Friday, December 4, 2015

Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas: Faith and Non-Fiction


I noted yesterday how much British writing I’ve been reading. Interestingly enough, all of the works I’ve selected for the “not recommended list” are by American authors. But seven of the 12 listed under non-fiction are British, with two of those seven books being about Charles Dickens.

I’ve been thinking about (but not yet decided) about reading and writing about Dickens life and works next year. I’ve read quite a few of his novels, but by no means all of them. In September and October, when we spent four weeks in London, I took one morning and visited the Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty Street, the place where he wrote The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist. It was my second visit, and for whatever reason I find the building and its rooms, furnished much like they would have been in 1837-1839 when he and his family lived there, to be inspirational. We’ll see if I follow through on the plan.

This concludes my “books I’m not recommending for Christmas” for this year.

Faith








Non-Fiction




J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free edited by David Blayney Brown, Amy Concannon and Sam Smiles.



London Under by Peter Ackroyd.

Our Only World: Ten Essays by Wendell Berry.




On Glasgow and Edinburgh by Robert Crawford.


Illustration: Drawing of Charles Dickens at his writing desk at Gad’s Hill in Kent, his last home.

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