Reading Year in Review - 2021

Thank heavens that I came out of the pandemic-induced reading slump of 2020! This year got off to a roaring start because of the Literary Life Podcast group since their reading challenge caused me to attack my most daunting books right off the bat: Kristin Lavransdatter and Anna Karenina! Towards the end of the year I was reading much lighter fare, while dipping into Dante's Divine Comedy three times a week (via the 100 Days of Dante reading project.) It was a great year! (All 90 books, good and bad, are listed on my Goodreads challenge.) 

Here's the rundown of favorites: 

Most work, but worth the effort: Kristin Lavransdatter (reviewed here) After this, Anna Karenina was a cinch!

Best light fiction: A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery (reviewed here)

Most fun: All Creatures Great and Small by Herriot (reviewed here), and the first five Lord Peter Wimsey Novels by Sayers (reviewed here)

Favorite audio: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick & Pied Piper by Shute

Favorite re-read: Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury (with the Lit Life group)

Favorite classic: Mansfield Park by Austen (with the Lit Life group)

Unexpectedly knocked my socks off: The Inferno by Dante/Ciardi (To be honest, this was only after listening to the videos explaining each canto.)

Favorite non-fiction: Christian Faith in the Old Testament by Cockerill

My two top picks for the year were  C.S. Lewis' Letters, Vol. 2 (1,000 pages) and Six Centuries of Great Poetry (600 pages). My daily sips into their contents brought me constant delight. I felt bereft when I finally reached the end of Lewis' letters.

What about you? Have you read any of these? Did you have a favorite book of the year? 

Blessings,

Christmas Poem by Christopher Smart

A wonderful poem that is also a hymn:

Where is this stupendous Stranger?

Prophets, shepherds, kings, advise!

Lead me to my Master's manger,

Show me where my Savior lies.

O most Mighty, o most Holy,

Far beyond the seraph's thought,

Are you then so mean and lowly

As unheeded prophets thought?

Oh, the magnitude of meekness!

Worth from worth immortal sprung!

Oh, the strength of infant weakness,

If eternal is so young!

God all bounteous, all creative,

Whom our sins could not dissuade,

You have come to be a native

Of the very world you made.

(Full poem here.)

Blessings,

Thoughts on The Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon is one of those books that caused me great embarrassment as a young Christian for its glorification of physical attraction and its awkward expressions of admiration such as the bride's hair being "like a flock of goats and her teeth like a flock of shorn ewes."

As I matured in my faith I learned to appreciate the book's place in the biblical canon because it debunks the myth that God is a cosmic killjoy and that physical intimacy is sinful. (Of course, it has to be read in the context of the rest of Scripture!)  

In Matthew Henry's commentary, he prefers to treat the entire book as a spiritual analogy, reflecting Christ's love for His bride. While I agreed with all of his conclusions, I did not see how he reached them from certain verses (the ones in my first paragraph, for example.) Some applications seemed incredibly forced. The other resource I used for this study was Kay Arthur's Walking With God in Every Season, which took the Song of Solomon more at face value (a love poem with potential spiritual applications). I found it interesting that one of the assignments in Kay's book was to make lists of the compliments the couple give to each other, noting which ones had to do with their characters and which had to do with their appearance. Only by really stretching my imagination, could I come up with one non-physical accolade for the bride and the groom, which amazed me. 

Although I loved Matthew Henry's eloquence and fervent love for God, I was occasionally miffed at his heavy-handed applications. Kay Arthur's probing questions left more room for prayerful reflection. As I meditated on repeated themes and phrases, I found myself longing to think of Christ as "the one whom my soul loves." I'm happy I took some time to go through this book more carefully.  

Blessings,