Books books books

I love books. I read somewhat constantly, and enjoy it immensely. Fiction. Nonfiction. Classics. Random mindless "beach" books. Memoirs. Spiritual. Everything. This is aided by the fact that I had a 30 minute subway commute at each end of my day, so I am GUARANTEED an hour of reading each and every day. How fortunate is that?

When I moved to New York and was packing up all my stuff my mother said, "Are you sure you need to take all these books?" As if there that was even a question that had more than one logical answer. I brought all my books. And I have outgrown my bookshelf already. I've read some good stuff lately, mostly recently Eat, Pray, Love as recommended to me by Becca. I take her recommendations very seriously, as that girl reads like a fiend, and I know if she says I'll like something, well, I'll definitely be very happy. I didn't even read the back cover before buying that one. That's trust. I also recently read Khaled Hosseini's (author of The Kite Runner) new book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Also excellent. I am currently rereading the sixth Harry Potter book so I can have it fresh in my mind when the last one comes out this weekend. I am pumped.

In the spiritual realm of things, I just finished Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell. His thesis is "repainting the Christian faith." It's fresh, engaging, raw, and challenging. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but he definitely makes you think. Finally, I also just recently finished (yes, I've had a lot of time on my hands) Science of God, another challenging and interesting book. He basically makes the case for why Genesis and Science (ie- the Big Bang, the age of the universe, microevolution, etc) are really saying the same thing. How science and faith are two complementary viewpoints of the world and really just two sides of a coin. He's a physicist from MIT, which is cool, but sometimes overwhelming, because I honestly don't know much physics jargon. But he manages to strike a reasonable balance between presenting accurate and convincing evidence without going overboard into all kinds of obscure detail that would overwhelm the vast majority of readers. Anyhow, it's a good read.

Here is my bookshelf. We have another in the living room (see previous entry). It has about another 30 books on it. If you ever want to borrow a book or want a recommendation, let me know. :)