Annie’s post last week prompted me to think even more about the books I read and to clarify the parameters that frame my own reading choices. As my “signature” for my reviews here states, I’ve been captivated by books for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, my mother used to make me go outside. More often than not, I simply sat under the maple tree in our front yard, reading whatever I could find.
During my teenage years, I still read quite a bit, though not as voraciously as before. After college, I was so burned out on reading that I took a break that would last years through early married life and my daughter’s infancy and toddler days. I read sporadically at best.
I didn’t catch the reading bug again until a couple of years ago. How things had changed! I’m not sure if it was because I had become a Christian, or if the medium itself was different. Honestly, it was probably a combination of the two. For whatever reason, I quickly realized that if I was going to enjoy reading again, I would have to be extremely careful in selecting reading material. Coarse language, rampant promiscuity, and graphic violence abound in contemporary fiction (the same is true for television and film, of course). These are things I shy away from, in my own life and in my entertainment choices. Not because I’m above it, but rather because I know where I came from and I don’t want to go back there.
That doesn’t mean I read only “Christian” material. Admittedly, the majority of what I read would fall into that category, but I have read some fantastic books that are not Christian and not 100% “clean”. However, I try to be very discriminating in what I read. Some might argue that I needn’t be so disciplined because, after all, reading is just a hobby. True. Reading is just a hobby. I won’t allow it to affect my life as anything more than that. Although I have laughed while Lizzy poked fun at Darcy, wept with Anne and Marilla when Matthew died, and tried to solve mysteries alongside Nancy, these characters (near and dear to me as they are) are not eternal. Rather, they are entertainment.
I firmly believe that a good book can cause a reader to expand her horizons and challenge her to think differently. I applaud that. Yet there are certain things I cannot change my mind about or become desensitized to. It’s a personal choice each of us must make, and one that I’ve never regretted.
Melissa has been captivated by books for as long as she can remember. She resides in Virginia and blogs at Breath of Life.
I had to read that second-to-last paragraph a few times. Yes, the characters that are in books are not eternal, but I have to admit that they are more than just entertainment to me. They are like friends and some of them become part of me.
I think that everyone has some type of material that they avoid — whether it’s for moral reasons or entertainment preferences, or something which is just too close to the heart for them to see on a page.
Have you ever read Elizabeth George’s books? She is a non-fiction Christian author and wrote Small Changes for a Better Life and also A Woman After God’s Own Heart. I just love the way she writes.
I follow your blog on my blog list and really enjoy it 🙂
“Some might argue that I needn’t be so disciplined because, after all, reading is just a hobby. True. Reading is just a hobby. I won’t allow it to affect my life as anything more than that. ”
When you write that, I disagree. Reading isn’t just a hobby. There are spiritual forces behind every book we read. When in high school, be I was a Christian, I read The Third Reich. I quit half way through bec it was so gruesome. Only to have years later torture thoughts/pictures going through my mind. It wasn’t until I watched a WWII documentary (I was ‘drawn’ to watch it–usually my hubbie watches them without me), I saw the same things I had been having in my mind. The ONLY place they could have come from is The Third Reich. So books have a spiritual power behind them that most do not recognize. If we aren’t aware of that, they infiltrate our minds. Now when I read something that doesn’t sound Scriptural, I cover myself with the blood of Jesus and bind Satan. You may think me strange, but I know what I went through.
I appreciate this post. I censor myself as well. There are things that bother me in books that don’t affect me quote the same way as films and TV, though I do try to apply some standards there as well.
With immorality, it depends on how it is handled. David and Bathsheba were immoral, but their situation is not described in such a way as to put images in my mind or leave me panting and tempted and vulnerable as I have seen sexual scenes depicted in even some Christian books. I can’t afford to do things like that to my mind.
I grew up in an unsaved home and bad language and prefer to read books without that kind of language. There are times, because of my background, a foul word flies to the forefront of my mind, and I pray it never comes out. Again, I can’t afford to feed that kind of thing into my brain any more than what’s already there, even for the sake of “realism.” I can get a good idea of a character who would use that kind of language without having to actually expose my brain to it.
Violence is a little harder — in a book dealing with war or crime it would be unnatural not to depict violence, and again, the Bible has some very violent scenes. But we’ve all scene violence in films and books that seems appropriate to the content and that which goes overboard and gets gorier than need be.
I so appreciate your thoughts here. Thank you!