Blue Like Monday

After sitting in my office at Moody for a couple hours, listening to the new Metalicca album, grading papers & finishing up artwork for the next New Life series - I'm ready to go home. I've been looking forward to this week for awhile: being able to spend extra time with Jeannette & Baylee and family, being able to read a little more and play a little more. Tonight is Navy Pier with our neices & nephew. The Christmas marathon begins.

I purposely didn't read Blue Like Jazz when it first came out because most of Christiandom was reading it and loving it. If I can't get in on the first wave of people to read a book like that before it becomes "popular" I normally wait until the hype settles before I pick it up. The hype for Blue Like Jazz has been down for quite awhile, but it was just always another book on the "need to read" stack. Decided to go ahead and give it a try though - and am enjoying it. It seems similar to Orthodoxy by Chesterton, which isn't a bad thing. I can tell I'll probably like it, but there's still 17 chapters to read - so the jury is still in session.

After reading a chapter of it today though, the thing I've realized is that I need to revisit some books I've read in the past. People who know I'm reading Blue Like Jazz have made comments such as "that's my favorite!" or "that book really impacted me!" The typical cliches we use. But...I have those books as well, and for some its been awhile since I've read them. So, I think for 2009 I'm going to make a reread list of books. Need to stand in front of my library to make an accurate list, but here's what came to mind right now:

• Orthodoxy; G. K. Chesterton
• Mere Christanity; C. S. Lewis
  
• The Pursuit of God; A. W. Tozer
• Messy Spirituality; Mike Yaconelli
• The Jesus I Never Knew; Phillip Yancy
  
• The Trivialization of God; Donald McCullough
• Can Man Live Without God; Ravi Zacharius
• Mudhouse Sabbath; Lauren Winner

Too many books, not enough time.