The Phoenix Preacher Nightstand
One of the books I reference below talks about how excited people were when book publishing took off in the 16th century.
We seem to have lost that wonder at having in depth information at our finger tips.
I’m hoping we can reclaim it.
These books are a bit different…these are books I have in audio format from Audible (now part of Amazon) that I listen to in the evening before bed.
If you use the links, I make a little money…even if you don’t you will profit from them.
You can get a free Audible trial by clicking here…
1. “The American Civil War”. My favorite teacher on the Civil War, Gary Gallagher, teaches one of the “Great Courses”.
2. “Reconstruction”. To understand American history and our current racial divide, you have to understand Reconstruction. Eric Foner is the acknowledged master on the topic.
3. “Slavery By Another Name”. How black Americans were re enslaved from the Civil War to WWII…very helpful in understanding our history and current racial issues.
4. “Stamped from The Beginning.” How racists ideas became part of our national fiber… a very important book in my opinion.
5. “The Battle Cry of Freedom”. In my opinion,the best of the great Civil War narratives…even better than Shelby Foote’s epic.
6.”The Anglican Way”. Where you can learn what I’m making such a fuss about…
7. “The Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England”. Boy, is this fun if you’re a history buff. Want to know what it was like to live in 16th century England? This book takes you there…
What’s on your nightstand?
All of these are also available in regular book and Kindle formats…
I’ll look into some of these. What you said about a week ago about how people nowadays don’t read has stuck in my head.
Dan,
I’ve been a rabid reader since childhood…and for me, it’s how I learn.
I hope there is something of value for you in the list.
On the nightstand –
Just finished “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink” – Elvis Costello’s memoir… needless to say, a fabulous writer.
Just started “This Is A Call – The Life and Times of Dave Grohl” by Paul Brannigan
Audio book in the car – “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak – dark and fascinating.
At the office – “The Gospel According to St. John” by C.K. Barrett – simply the best.
Thanks, Duane…a fellow lover of biography, I see…
On my nightstand (it’s painful…..)
Malory, Complete Works (for a class)
Tennyson, Idylls of the King (for the same class)
Tolkien, The Silmarillion (for a different class)
Christopher Tolkien, The Treason of Isengard (same as above)
On Sundays I read murder mysteries on my Kindle.
Xenia,
That’s intense. 🙂
Michael, it’s the genera I love.
I have no books on the nightstand. I keep a couple in each bathroom. I am on a serious book hiatus. I just finished Jim Brosnan’s The Long Season – his 1961 publication, journaling of his 1959 baseball season. Ball Four 11 yrs before Ball Four.
Now I have begun Joe Garagiola’s 1960 Baseball is Funny Game. Both books I read in Jr High.
Next will be Casey Stengal’s 1962 Can’t Anybody Here Play this Game to be followed by It Pay’s to Steal by Maury Wills.
Heady stuff.
I don’t have a book on my nightstand, but I do have quite a lot of books in my bookcases. Sad to say I don’t read much, but your books on racism in America intrigue me. Most of my books are music and visual arts-related. And I have enough (technical) science/math books to be embarrassing.
Michael, I need to do this…I now commit to reading one of your recommended books on race and racism in America.
“What’s on your nightstand?
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
“Becoming Human”
Ok, some (i.e. everyone) would say having ANY science/math books would be embarrassing…
Dan,
I’m reading those because I live in a place where there is little racial diversity, thus, little overt racism.
I want to understand this issue and for me, reading is the only way to do so.
I commend you for joining me…
Screwtape Letters is on the back of the toilet…
“Before the Frost” by Henning Mankell.
Because non-fiction is too depressing.
Thanks Michael. I grew up with one black family in the area, and I feared them. I went to college and did not have good relationships with some of the black men there.
Dan,
It shouldn’t be embarrassing at all…it shows you’re smart.
I left my comic books off the list…
MLD,
The Ty Cobb biography that came out a couple years ago is pretty good…finished it a few weeks ago.
I just finished reading:
“The Necessary Distinction: A Continuing Conversation on Law and Gospel”
A collection of essays, this book discusses Luther’s hermeneutic for reading Scripture, and applies it to contemporary issues facing the church as well as pastoral care, preaching and worship.
Properly distinguishing Law and Gospel is for a Lutheran a great (perhaps highest) responsibility of a preacher or teacher of Scripture.
Jean,
I heard that book referenced on a podcast…put it on my list.
It’s simply amazing, but I am careful about recommending it because the reader needs at least an elementary background in the proper distinction.
Do you happen to know if the Law/Gospel hermeneutic resonates in the evangelical faiths?
Jean,
It is part of Reformed teaching, but modified from the Lutheran model.
