On choosing books I have loved

Over on Facebook right now, I’m participating in one of those memes where someone nominates you and you, in turn, nominate someone else to do the same. I usually don’t participate in those exchanges, but because a good friend nominated me, I thought, “That shouldn’t be hard! And it should be fun!”

The challenge was to post, over seven days, pictures of covers of books you love–without comment or explanation.

Easy-peasy, I thought.

‘Til I started to (over?) interpret the nature of the challenge.

Was I supposed to post books that have been most influential to me? Maybe. A lot of those come to mind. But do I really love those books?

The first thing I decided was not to include the Bible. Of course I love the Bible, but it just seemed a bit too sanctimonious to post a picture of the Bible. It’s in a league of its own, so we’ll just bracket it. But now what? Where do I start?

Maybe I was supposed to post pictures of books that I’ve treasured. There’s my dad’s Bible, a couple of very old books I’ve acquired, an autographed copy of one of Karl Barth’s Kirchliche Dogmatik, etc. I treasure those, but I wouldn’t say I love them either.

Ok. This is getting complicated.

I started to panic. I sensed there will be some expectations out there in Facebook-land. I’m a theologian, after all, and people are going to be expecting me to share profound books that have shaped who I am.

I’ve certainly deeply benefitted from reading some of the classics. The Confessions by Augustine, The Bondage of the Will by Luther, Evangelical Theology, by Barth, etc. Even some more modern ones, like Miroslav Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace.

But again, do I really love those books?

I guess it all comes down to the nuance of love that we are working with. And since the Facebook game arbitrarily (I feel, even unfairly!) disallows explanation or comment, I decided for my own sanity in completing the assignment (It’s just a game, for crying out loud!), I’d need to come up with a consistent method.

In Augustine’s great On Christian Doctrine, he notes that there are three types of things: things that are to be enjoyed, things to be used, and things that are simultaneously enjoyed and used.

Ok, that could help.

When it comes to books, I have to confess, many, many of the books I’ve read over the years have been read as things to be used. Many of the academic, technical, astronomical, yes, even theological, books I have read, were read toward another end—to understand something better, to grow, to learn something new, even to get to know God better.

When it comes to things that are used and enjoyed, I think I had to admit that many other books are in this category. Take novels, for example. There’s clearly lots of novels I’ve enjoyed reading, but I again confess, that even when I read novels, I’m often doing so not only to enjoy them but instrumentally as well. I read novels when I need to take a break, to rest and relax. Yes, I can enjoy them, but even in the reading of them, I’m using them toward another end. Most of them I never return to again. The fact that I read them and am done with them tells me how I used them instrumentally.

But books that I have truly enjoyed—books that I have loved just because I enjoyed reading them—that’s basically the direction I decided to go.

Augustine goes on to say that things that “to enjoy something is to cling to it with love for its own sake.”

I love that idea of love.

And so, when it came to deciding which books to post that I’ve loved, I’m opting to choose books which I have returned to simply for sheer enjoyment. Books that have no other purpose but to be cherished for their own sake.

That’s why, so far, I’ve included a Alexander McCall Smith novelette (Portuguese Irregular Verbs), a children’s book that I used go back to over and over (Homer Price) and today, a Calvin and Hobbes collection which I just love and enjoy because, well, it is just so fun to enter Calvin’s crazy imaginary mind-world.

And now I feel better for being able to explain my choices which the Facebook game forbade!