Simple Living Isn’t Always

Correcting Corinthian believers, the apostle Paul wrote, “‘All things are lawful [the NIV interprets as ‘permissible’] for me,’” but not all things are helpful. “‘All things are lawful for me,’” but I will not be enslaved by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12, ESV). I’ll ride to the next station on the apostle’s train of thought: Setting goals is a good thing. Allowing a goal, any goal, to dominate your expectations of success is not.

In April of this year, my friend Cameron and I decided to embark on an ambitious reading project, thinking we’d enjoy it and improve ourselves along the way. We carefully constructed a list of 101 books, both accepted classics and a few of our own. We committed to reading them in 1001 days, almost 3 years. I still think the project was a good idea. It’s helped me to renew reading in my own life, when kids and other endeavors had crowded it out.

That said, a lot of things have changed since April. Since we made our list and set out on this journey, I’ve changed jobs, taking on the role of headmaster at a classical Christian academy. Though I miss the daily interaction with Cameron, we’ve kept up via Google Talk and the occasional lunch. We rarely talk about our list.

I confess, my list has come to influence my life in two negative ways. First, it’s fed my pride. A number of people have commented on the list or the project, most admiringly. That kind of feedback on something you’ve done is a tasty morsel for the flesh. When I’m complimented, it’s easy to say, “Aw, shucks, ‘t’ain’t nothin’,” while I think, “Why, yes, it is impressive, isn’t it?” The same sort of thing can happen with my “Now Reading” list (visible in the right sidebar called “On the Bookshelf”).

Second, it’s been an instrument of guilt. I look at the list, and the things that remain to be crossed off, and I feel guilty about picking up a book that’s not on the list–even if I have a good reason to be reading what I’m reading. In addition, I’ve felt a lot more tempted to read a book rather than the Bible, simply because I realize I’m trudging toward that deadline.

For both these reasons, and some others, I’ve been reviewing my 101 list. And I’ve decided I’m going to make some changes and begin again. First, I’ll preserve the original list, and maybe return to it someday, but I’m going to remove some books and add some different ones. Second, I’ll organize the books primarily according to their genre or purpose, then situate them historically. I hope the changes will reflect both a more careful approach to the “great books” and a more balanced approach to reading. Third, I want to immerse myself in one author’s work each year, so the list will reflect that in my selection of one author with a manageable “canon” (10-15 books) for each of the remaining two years.

With those goals in mind, I’ve defined the following categories:

History/Biography / Great Literature / Great Children’s Literature (for family reading) / Devotional / Theology (my “hobby”) / Education (my professional interest) / Author 1 / Author 2

One final guideline, taken from C.S. Lewis’s essay, “On the Reading of Old Books”:

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should read at least one old one to every three new ones.”

For the purposes of my project, a “new book” is one published in the last hundred years. So I’ll do my best to alternate old with new, probably splitting the difference and reading one old book for every two new ones.

So if you’re interested, check back next week sometime for the new list. If you’d like to nominate books or authors, please comment below.