The Joy of Reading

 For those of you who have followed my multi-faith work in Indiana, I have started a new blog:  https://freedomtoflourish-thejoyofreading.blogspot.com/

This is my first post: 

My Joy of Reading Journey

These past two years my reading, which has always been a favorite pastime, has escalated into a significant reading project, a book club, and ways of communicating with friends and families. Reading has taken a prominent place in my life, a place it could not be when I was a mother of young boys, working as a teacher and developing a multi-faith dialogue in northern Indiana. Life has changed. I now live in Göteborg, Sweden, my sons are raised and I have grandchildren. The morning alarm does not call me to go to work every day. In 2018 I read 24 books. In 2019 I read 54 books. In 2020 I read 75 books. My hope is that through writing I can make my reading a spiritual endeavor. My hope is that by bringing together the eclectic books I have read I will form in myself a new way of being in the world. My hope is to post at the beginning of each month what I have read the previous month. I invite you to join me on my joy of reading journey.
 
What I read:
Book Club: In 2018 I started a book club in Sweden with women I met in my Swedish classes. These women are from Brazil, Poland, Greece, and Sweden. Each month we read one or two books and rotate through these categories: Contemporary, Classic, Swedish, and Spiritual. We have now read 30 books together.
 
Great Books of the Western World: In 2018 my brother, my sambo (Swedish word for someone who lives with their romantic partner) and I started a ten-year reading project of the Great Books of the Western World. We have a reading list for each quarter of the year. After our reading is completed for the quarter, we each do a write-up of what we have read using Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren’s, How to Read a Book. (Robert Hutchins and Adler founded the Great Books of the Western World reading program)
            What is the book about as a whole?
            What is being said in detail and how?
            Is it true?
            What of it?
After almost two years I have added these questions to my write-ups of the reading.
           What is the nature of Man?
           What is the nature of Society?
           What is the nature of God?
These questions launch us into our seminar-style discussions each quarter.
 
Family Book Club: My Mom, the same brother, and I started reading the classics together. My Mom was an avid reader when she was young and she is reading again. There are many classics I have not read and reading with my Mom has deepened my respect for her as her curiously and intellect make for meaningful discussions. We have read many classics, such as Anna of Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Gilgamesh. We have read 21 books together.
 
Friends read together: My friend, from a neighboring town where I grew up in North Dakota, and I are reading together. We talk every week about books and about life. We have a shared history and reading together has deepened our friendship and our connection.
 
Learning Swedish: A person can’t live in another country without taking on the task to learn the language. My Swedish language skills needed to move beyond the sing-song voice of the Swedish Chef on Sesame Street. I am tackling the Swedish children’s book genre.  When my sons were in third grade, they read Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, a famous author from Sweden. I am proud to say I have read Pippi Långstrump in Swedish.

Audio Books: My brother, same as above, has listened to many audio-books, and now he has become a narrator himself. Because of him, I have started listening to books during that part of my day when I can not sit down to read. These tend to be non-fiction or historical fiction.  With America in political turmoil, it has been important to learn in more detail the history of the United States.
 
Poetry and Art are a part of my daily reading. When I read poetry, I always read it out loud, for it creates another meaning when the words are spoken. Every day I read a Psalm from the Bible and have read through many poetry books.

Reading with my littles: Having two granddaughters who love books, reading to them via the internet is an absolute highlight of my week. When my sons were small, we would sit with a stack of new books from the library and read and read. They never became tired. Even over the internet little Izzy sits and listens as we read one book after another.

Hobbies: Finally, I love to cook, garden, and bird watching. Those types of books are never far from my reach.