February NonRequired Reading List
Contemplify / NRR #63
“We become contemplative when God discovers [God] in us.”
- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
The NonRequired Reading List has been missing a key pedagogical indicator. I have been walking around with it in my back pocket and am finally installing it today. The dial sticks a bit, so I tap the glass to jar the needle loose. I watch it spin and finally point at what was apparent to me and hidden (though intuited I’m sure) from Contemplify readers.
My reasons for reading are centered in each NonRequired Reading List; pleasure, insight, devotion, perspective, story, and meaning. Like you, I love to read and have spent countless hours lifting pages up under the soft glow of sister moon to be spot lit. But it took recent conversation with one of my spiritual teachers for me to realize I was sitting on one of my pedagogical reading needles. Upon sharing my approach to reading my teacher smiled, “My God, I like the way you read!” A nice compliment for sure, but more than that, I realized how often I have failed to share how I read or inquired how kindred spirits approach the page for themselves. So in this month’s missive I am seeking to rectify that (and I invite you to share your practice of reading in the comments if so moved).
I mean “reading” is in the damn header each month. You would have thought I would have broached this years ago.
The Slow Burn
Let me begin by saying that my approach to reading1 is dependent upon the unique personality of each book. In broad rough speak, I have 3 general reading categories2: Pleasure, Gleaning, and Slow Burn. There is no active hierarchy or locked gates between them. The categories are placeholders for the celebration of mouthy personalities conversing across three doorless but conjoining rooms of my mind.
Pleasure reading is when a book feels like eating a bowl of popcorn. Delicious. Popcorn doesn’t ruin dinner, can easily be shared, and be enjoyed by almost everyone. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman is one such book. Read it. You’ll be charmed and thunderstruck all the way through. Gleaning reading is when I am in search of insightful perspectives to apply to work, craft, contemplation, or community. The genres of Gleaning reading span business, psychology, history, poetry, fiction, theology, humor, and spirituality. Much of what I share in these monthly missives are Gleaning books.
Then there are the Slow Burn books3. If a book is a Slow Burn it is certainly pleasurable and one can be certain that I am gleaning much from it. I am apprenticing myself under such texts. In Slow Burn books, I am unable to get the joke after the first pass. I gotta dig slowly, meditate, conversate, masticate, and ruminate on what is being presented. Slow Burn books can take me months or years to finish. And Slow Burn books need not be finished. Completing them is not the point, they are working on me. Slow Burn books throw kindling onto my fire to see with the eyes of the fire. This month’s readings are dedicated to my current cord of Slow Burn books. The sharpened reader may recognize the titles. Quotable shavings from a few of them have fallen onto previous NonRequired Reading Lists this past year.
Marginalia
I take notes when I read. My approach is simple but laborious. As instructed by Mr. Green in middle school I take notes to absorb, stow away, and connect what I deem worthwhile for my current and ongoing education. Thanks Mr. Green for hammering on about the responsibility of reading.
I underline or mark the page if:
It is a gut punch (inspiration)
A quote or story encapsulates a complex idea into a digestible morsel (importance)
Exemplifies in an idea or story a virtue, tenet, or piece of wisdom that I want to draw from repeatedly (exemplary)
Makes me laugh (funny bone is my favorite bone)
After each chapter I go through the bits I underlined. The ones that continue to resonate, I turn to a blank page at the end of the book (there are always a few) and write the page number and gist of the underlined point. Then further down the road when I get in the marginalia mood, I go to the Swanson index at the end of a book. One-by-one I write out each quote on a notecard with book title and page number4. Then I add the notecards to my commonplace book for easy retrieval5.
Read Your Own Way
My way is not the right way to read. It is the way I read. One of my teachers reads the same books over and over again in a measured, meditative way. One only ‘reads’ audiobooks, another never does audiobooks. Read your own way. What habitual readers have in common is that they are strange creatures with intricate rituals that only they observe. Do you write in books? Fold page corners? Even library books? Do you have a preferred pen? Or bookmark? Whatever is your way of reading, may you do it on purpose and only chop it up if useful.
(And as previously mentioned, if you want to share your practice of reading, pop it in the comments for the good of all.)
