and is not consistent with how it works.

Surprise: Carmine by Alan Janney. This was book 4 is a superhero book that reset the point of view character. It has been a enjoyable series and in this book it, a character drops Proverbs 14:4 (one of my favorite Proverbs) in context without stating it is found in the Bible. While the series is not directly Christian, you can see the worldview trying to be lived out by the broken characters in the book. I am excited to finish the series.

You've read some interesting books, Ian!

I finished only three books this past month. I've been reading longer books, and spent a lot of time on Les Misérables and am still nowhere near done. (Super long novel, 1456 pages.)

Anyhow, finished in August..............

Best: The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh - I've been reading this for a few months. Finally finished it. Loved it. Huge book hangover.

Worst: The Lake House, by Kate Morton - except it wasn't bad at all, it was a great novel and I liked it. It just isn't as great as the two nonfiction books I finished reading.

Not a Surprise: The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough - not really a surprise as it was a reread.............

Linda wrote: "You've read some interesting books, Ian!

I finished only three books this past month. I've been reading longer books, and spent a lot of time on Les Misérables and am still nowhere near done. (Sup..."

When I read Les Mis, I read an abridged translation. It was still over 700 pages long. I enjoyed it immensely. However, when I saw the musical after reading it I was very disappointed in the even more abridged and creative licensing version in which a character who was detestable in the book was portrayed very sympathetically and given the best song in the whole show.

The abridged version must have removed the many lengthy diversions into topics like the Battle of Waterloo and the history of convents in Paris! I think the book would be better without them.

Linda wrote: "The abridged version must have removed the many lengthy diversions into topics like the Battle of Waterloo and the history of convents in Paris! I think the book would be better without them." I don't remember those portions so yes.

I'm pretty sure this is the version that I read. 500+ pages, I had thought there were 700 pages in it but this looks like the cover that I remember and was published at the right time for when I read it. It's probably on my bookshelf at home.
Les Misérables