What to read?

Now that my teaching career is at its end, I no longer have to read books to prepare for classes.

Yes, I did read some fine books in doing so - Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mark Twain's Joan of Arc, just to cite two - so it's not as if I'd been stuck in some YA ghetto. But now I can read just what I want for personal reason.

The first two of these were Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The former was disappointing, not up to the quality of his better plays. The latter I enjoyed.

The question is: What next?

Ironically, I'm now starting a YA book, but one I'd wanted to read and was in the pile - Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang. Given the current tensions with China, it is topical. 

After that, so many choices. Some classic I haven't read - or that I want to reread having read it decades ago? Poetry? Some theological books? Franciscan books? Political books? Social justice books? Mysteries? Chesterton?

One that is on my horizon is Jim Forest's memoir Writing Straight with Crooked Lines. I've been familiar with his peace and justice work over the years, and I'd like to know more about him and his ideas. The library doesn't have the book - naturally! - so I'd have to order it.

Amid this, one of my vows was to get rid of some of my hoard of books - my rule is give away two for every new one I buy. I donated some to the school I'm leaving. More will go to the library for the book sales - once the libraries reopen.

I'd like to get rid of hundreds of books I no longer need, and that are just gathering dust (or mildew).

This cleaning out is part of my trying as a Franciscan to simplify and reduce my possessions. it's also a recognition that I'm getting older, and in a few years things will have to be cleaned out anyway - either by me as I move into a smaller place, or by my heirs.

Pax et bonum