February NonRequired (Slow Burn) Reading List
The Slow Burn version of the NonRequired Reading List will be a rarity. These books burn slow for a reason. Together they create a wisdom cluster of the mystical, poetic, scholarly, and pastoral. The 13th century mystic Meister Eckhart is the organizing principle for this list. Eckhart speaks to me from beyond the veil in paradoxes and juicy gossip of the Godhead. I am slow at absorbing what Eckhart is attempting to teach me. So I lumber on, with an ear cocked east for the subtle croons of Mystery. In this list, the books are pegged in the order in which I picked them up.
Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation with translation by Raymond B. Blakney / began reading in Spring 2020 (Get it the Public Library or AbeBooks)
I slugged through the first eighty pages with the determination of an underdog boxer chasing the contender. After getting knocked around, it became clear I needed further technical instruction to understand this mighty German. Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation has become a useful resource that hangs on the shelf now that its been released from being the centerpiece of my Eckhartian training.
The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man From Whom God Hid Nothing by Bernard McGinn / began reading in Spring 2020 (Get it the Public Library or Bookshop)
Bernard McGinn is my favorite scholar of Christian Mysticism. I once clinked my beer bottle with his wine glass after one of his dazzling lectures. Mouth agape and thoughts frozen, my words could not find their way out. In no time, men in suits swept him away to shake hands with donors. I was grateful for my moment. McGinn is a master translator of complex mystical thought. He offers Eckhart in manageable portions for steady nibbling while remaining faithful to the Meister’s expansive mystical philosophy.
Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul by Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows / began reading in Spring 2020 (Get it the Public Library or Bookshop)
This little book is full of ditties inspired by the Meister’s words. Sweeney and Burrows sample his writings to spin poetry out of paradox’s web. You hear the voice of Eckhart on each page, even if it is an echo.
Wandering Joy: Meister Eckhart’s Mystical Philosophy with translations and commentary by Reiner Schürmann / began reading in Fall 2021 (Get it the Public Library or Bookshop)
Wandering Joy is the book I am immersing myself in right now. Slow, meditative reading. For me it is like sitting by a stream, watching light dance and refract upon it. Then in the water I see a trout. The trout holds their position in stillness just beneath the surface facing upstream, releasing its movements, in union with flow. Inspired by the trout, I lunge to grasp it. Soaking wet and empty-handed, I get out and begin again.
Meister Eckhart's Living Wisdom: Indestructible Joy and the Path of Letting Go by James Finley / began listening February 2022 (Get it the Public Library or Bookshop)
Jim Finley is one of my teachers. His poetic mystical way of teaching has changed my life. In this teaching, Jim shares the wisdom from his decades long study and conversations with Eckhart since he was a monk at Gethsemani. Longstanding relationships with the living or the dead generate subtle noticings that make all the difference.
Contemplify Update
Season Two of Contemplify is complete. I trust the episodes that need to find your ears will do so (for the eager listener, production of Season Three is underway).
Here is the full list of episodes for Season Two:
Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson (Season 2, Episode 7)
The Harmonic Resonance Found in Unknowing with Brie Stoner (Season 2, Episode 6)
A Wild Mystical Woman of the Desert with Amy Frykholm (Season 2, Episode 5)
Enlivening the First Christmas with Stephen Mitchell (Season 2, Episode 4)
Backporch Advent Outpost with Chris Dombrowski (Advent Bonus #2)
Backporch Advent Outpost with Todd Davis (Advent Bonus #1)
The Monastic Heart & Prophetic Imagination with Sr. Joan Chittister (Season 2, Episode 3)
Slow Yourself to be Awed with J. Drew Lanham (Season 2, Episode 2)
Gary Nabhan (aka Brother Coyote) on Wisdom Gleaned from Fishers & Farmers (Season 2, Episode 1)
These episodes are available from Contemplify through these fine outlets: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, or Overcast
Arts & Articles
Is There Such a Thing as Black Thought? by Reginald Dwayne Betts (NYT): The legendary hip-hop band The Roots have enchanted and provoked my interest since the late 90s. Founding member Tariq Trotter is one of the engines behind a new Broadway musical on Black identity. Trotter’s journey, formation, and aptitude for coalescing his influences and insights is riveting. Artists always lead the way, Trotter is way out front calling all us to see what he sees.
