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.

Don't Despair, Repair (Friday Devotional)

 

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

- Psalm 103:17-18

Trees snapped like twigs. Furniture was hurled from one backyard to the next. For days, people were without power in their homes. All the result of a fierce storm that struck the metroplex Tuesday morning.

If you’ve driven down any street in Dallas-Fort Worth the last few days, you’ve seen curbs lined with fallen tree limbs. Driveways, alleys, and even entire streets have been blocked by fallen debris. At seemingly every major intersection there’s been a power truck fixing a downed line or working to restore power somewhere. The storm did some serious damage.

But amidst the destruction, you’ve probably seen something else too. You’ve seen neighbors working together to clean up. You’ve seen people opening up their homes for friends without power. You’ve seen meals delivered and chain saws loaned out and all manner of good deeds. Instead of giving up, people have reached out.

Whenever destruction strikes, in whatever form, it’s easy, even instinctive, to despair. When all you see is debris and what was once shining is now smoldering, the temptation is to assume that you’re on your own, that no one cares, that God has abandoned you.

But the promise of God that you proclaim in good times is even more needed in hard times. God’s love doesn’t waver with circumstances, it is steadfast. And for all those who trust in his word and obey his commandments, you can believe that his grace will sustain you, whatever you face.

So when it feels like the world is falling down around your ears, don’t give up hope or abandon faith—because in that moment, more than ever, your faith will give you the strength for the hard work to come. Don’t despair—repair.

What Do You See? (Friday Devotional)

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

- 2 Corinthians 5:7

The photo above isn’t especially remarkable; it’s just a heavily pixelated image of somebody holding a Coke can. But here’s where I blow your mind: the can isn’t red. Zoom in if you don’t believe me—there is no red anywhere in the image, only black, white, and blue. The red you think you see is just your brain playing tricks on you.

Optical illusions like this one never cease to delight, frustrate, and amaze—and remind us that there’s more to this world than meets the eye.

For Christians, some of what we believe is not visible to us. God is spirit. Christ is ascended. The miracles of the Bible were not captured on camera. So many of the things we read about in Scripture and believe in with all our hearts are matters of faith, not sight.

But faith is not a weakness, it is simply a countercultural way to move through the world. Christians are called to be faithful in a cynical world, to trust God in a world that favors skepticism. While most trust only what they see with their eyes, believers trust the Lord who has redeemed them.

After all, look at that image again—are you sure your eyes deserve to be trusted? 

For Want of a Nail (Friday Devotional)

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

- 1 Corinthians 1:27

An old English proverb presents a tale in which the absence of a simple thing—a missing nail in a horseshoe—leads to the fall of a nation:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a nail.

The story, adapted by everyone from Benjamin Franklin to DC Comics, reminds us of a truth we might otherwise too easily forget: even the most seemingly insignificant details matter. Small things—and people—can make a big impact.

One consistent pattern we find throughout the Bible is God making much of those the world might overlook, the ‘nails’ of this world. From Rahab the prostitute to David the shepherd boy to Ruth the Moabitess all the way to the carpenter’s son from Nazareth who ushered in salvation by dying on a cross, God frequently works in and through the last people from whom you’d expect greatness. When the world’s weak are made strong in the Lord, we learn what real power—God’s power—looks like.

Whether in your workplace, your neighborhood, your church, or even your home, there is someone you tend to discount, someone you don’t take seriously and do take for granted. Today, make a point to show them the kind of grace our Lord does. After all, you never know how important a nail may turn out to be.

It Bears Repeating (Friday Devotional)

 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

- Psalm 136:1

“SHUT THE DOOR BEHIND YOU!”

I’m not sure exactly how many times I’ve shouted that to my kids in the last few weeks whenever they walk into the garage or out to the front yard. A hundred? A thousand? A million?

However many, it hasn’t seemed to sink in quite yet. They continue to throw the door open, leaving it to somebody else to shut behind them. It’s never until they hear me that they remember.

But, aggravating as it may be, do you know what I do? I keep shouting it. Why? Because what matters most to me is that they get the message, whether they remember it on their own or not.

