I’ve Been Reading

I have been a reading machine lately.  I guess that is what happens when you finish the term up a week ahead of schedule. So instead of just a one week Fall Break, mine is two!  Yeah for me!! 

One of my 100x40 goals is to read 100 books.  Here’s my progress so far:

1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – Started way before my birthday, but finished after. So it counts.  At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but I did.  It is interesting to pick up little bits of things that go along with LOTR.  I still have no idea how they plan on stretching this book into three movies.  But the first trailer looks pretty good.
2. Seven by Jen Hatmaker – You’ll be hearing more about this one. A lot more.
3. My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn – I liked it in that, to me, it read like a novel. I didn’t like it in that I was expecting it to be more of a “How to Be" book.  But it was interesting to look someone else’s take on the whole Proverbs 31 girl.
4. Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth - Let me tell you a little bit about that last one.  Don’t you just love this cover??  It just screams, “Pick me up and read me!”

Almost Amish is the true-story of how one Christian family took inspiration from how the Amish community lives and applied these principles in their own family. This book covers everything from technology and family to money and faith.  Nancy Sleeth shares how her family adopted practices from the Amish into their modern, “English” lives.
The main idea behind the book was Nancy’s quest for a simpler, slower life.  This led the family to downsizing their home, planting a garden, buying locally, and embracing their community.  There wasn’t one thing that I didn’t like about this book.  It actually left me wanting to be Nancy’s neighbor. 
I want to fully embrace the principles in this book.  While reading, my mind often wandered to the life I had dreamed about for myself in high school.   What I once wanted and what I now want are two completely different lives.  I once wanted a busy, glamorous life.  Now I crave an Almost Amish life.  17-year-old me never would have dreamed that I would be canning homegrown food in my 30s.  Especially not when I should have been racing with my briefcase to my next meeting on Capitol Hill.  High school me would never believe that my first sewing project was a quilt that I completed all by myself.  Not only that, but I want to learn to make actual clothes. 
Almost Amish is not about trading in your SUV for a horse and buggy (although with these gas prices, one might consider it).  It is not about unplugging completely from the grid.  It is about balancing our dependency on technology so we can engage more fully with our families and communities.  It is about taking better care of our environment.  It is about putting God in the center of our world and putting our faith into everything we do.  I encourage you to read it.  It will make you think and question and, quite possible, make some changes in the way you live.

(Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.)