In Search Of by Amy Frykholm (The Christian Century): Friend of Contemplify Amy Frkyholm has a new podcast called In Search Of. Amy Frykholm is a Senior Editor at The Christian Century. But what comes to mind for me when I think of Amy is her poetic badassery as a scholar, writer, and seeker. Season One drops tomorrow (March 1st).
Wendell Berry’s Advice for a Cataclysmic Age by Dorothy Wickenden (The New Yorker): There are certain people whose words trouble me. Wendell Berry is one. He does not mince words, he offers them whole hog for the reader to deal with. It is an act of trust. Here is a snippet:
“I asked [Wendell Berry] if he retains any of his youthful hope that humanity can avoid a cataclysm. He replied that he’s become more careful in his use of the word “hope”: “Jesus said, ‘Take no thought for the morrow,’ which I take to mean that if we do the right things today, we’ll have done all we really can for tomorrow. OK. So I hope to do the right things today.” (h/t to Mark)
May the slow burn of your reading
give you a bad case of marginalia.
May you find shavings and trimmings
of mystics on your pages.
In the ache of bearing this day,
of war and weariness,
may you lighten the burdens of another.
In the slow burn,
Paul
My practice of reading has been radically influenced by monastics, psychologists, writers, friends, and of course, my mother. I have my nose in at least three type of books; poetry, narrative fiction, and theological/spiritual/mystical nonfiction. Fiction is the one that gets short-changed the most because I often substitute the written narrative fix for film and series. I tried to think of the most pretentious way to say “movies and tv”, I think I succeeded. But if you have a snootier way of saying watching tv and movies, please do let me know.
Sometimes, like a dog in heat, a book hops the fence to mate with a neighbor’s breed and new pups are born without discernible categorization. What a joy those books can be. I digress. A book can transcend one category is what I am yapping about in these rambling dog-mating metaphors.
Of course in a season where banning books is en vogue again with certain circles, I take extra care to slop up the image of books that slowly burn me.
Or sometimes I draw an image to help me integrate an idea from the text with a reference to the book title and page.
I learned this system from a Stoic philosopher and modified it to suit my own quirks.
Hi Paul,
Long time listener, first time caller. I enjoyed reading about your reading habits and note-taking, in particular. I was surprised how similar we are in this regard.
My habit is as follows:
1. Slow read with pencil in hand (never, ever a pen)
2. Only marginalia. I use vertical lines on the sides of paragraphs to mark horizontal rows of texts. I used to be an underliner but found upon re-reading a book, my eyes were always drawn to previous conclusions and I was missing out on new nuggets. Vertical lines on the edges are somehow a little less intrusive on the body of text. If a certain few lines have really stood out then I’ll put a little exclamation point next to the line.
3. Other marginalia will include questions, authors or others works that would be good to cross-reference, and short phrases from the text that have stood out and in that case they will be added to my own index at the back with a simple page number and one or two word phrase to jog my memory as to what stood out.
4. As I am an addict for used bookstores from whatever city or continent I happen to be on I will also write my name, the city in which I acquired the book, and the date. Typically, all of this will be on the first page of the book in the upper right hand corner and always in pencil! I will also write the name of the store or person I got the book from too. In addition to all of that, I will indicate the date and location I started to read the book along with date and location of when I finished it. I don’t really know why I do this, but I have really enjoyed looking back on where books have traveled and how long it has taken me to start and finish.
5. When I’m done with a book, I will log the author and title along with date started and completed in my journal. I will also record any lines from the text that have really floored me (and this is usually only three or so) and record those in a second, smaller journal that only contains other phrases I’ve come across over the past 20 years.
I have never written all of that out before and now I realize that I’ve outed myself as rather neurotic when it comes to the printed word. Thank you for this odd catharsis, Paul.
Lee
Hey Paul, I just want to say that it is with baited breath I wait for the Nonrequired Reading List.
I am one of those armchair readers until I'm pulled in out of my habit and into a new place. Andrew Krivak had has a hold of me so recently. The Bear was first and then Signal Flame and then Sojourn and then withdrawal.
Your latest post on how you read again gave me a sense of freedom, the same sense when I first encountered, the NRL. I am not a scholar nor a formal student and have never been and yet feel compelled that my life has a syllabus that must be completed. Your hardwork here has opened widows and doors.
I too glean from, take pleasure in and graze on books although I've never thought of it this way.
Thanks