In Psalm 136, that kind of repetition is key. The poet gives his song a simple structure: a line about the goodness and graciousness of God, followed by the chorus: “his love endures forever.” For 26 verses he follows that pattern; 26 times the reader hears the phrase, “for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Especially when read aloud, that constant reprise almost becomes comical after a while, so predictable and insistent is the chorus. But the repetition begins to take on power the longer it goes, the steadfastness of the echoed chorus matching its content. No matter what the verse says, the chorus never changes.

Some messages are worth hearing over and over and over again. God’s steadfast love endures forever—it bears repeating.

Satisfied (Friday Devotional)

 

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

- Philippians 4:12-13

A few days ago, I went home for lunch with no plan as to what I would eat. I blindly opened up the fridge only to realize there were no leftovers, no meat for sandwiches, not much of anything I could throw together into a meal. I looked in the pantry and got no help there either.

Starving but stubbornly wanting to avoid fast food, I went to the grocery store and resolved to get one of their ready-made meals. When I got there, I faced the opposite problem I’d had at home—I was paralyzed by the abundance of choices. I’d suddenly gone from no options to infinite options!

Life can be like that—empty one minute and abundant the next. Some days nothing seems to go right and it feels like it’s you against the world. Other times you float through the day, hitting every light green and knowing the answer to every question.

If you let circumstances dictate your attitude, much less your behavior, it’s enough to give you spiritual whiplash. But the apostle Paul explains the key to finding some sort of equilibrium—not by expecting life to stabilize, but by finding your strength in Christ. Having known both the best and the worst life had to offer, Paul’s secret to finding strength was leaning on the Lord’s.

Some days life will give you a banquet, other days an empty pantry. But if you rely on Jesus, you will always be satisfied.

April Reading Log

 

I spent a lot of time in three big books this month, wrapping up all three just in time to quickly polish off a novella and write up this log. Take a look!

THE BACHMAN BOOKS by Stephen King

From 1977 to 1985, bestselling novelist Stephen King periodically released short novels under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, a ruse that endured until a bookstore clerk in Washington D.C. noticed the similarities in Bachman and King's writing styles. Tracking down a publishing document in the Library of Congress, the clerk proved the two men to be one and the same and King's secret identity was blown once and for all. The Bachman Books collects the first four of the pseudonymous novels.

Rage is the most (in)famous of the four books due to King's 1997 decision to allow it to fall out of print. The book tells the story of Charlie Decker, a disturbed high schooler who shoots his teacher and holds the class hostage. When the book was tied to several real life school shootings in the 1980s and 1990s—one shooter had not only read the book, but written an essay about it—King decided a book arguably glamorizing school shooters didn't need to be out there, a verdict that looks wiser and wiser as time goes on. Controversy aside, this also just isn't a great book—borrowing heavily from The Catcher in the Rye and The Breakfast Club, it doesn't hold up to careful scrutiny, and its protagonist is never as sympathetic as he's supposed to be.

The Long Walk is generally regarded as the best of the four Bachman books, with good reason. It tells the story of an annual Hunger Games-esque competition in which contestants walk across the United States and are shot dead by monitoring soldiers if they stop. Like all the best Stephen King novels, it's a compelling premise which is then given life by his writing voice. Even when the story drags, it feels purposeful, your fatigue as a reader mirroring that of the long walkers. While the ending feels anticlimactic, this was definitely my favorite of the stories in this volume.

Roadwork is a story that screams 1970s, both intentionally and unintentionally. Like Taxi Driver and Death Wish, it tells the story of a man let down by modern society—in this case, because of the seizure by eminent domain of his home and his business in order to build a highway extension—who turns to vigilantism, building an arsenal of guns and dynamite to go out in a blaze of glory. Like Rage, the character isn't charismatic enough to support 300 pages of rooting for a psychopath, and so this story falls flat even when the climax finally, mercifully arrives.

The last story, The Running Man, is another mixed bag, a high-adrenaline story about a dystopian televised competition where one man is a fugitive and ordinary citizens are encouraged and rewarded for finding him and turning him in. Every hour he lives earns him money for his family, and when he is inevitably found he will be killed. King tries a little social commentary in this one about the haves and the have-nots and, strangely, environmentalism, but mostly this is a cinematic mix of The Fugitive and Blade Runner.

