Books

Last week on Minnesota Public Radio, Kerri Miller hosted a show in which the question was desert island books and music. What one book and what one cd would you take with you to a desert island? I have a difficult time with that question. There are so many books I appreciate. There is so much music that I love. I was listening while driving to the hospital to make a pastoral visit, so I did not have that much time to play with this. In the time I had, I chose Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and Ken Burn’s Jazz (a bit of stretch of the rules as this is a 5 cd set). I am not sure I would stay with these choices, but I think I could live on a desert island with them.

Today at my church, a church member and friend, Anita Zager, shared with our adult Faith Forum her experiences with books, growing up with them and as the owner of an independent book store which she has just closed. Duluth will miss Northern Lights Books, and Anita’s generous spirit as a book store owner who is also a book lover. Anita reflected on her reasons for getting into the book business and on some of the factors which make independent book stores a challenge at this moment. The emergence of e-books and e-readers is dramatically changing the book business.

As important and meaningful as these reflections were, I particularly enjoyed her sharing her life in reading with us. She offered a more extensive list than a desert island pick, and she gave me permission to share her list here. I offer it to you with gratitude for Anita’s work and love of literature. I offer it to you to spark your own reflections on your life in books.

Anita Zager’s Reading Life
Nancy Drew
Boxcar Children
Biographies
Charles Dickens
Chaim Potok
Classics – Shakespeare, Greek Mythology – High School

Confirmation – Biblical Literacy
College – Old & New Testament Classes
Barclay Bible Study Series taught by Bev Ramstad
Dakota Kathleen Norris
When Bad Things Happen to Good People Harold S. Kushner
Man’s Search for Meaning Victor Frankl
Let Your Life Speak Parker Palmer
Siddartha Herman Hesse
Christianity For the Rest of Us Diana Butler Bass

Sigurd Olson – Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, etc.
Eric Sevareid, Canoeing With the Cree
Grace Lee Nute – Voyageur’s Highway, etc.

The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai
Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials Trilogy”
Harry Potter

Mysteries
Tony Hillerman
British Classics
Scandinavian Noir
Colin Cotterill (Coroner’s Lunch)
William Kent Krueger

Historical Fiction
Patrick O’Brien
Dorothy Dunnett “Lymond Chronicles”

So what’s on your list?

With Faith and With Feathers,

David