Saturday, August 21, 2010

What Are You Reading?

I'm currently reading several books; I don't seem to be able to stick to just one book at a time.  I'm very slowly and thoughtfully working my way through The Art of Prayer: an Orthodox Anthology and Saint John Climacus' The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

From the introduction to The Art of Prayer:
The Art of Prayer, then, represent the fruit of careful reading over many years in the monastic life....the bulk of the extracts come from Russian writers during the second half of the [nineteenth] century.  Taken as a whole, Father Chariton's anthology sets before the reader the spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church in its classic and traditional form....
A random quote:
 If you are not successful in your prayer, do not expect success in anything.  It is the root of all.

I have a long way to go, really.

My "lighter fare" right now is A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge by Charles B. MacDonald. It's very well researched and not at all dry and boring.  I find the battles of the European Theater of World War II to be fascinating.......funny that should be so, since the family members who served did so in the Pacific Theater.  That whole period of history really interests me, and it is an endless puzzle and an amazement how everyone got into the 'war effort' at that time - and how different it is today.

So, what are you reading?

3 comments:

  1. I'm currently trying to finish up the last book in the Green Gables series. And have been for months. UGH. That's totally not like me, and really not even deserved because it's a good book... but I'm just not into it. I just keep getting bored with it and picking up something else, then coming back to this one for the sake of finishing the series if it kills me.

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  2. Well, you're way ahead of me, because I've never read any of the Green Gables books! :)

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  3. Starting to work through Gertrude von Le Fort's "The Song at the Scaffold" again -- very powerful book!

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