100 books

I refer you to my earlier post about the invalidity of rereading these babies. But I am so I thought I would review for the thre unenlightened souls in teh world who haven't read Harry. Book 2 in he series, and not really my favourite. I just cringe too much at Gilderoy Lockhart and Colin Creevey. But, as they say, its a ripping yarn so is worth the occasional cringe. I'm now onto the altogether darker Prisoner of Azkhaban.

Ooops.. nearly forgot to review this. The Jungle Book is not the same as the film. The story of Mowgli is only part of this collection of stories, all set in India (apart from the seal one.. and maybe another). Its really well written but I think I was lloking for a familiarity that just wasn't there. Except in Rikki Tikki Tarvi, which I remembered from when I was little. Was good to read some good literature but nothing desperately scintillating.

This is written by the former head of the Catholic Church in Britain: and that’s an important lens to be aware of when reading about the essentially Celtic saints of north east England. I consumed this eighty pager in about half an hour- partly due to its brevity but also due to a desire to learn. The north east is my father’s heartland. Hilda is my grandmother’s name. My heritage is Celtic, my calling monastic.. how could I fail to want to read this. It is a good brief guide to the Northern saints. But it is written with a slant to defend and propagate a Roman view of the development of English monasticism. I think I need to read Bede to get back to the heart of it (though already I want to get my hands on anything about Aidan and Hilda)..

I’ve been dipping into this classic for about a month now, and it seems fitting that I finally finished it whilst spending a day at a monastery. Though 300 years old it really is an inspirational text- looking at the means by which we might continually commune with God. Its hard, when reading a classic, to avoid the searching for pithy sound bites. I hope rather that I might begin to walk in this way of continual communion with God. Linguistically this is not an easy read. Its not one to try and get through in a couple of hours- but it is worth a look at.. The real challenge is to follow the example and live it.

This doesn’t really count in the hundred books for the year because I have read it (several times) before. But, at the beginning of this week I just needed a comfort read- and this is one of them. I love Harry Potter- and this- the first, is still beautifully innocent. Rowling is just good at developing characters and so as she introduces all the main players we are caught up into a world of imagination. I think that’s the secret of the books: we all have our own picture of Potter, Dumbledore and Snape. Watch this space for a review of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.. out July 16th.

Love it! No complicated plot twists, no weird dark family secrets, a true product of its time. I guess it shows that I am a product of mine that I was expecting the grandma to turn out to be a witch herself, the docored soup to go to the wrong table, or for the witches to win. Oh how my innocence has been stolen!

Paul Wesley Chilcote This was another random book I picked off the shelves of the UL to try and understand something of the tradition that I’m about to step into. It has vast amounts of notes, is well researched and gives some context as to how women were given a role that was later taken away. Again, it wasn't the best thing I've read this year (I'm still struggling to beat Watership Down), but is useful in understanding how Methodism came to where it is now.

I confess I only picked this book up because its shorter than Sophie’s World (its by the same author), Its really beautiful: just a series of conversations between a sick child and an angel. None of the thinking is particularly new- it touches on the difference between humanity and angels, all the usual stuff we look at in regards to angels. But its done very beautifully. I liked it: and will most likely dive into Sophie’s world at some point later in the year.

Having seen this being read everywhere on the tube I decided to take the plunge. This is a great book for me to read of holiday. Its compelling enough to set off my addictive reading thing (I finished it in six hours). Raises a bunch of questions too: I alarmingly found myself not being too bothered if Jesus was married or not: though I have to say some of the conspiracy stuff was a bit out there. The issue is that Brown takes some well worn half truths and twists them, so that you can't tell what is true and what isn't. He's actually pretty clever in integrating little twists so that average Joe Punter wouldn't tell that its not true. I understand why its courted so much controversy- and it is a great read. Its just interesting that it can provoke more deep conversation than reading the Bible on a train. Oh, and the end. Cliché! Dan: go and watch Lost in Translation before writing any kind of love thing into a book EVER!

Took me quite a while to read this, and is taking me a while to take it in. I think I’ve read quite a lot on hard core discipleship in the last few months and so to read something that really is all about grace is a bit of a shock. I found it all really very hard to receive and was looking for a challenge that said: “but you only get a certain amount of grace”. That’s all much more of an indication of where I’m at than Manning’s writing. I found “what’s So Amazing About Grace?” easier to grasp but I think this is of equally high quality.