Yesterday, I started reading an older book that is available online concerning earthworms. If you have never studied earthworms, you are really missing out! They are one of God’s most humble, most lowly, yet most important creatures. Don’t believe me? Check the facts for yourself. Harnessing earthworms is a must for anyone interested in organic farming or gardening. They are a cornerstone of the biodynamic method, and the most invaluable gardening “tool” you could ever come across.
In other reading news, Si and I are still working our way through Diane Setterfield’s beautiful work, The Thirteenth Tale. We still like it.
A lot.
But this post isn’t about current reads. Not really. It’s about what’s on deck. In other words, it’s about hope for the future.
First, we have a classic of classics:
The City of God
This is another book that will take us forever and a day to read. We read aloud, as I have said before. This slows the process down, but allows for shared thoughts in a way that reading separately never can.
From the back cover copy:
“Here is a book that was written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are not mystics, today, in America…The City of God is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints…The City of God, for those who can understand it, contains the secret of death and life, war and peace, hell and heaven.”
–Thomas Merton
Next, we finished the famed Little House on the Prairie last night. I made sure I got the whole set from PaperBackSwap. So our upcoming adventure will be a romp through the next book in the series, Farmer Boy. I have been told that this is the one little boys usually like the best.
PaperBackSwap has been granting my wishes and whims left and right, and so I have two books on deck there. The first is The Riddle of Amish Culture. I plan to understand the riddle a bit better by the time I’m done. And E. has expressed an interest in learning about the Plain People, so I also consider this a pre-read, where I decide how old he will need to be before he conquers a certain book.
The second is my very first Wendell Berry {I plan to collect them all}: Jayber Crow. I will probably blog through that one. It’s not just a novel. It never is with Berry, from my understanding. There is a lot to learn about his philosophy of culture and agriculture through reading his fiction works.
Or so I’ve been told.
Si just finished reviewing The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters, and next up for him is:
A Meaningful World:
How the Arts And Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature
He read a tiny bit while he was in the waiting room when he broke his toe. His initial reaction? This isn’t your everyday Intelligent Design work. This is something beautiful. It’s an argument for the existence of God, but written in beautiful prose. If you are looking to add to your ID collection {ahem…Nate} this might be a consideration.
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