May Reading Log

  

This was probably my most disciplined month of reading in 2024. I'm trying to set a new record for pages read in a year, and after April I had fallen behind my required pace, so every morning I was getting my literary reps in. As you can see, that meant I read plenty of books in May. Take a look!

THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR: ON BASKEBALL AND ASCENSION by Hanif Abdurraqib

I'm a sucker for writing that uses sports as a metaphor for life. And in There's Always This Year, Hanif Abdurraqib offers a beautiful addition to that canon with a book that is part memoir and part social critique, all told in parallel with the story of LeBron James.

The book is laid out in four quarters like a basketball game, with individual chapters marked down like the time on the clock. But for the most part, the book goes wherever Abdurraqib's writing takes him without much regard for structure; this is free verse more than prose. As the subtitle indicates, There's Always This Year is primarily focused on the concept of ascension, rising up from nothing to become something. As he tells this story and wonders what that looks like in America, he uses the career arc of LeBron James—from wunderkind to star to traitor to returning king—to make his point.

If you still don't really know what this book is about based on what I just said, that's ok, I'm not sure I do either. But Abdurraqib's writing is so beautiful that doesn't really matter. I'm not sure I can honestly classify this as a sports book; that feels too limiting. But it's definitely a sports-as-a-metaphor-for-life book, and a great one.

OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens

This classic tale has been adapted in a million different ways, from movies to a Broadway musical to a Wishbone episode (which is how I first encountered it.) The familiar cry of, "Please, sir, I want some more" has come to be shorthand for the novel's tale of an orphan boy's trials and travails. But until this month, I had never actually read Oliver Twist, one of Charles Dickens' most famous stories.

The novel is a chronicle of the titular character's life, which begins when he is born an orphan and raised in a workhouse. After escaping to London, he falls in with a group of pickpockets, led by the wicked ringleader Fagin, before finally reconnecting with his family and receiving his happy ever after. Like most Dickens novels, it's a winding tale carried along by its memorable characters and the author's prose.

What may have surprised me most, however, was how Oliver himself was less a well-rounded character in the novel than a vessel for its plot. Oliver rarely makes decisions for himself—his escape to London being the notable exception—but is instead carried along by the whims of fate and the actions of villains like Fagin and kindhearted strangers. This is perhaps a commentary by Dickens on London's treatment of the less fortunate in that time (a statement that they had little autonomy in their class-based society), but I was surprised by it.

Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable read, definitely one of the more accessible classics I've spent time with this year. With my prior exposure to Dickens limited to A Christmas Carol, I can confidently say I'll be back for more by England's most beloved novelist.

BOTH FLESH AND NOT by David Foster Wallace

While best known as a novelist, David Foster Wallace was also a cogent and witty essay writer whose thoughts spanned publications from the expected (The New Yorker, The Atlantic) to the unexpected (Tennis and Science magazines). Both Flesh and Not, published posthumously in 2012, is the third collection of his essays, with 15 pieces running the topical gamut from AIDS to the U.S. Open to notes on words.

Like all of his writing, I found these essays intelligent, humorous, and a little exhausting—his love for footnotes runs rampant throughout these pieces. My favorite is probably the story that gives the collection its title, an essay for The New York Times about the experience of watching Roger Federer play tennis that many have justifiably called one of the best written bits of sportswriting ever penned. In the same vein, his account about attending the 1995 U.S. Open is another highlight, this one focusing less on the tennis than the commercialization of the event. More skippable are the essays in which he reviews others' writing—unless you're deeply familiar with Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, that essay is 30 minutes of academic criticism you'll never get back.

David Foster Wallace was a leading light in the literary world before his tragic death, and some of the essays found in Both Flesh and Not are necessary reading for any DFW fan. But for someone being introduced to him for the first time, I'd start with the more consistent Consider the Lobster.

REPLENISH: LEADING FROM A HEALTHY SOUL by Lance Witt

I read this book as part of my cohort for PAVE, a Texas Baptists church health program for ministers. While the program addresses church heath from a number of different angles, Replenish was largely about spiritual health, specifically for pastors.

Written by a former pastor at Saddleback Church, there is an understandable bias toward big church thinking that you find in a lot of these kinds of books—after all, publishers go for big fish, not smalltime pastors. Nevertheless, the principles in the book about prioritizing spirituality over hustle and pastoral care over administration were welcome reminders, as were the practical tips for establishing and maintaining a reasonable pace in a busy world.

Content about "self care" is trendy right now, and Replenish can, at first glance, appear like another in that line. But Witt is clear that this is not about being selfish, but about setting yourself up for long-term success in ministry—by avoiding burnout, you're able to keep going when things get hard.

This book doesn't necessarily break a lot of new ground, but it offers helpful reminders and advice from a seasoned pastor and is an easy read. Recommended for overburdened pastors.

SERMONS FOR LENT AND EASTER by Martin Luther

Martin Luther is best known as a reformer, the man who nailed 95 theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg and sparked what would ultimately become the Protestant Reformation. He is also known as a theologian, the writer of tomes like On the Bondage of the Will and On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church that set out the principles which broadly set Protestantism (and specifically Lutheranism) apart from Roman Catholicism. Many also remember him for his work translating the Bible from Latin into German, giving the laity a way to read Scripture in their own vernacular.

But had you asked him, Martin Luther always considered himself first to be a priest, someone entrusted with the spiritual care of a congregation and with preaching the Word of God week in and week out. Sermons for Lent and Easter is a slim collection of messages for those seasons, ranging from Ash Wednesday through Trinity Sunday.

The messages aren't the easiest reads—17th century writing rarely is—but they bear the hallmarks of Luther's style: lots of biblical references, lots of emphasis on faith, lots of potshots at what he saw as the excesses of Catholicism. Those wanting to know what Luther was all about will get a good idea from these sermons. I'm not sure these are a necessary read for laypeople (or even clergy), but for someone who took an entire class on Luther in seminary, they made for interesting enough reading the last few months.

WHAT IF? THE ORIGINAL MARVEL SERIES OMNIBUS VOL. 2

More alternate timelines and hypothetical stories from the House of Ideas, and, despite the title's eventual cancellation after 47 issues, I think What If...? was actually a stronger book in the second half of its run than at its inception. Issues #23-47 contains some creative story ideas like "What If Thor of Asgard Had Met Conan the Barbarian?" and "What If Iron Man Had Been Trapped in King Arthur's Time?" along with more obvious but nevertheless intriguing fare like "What If Phoenix Had Not Died?" and "What If Spider-Man Had Rescued Gwen Stacy?"

But with a variable lineup of writers and artists, the strength of the individual issues is usually found not in the situations so much as the creators. For example, the legendary Frank Miller (alongside his longtime collaborator, inker Klaus Jansen) writes and draws "Matt Murdock...Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "What If Bullseye Had Not Been Killed By Elektra?" The stronger the creative team, the better the issue tends to be—A-level talent leads to A-level stories, B-level talent leads to B-level stories.

Also found in issues #24-30 (and collected in this omnibus) are some short backup stories about the Eternals, Jack Kirby's erstwhile characters who were mostly abandoned by Marvel following his second departure from the company in 1978. These features don't add much to the mythology, nor do they really fit this book, but they're a fun way to close out these oversized issues.

All in all, I found the original run of What If...? to be a fun if inessential series and an enjoyable way to spend half an hour each morning. A worthy addition to any True Believer's collection.