On Loaning Books

"Never loan a book to someone if you expect to get it back. Loaning books is the same as giving them away."    Doug Coupland

It has been a great pleasure of mine to share my library with many other people. It has been part of my underlying justification for spending far too much money on books. One excuse for a fairly liberal book budget is that I just love books. But then many people love books and books do get to be onerous if you are moving all the time so there needs to be a greater justification for having books in hand and controlling their distribution. And so I've developed another one. My argument goes this way: I'll read the book and then let someone else read it which then in some way may elevate my status in their eyes (perhaps/perhaps not) but then also occasion a conversation between us over the book and thereby contribute to my own greater pleasure of talking about ideas and other things that matter. Yes it's still selfish and self-serving but it works for me.

Until now. The other day I was counting the cost of  loaning out books and then not getting them back. Some of the books I have loaned to others but have not had returned to me are as follows: the complete corpus of Soren Kierkegaard's philosophical works translated into English by Howard and Edna Hong, Walter Brueggemann's Genesis commentary in the Interpretation series, Eugene Peterson's memoir, Pastor, Rowan Williams' book of sermons, A Ray of Darkness, Stanley Hauerwas' The Cross-Shattered Church, and the list could go on. It reminds me of the 1st ed. vinyl pressing of the set Jesus Christ Superstar  by Rice and Webber which I bought while I was in High School. I gave it to a friend to listen to and never got it back. I still think about it.

Then there are the books you loan out and have returned to you in really bad shape. In one case, the person borrowing my Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx dropped it in a small pool of oil. It came back to me rather differently ornamented and accompanied with great apologies, but because it was out-of-print at the time, it could not be replaced and I had decided that perhaps the stains had their own particular beauty. And then I came across a quote from C.S. Lewis in which he says something to the effect that books loaned out and then returned with dog-ears, tears in pages or even damaged covers, will, in the grand scheme of things, emerge with jewels where the damages once were, and even more valuable than the books ever would have been if they had not been shared with others.

So, I continue to share my books, in spite of the losses I have already suffered and knowing that I am sure to suffer more. There is no greater pleasure than to be able to say to someone, "I have just the thing you should read. Here, I'll get it for you." Somehow, I think that that is what books were always about anyway.

Flotsam and Jetsam from the Floods of Southern Manitoba

It has been awhile since I last contributed to this blog. No reason really except that other things always seem to take precedence and, face it, one feels that at times there is nothing left to say. For example, when one sees the floods and resulting hardships affecting people you know, the books one reads or movies one sees are relatively trivial by comparison.

But after awhile, there does seem to be a buildup of thought and concern which overtakes the reticence to speak and so one is moved to venture into the blogosphere yet one more time and give words to some inklings and musings which may or may not be fully formed as ideas. At any rate, here goes. These titles form some of the "grist of my mill" over the past month.

Books read: Love Wins by Rob Bell
                    Deep Church - Jim Belcher
                    Irma Voth - Miriam Toews
                    Speaking the Truth - Samuel Wells
                    Absence of Mind - Marilynne Robinson
                    The Paradise of God - Norman Wirzba

Movies watched: The Hereafter - directed by Clint Eastwood
                            Please Give - directed by Nicole Holofcener
                            Into Great Silence - directed by Philip Groening
                            Wittgenstein - directed by Derek Jarman
                            Derrida - directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Hoffman

Music listened to: Small Source of Comfort - Bruce Cockburn
                             Get Lucky - Mark Knopfler
                             So Beautiful or So What - Paul Simon
                             Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes

It is somewhat of a mystery to me as to what lists like this mean to others, except that when I look at other blogs, I always look for lists and what people are reading, watching and listening to. Especially pastors. For me, these lists are little windows on other worlds which have the capacity to surprise, provoke and even challenge my own. That in itself would be a good thing.


                    
      

Lenten Reading 2011

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lenten books have become a tradition I look forward to each year at this time. This year's official selection by the Archbishop of Canterbury is Barefoot Disciple: Walking the Way of Passionate Humility, written by Stephen Cherry. Previous noteworthy titles I have enjoyed are: Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace by Miroslav Volf, Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles Our Judgement by Rowan Williams, Timothy Radcliffe's Why Go to Church?: The Drama of the Eucharist, Power and Passion: Six Characters in Search of Resurrection by Samuel Wells, and The Way of the Lord: Christian Pilgrimage Today by Tom Wright, not a Canterbury selection but excellent just the same.

Historically, for Mennonites, Lent has never been a significant part of the church calendar. Only in more recent years when the use of the lectionary has taken root in the worship of many Mennonite churches has Lent taken on a more important role in the build-up toward Good Friday. My own experience of Lent as a season of penitence and reflection began when I got married. Having made a commitment to sing in the church choir of the Anglican church in which I was married, I was immersed in the liturgy and the ritual observance of Lent in a new and unique way. Somewhat later when I became a Lay Assistant in the same church and took responsibility for leading regular penitential services at the church throughout the Lenten season, the prayers and responses became even more significant as a way of ordering my life and thinking during this time. And so, in the spring of '82, having never read C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia before, I decided that I would read one book each Sunday of the six Lenten Sundays and finish final volume, The Last Battle, on Good Friday. On some of the Sundays, it was warm enough to read outside on the beaches of English Bay. Other days it was rainy and gray. But it was a wonderful experience for me, not least because it helped order my time and reflection in a disciplined way.

The genre of Lenten books brings together the passion of spirituality with the disciplined reflection of theology. An extended sermon, a good Lenten book speaks to issues and realities in our time with creativity and spiritual insight. The better ones display passion and grace, creativity and depth, piety and commitment. As Andrew Louth once stated in a short article delivered on the topic of Christian spirituality, Christian spirituality is theology at prayer. This is the intention of the Lenten book and for that reason I look for the books dedicated to this end. But other books have also been excellent spiritual companions for this season: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Frederick Buechner's The Hungering Dark, and Kathleen Norris's Cloister Walk to name a few. In addition, with the new Anabaptist/Mennonite prayer book, Take Our Moments and Our Days now available, there are services and daily prayers to say together as a family or in small groups which reflect the faith priorities and language of Anabaptists and fellow travellers in other denominations. I sincerely hope that Lenten reading and observance catches on among our Mennonite congregations.

Lent is a great time to refocus and revisit routines and priorities. I'm looking forward to the challenge of humility in the book just written by Stephen Cherry. What was said about a Grammy award winner who "humbly" accepted the plaudits of the audience by a jealous onlooker could also be said of me: "He has a lot to be humble about."