As you probably gathered, I wasn't overly impressed with The Bachman Books, and I can see why King submitted these offerings (some of which were actually written, though not published, before he hit it big with Carrie) pseudonymously. For hard-core King fans, you'll need to get to these eventually, but with the exception of The Long Walk, prepare yourself for lesser material.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen

When I was a young reader, I was guilty of classifying books according to two categories: boy books and girl books. Boy books included The Hardy Boys series, Hatchet, Treasure Island, and basically any sci-fi/fantasy book. Basically, if the plot revolved around adventure and featured a male protagonist, I was game. Girl books, which often emphasized love stories and featured female protagonists, included titles like Little Women, Little House on the Prairie, and the Nancy Drew books. And, to bring us to this review, anything by Jane Austen.

As I resolve to read classic literature on my own time, it seems important that I rectify the sins of my youth and devote some attention to the "girl books" that I previously ignored. Half Price Books helped me out with a boxed set of all of Jane Austen's novels in hardback for $25, a steal by any measure. And this month, I decided to break the seal with Austen's most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice.

The book begins with a brilliant first line that perfectly captures both the tone and plot to follow: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." With that lead-in, Austen sets the stage for a Victorian novel filled with gossip, etiquette, and, ultimately, love.

The primary love story is that of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, a will-they, won't-they romance that predated Julia Roberts rom-coms by 150 years. Around the edges, you also deal with the love lives of Elizabeth's sisters, Jane, Lydia, Mary, and Catherine, as everybody seeks husbands who will both provide for them and care for them.

Austen's flowery, veeeeeery British writing takes a minute to get used to for a 2024 reader, but once you do, what's most striking is how funny she is. Characters like Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Collins serve as parodies of high society, and Austen ably mocks them while also speaking their language. The Victorian writing style, which I usually find tedious, sings with Austen at the helm. My only word of caution: if plot is your thing, this book is going to feel very long to you. Things happen, make no mistake, but the point of this novel is its characters—this is a novel built on a foundation of conversations, not plot progressions.

I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, a readable, light, amusing story that really does feel like a romantic comedy. On to the next girl book!

THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL by George Saunders

You can't go wrong with George Saunders, one of America's greatest living writers, and this Animal Farm-like fable is no exception. It tells the story of the border clash between the creatures of Outer Horner and Inner Horner and the rise of a strong man, the bitter but clever Phil. Told in Saunders' inimitable style, the story is at turns hilarious, strange, and prescient.

Published in 2005, the story's universal message about the danger of "othering" people and of giving too much power to one person is so relevant today that I checked the publishing date midway through to see if Saunders had been intentionally making a statement about politics today. And while it may not have been a response to our present moment, it certainly speaks to it.

At 130 pages, you can can read this novella in one or two sittings, and its "once upon a time" cadence and Saunders' humor makes what is ostensibly a dark tale into a cozy read. A great place to start for anyone interested in this writer!

WHAT IF? THE ORIGINAL MARVEL SERIES OMNIBUS VOL. 1

By 1977, Marvel Comics had developed a sprawling universe held together by its house style, colorful characters, and strict continuity. That last piece, the idea that every story was part of a grand tapestry, was one of the key things that set Marvel apart from competitor DC, where individual titles and issues largely didn't affect one another. Marvel had 16 years of interconnected lore to build upon in 1977, countless stories which were now considered "classics" by fans.

So writer and editor Roy Thomas, who had cultivated a reputation as a sticker for maintaining consistency in continuity, proposed a series where writers could fiddle with that continuity, changing Marvel's biggest moments for an issue and seeing where the story went as a result. What If...? was born.

With stories asking questions like "what if Rick Jones was the Hulk instead of Bruce Banner," "what if Sue Storm had married the Sub-Mariner," and "what if Conan the Barbarian walked the earth today," each issue, narrated by the Watcher, took place on an alternate earth where these changes really did occur (largely to differentiate these hypothetical tales from DC's popular-but-derided-by-Marvelites "imaginary stories.") The result is, as you might expect, a toss-up, largely dependent on who was writing that issue, how compelling the hypothetical was, and how zany they let the story get.

As a general rule, the stories are too long—the issues are double-sized, so stories run 35 pages plus a letters column—and the art is mediocre. Nevertheless, there is something fun about seeing the rules broken and the Marvel universe turned upside down issue after issue. Highlights include the aforementioned Conan story and a tale where Doctor Strange became a disciple of Dormammu. Next month I'll read the second volume of this collection, which concludes What If...?'s original 47-issue run, and we'll see what other alternate stories remain to be told.