Right now my nightstand has two books on it:
Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones
I grew up with books (I learned to read, phonetically deciphering the comic strips in the evening paper) … as a child there was always a book on my nightstand – no TV to distract… I still have an elegant leather bound set called “Journeys Through Bookland” having found no grandchild worthy of them… they all have personalized bookplates that declare, “I enjoy sharing my books as I do my friends, asking only that you treat them well and see them safely home” (guess I lied) – I went from Mother Goose (yes, I can quote quite a few), to Lambs “Shakespear” and then I discovered the ” Nancy Drew mysteries” and it was all downhill from there… ?
Reading continued to be a habit all thru my adult years: “Out of Africa,” ” Apes Angels and Victorians, ” “The Greek Way,” ” The Plague” …… on so on for several shelves (anybody want them when I die?)
I have some Phillips and Barnhhouse and Weust, etc. but most of my adult years were spent (most of my adult years are spent period) reading the better known randomly across the spectrum secular authors as I raised my children (yes, Dr. Spock was on the bookshelf)
Now and for the last 10 years, I only read as needed for reference… all this to say that I hope everyone here is reading now as I understand it’s fairly common to lose that appetite after a certain age…
Just saying. … again
something of a grab bag on my end
Truth and Method, Hans-Georg Gadamer
Kyle Gann’s monograph on Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata
Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Adorno (you basically can’t read any arts criticism these days without having some familiarity with the Frankfurt school whether you agree with them or not)
and also Leviticus.
My current reading schedule is rather intense, but I’m also in school.
I just finished:
The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard
Living Into Community, Christine D. Pohl
To Change the World. The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World , James Davison Hunter
and for auxiliary reading:
God and Evil, Nietzsche
An Anthropology of Christian Mysticism, Harvey D. Egan
Money, Sex and Power, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life, Richard Foster
A Guidebook to Prayer, MaryKate Morse
Introducing Sartre, Philip Thody and Howard Read
A Grace Disguised, Jerry Sittser
Thanks for sharing, Michael.
Currently:
Strangers in a Strange Land: Living as a Catholic in a Post-Christian World, by Charles Chaput (Archbishop of Philadelphia)
Why? Explaining the Holocaust, by Peter Hayes
Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir by Arthur Lyons
Here Comes Charlie Brown! by Schulz — ’cause not everything we read has to be so damn serious!
“Do you happen to know if the Law/Gospel hermeneutic resonates in the evangelical faiths?”
Jean, as a more run-of-the-mill type evangelical seminarian, I would say there is very little knowledge of the Law/Gospel distinction. It’s not really taught at all. Which is a shame, because it is a helpful framework.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
pstrmike,
Good to see some Quaker influence!
WenatcheetheHatchet
Leviticus is an enlightening read. I remember being told it was more or less a waste of time during the whole Calvary debacle which has turned into a nothing.
This may show my relative youth amongst those here, but I did not know Leonard Cohen was such an accomplished poet. Music, sure.
Is anyone familiar enough to suggest one of his collections as a start?
#32 Descended
You might try “Selected Poems 1956 – 1968.”
Thx Duane!
Blessings
Descended, ditto what Duane wrote.
I offset the heavy reading by watching Adam West Batman or Batman: the Brave and the Bold, or Samurai Jack.
It by Stephen King
When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall
Music Theory for Dummies
Guitar Theory for Dummies
bob1 said (comment 27):
“Here Comes Charlie Brown! by Schulz — ’cause not everything we read has to be so damn serious!”
AMEN!!!!
Re: my comment 37:
less serious readings I’ve done in the past:
– The Gospel According to the Simpsons”
– The Physics of Star Trek”
– Most of my purchases in the Christian Living section of local Christian bookstore
– ” Rebel Yell, the Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by SC Guinn
– “The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit” by R.A. Torrey
– “I Am Brian Wilson, a memoir”
I don’t know. We don’t hear from Jeff in ages and then OJ gets out of prison… Just saying.
I’ m honoring a promise I made to God during Yom Kippur service this year to insure I would be found to be written in the Lamb’s Book Of Life…another book Michael should read this month.
hmmm… the Lamb’s Book of Life – where do we get a copy of it?
I think reading that one might be above our pay grade….
One of several titles by Lutheran author Warren Sherwood Bennett.
I’m not having as fun a semester as pstrmike. I’m just reading a bunch of technical books on the Hebrew language, commentaries that deal with syntactical issues, and that sort of REALLY boring thing.
only thing on my nightstand is a bottle of tums and an alarm clock.
books close at hand:
Helen Keller’s “The Story of My Life”
David Benioff’s “City of Thieves” (still on my ‘read yearly’ list)
Wendell Berry’s “A Small Porch”
Richard Rohr “The Divine Dance”
Brene’ Brown, “Braving the Wilderness”
I also keep “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” and “Farts Around the World” handy for my grandson, an avid reader-to-be.