Read this, Not that

There is a store in Oxford called Blackwells. Inside is the Norrington Room, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records is the largest single room selling books. I confess to having bought 3 books from them last week.

I was in Oxford to attend the Zacharias Trust summer school, a week of seminars on Christian apologetics. Every time a speaker mentioned a title or author, I wrote it down with an * next to it. After going through my notes, Google Books has helped me compile a list of 25 titles. This doesn't include books I actually own, brought back with me from my latest trip to the US or books I've been meaning to read for a long time.

If you find yourself excessively interested in my reading choices, you can check them out at LibraryThing. I'll post the occasional comment on the books I'm reading and would love your suggestions, as well!

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A Sudden Change of Direction: an Analogy of Dog and Life

There are times when you and Life are walking along, like good friends, and you think you know where you are going. You think that you and Life have agreed on a direction; that there is a plan; that you understand each other. And then Life decides that despite all the trees you have already visited, you really must see this new one. This tree is different from all the other trees and if you don't see it, you simply won't be the person you might be if you DO see it. And so Life changes direction. Except you don't notice. Because you talked about it. And there was this plan . And then you trip over Life. And Life LOOKS very indignant because you weren't paying attention and kneed her in the ribs. And you ARE very indignant because this is a stupid tree that you had no interest in ever seeing and you would chop it down and burn it if you could. Stupid tree. Stupid Life. Stupid little bits of gravel stuck in your palms. B...

Crazy T-Shirt Lady

My mom's oldest sister did not own cats, perhaps because she traveled so much. She was known in the family for bestowing interesting gifts, often acquired at international medical conferences and bearing the names of obscure drugs intended to cure diseases (thankfully) unknown to us. Because she spent so much of her time in Taiwan, another popular gift was T-Shirts with incomprehensible English translations. It has been suggested that since my aunt passed away a few years ago, I am now the appointed single-world-traveler-crazy-T-Shirt member of the family. Since I am not a medical person, nor do I spend a great deal of time in Asia, I am skeptical about my ability to adequately fill this role. But I will try. At the Beijing airport, after spending the last of my Yuan, I had vowed not to spend another penny. But that was before I saw this shirt. One member of the family will be receiving this for Christmas - hopefully it's the correct size. (...

Day 2: Grand Rapids, MI to Oconomowoc, WI

When I lived in England, I learned the saying - Start as you mean to go on . I thought about this as the hotel manager explained to me that he was calling because I had left my journal in the hotel room but he would be able to have it shipped back to me if I could provide a pre-paid shipping label. This was the second distressing phone call before lunch. The first distressing phone call was to say that due to high winds expected across Lake Michigan, our ferry to Milwaukee was cancelled. I really like ferries and I had been looking forward to the ferry across Lake Michigan for weeks. We stopped at Panera for lunch and to discuss the situation. My lunch was a disappointing sandwich. And then there was a lot of highway south of Lake Michigan and around Chicago. And Spotify kept slipping weird mellow folk music into my upbeat driving playlist. And then about 20 miles before Oconomowoc, the sky did this, and I think we will consider this the new start of the trip.

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