I love books.

I love books.

I am not sure if those of you who follow my blog regularly know this little tidbit of truth about me. Maybe you have noticed. Or maybe it has slipped past your keen, intuitive perceptions as you have followed my blogging over the past several years. I know it might be difficult to pick up on this infatuation of mine, but it is very true... I love books.

I will admit right now that I mostly love theological works. I am not saying this to say that I am any better than anyone else. This isn't a prideful, show-offy sort of statement. This isn't meant to be bragging because it isn't that I believe that all of the high, intellectually minded people read theology, I know that is not the case. I just mention it to say that this is what I enjoy: I love thinking about God. Who is He? What is He like? What are His attributes? How does all of this truth about God tie together? So, there is not intentional braggadociousness happening when I mention that I love reading theology. In fact, I don't believe that a person's intelligence can be defined by what they read. The truth is that there are plenty of idiotic people that read theology. It is equally true that there is plenty of idiotic theology out there that only serves to perpetuate the idiocy.

Second to my love of theological works, is my intense enjoyment of Science Fiction writing. I know that for some these two don't tie together very well. This is mostly because the overwhelming mass of SciFi is atheistic (or at least agnostic) in nature. But I have two reasons why I enjoy SciFi, and these two reasons are able to categorize the author's atheistic worldview as simply that: the author's worldview and not reality.

The first reason why I enjoy SciFi because it is imaginative. There are not many forms of literature (other than fantasy) that really unlock the doors of the creative imagination of an author as much as SciFi. All of the "what if's" can become "and then's" in SciFi. My other reason ties back the the author's worldview. In SciFi, worldviews are quite often played out. I love evaluating how authors decide what people will act like and what their real views of the human race and our universe look like. It is an interesting study in our perceptions of people and where we are all headed and what we are really about and why we are here to begin with.

My third favorite book type is fantasy. Specifically the older stuff. I am not much for the newer fantasy writings. I have enjoyed my Tolkien, Lewis, and Chesterton. I love the way these authors are able to create a world. I probably could have listed SciFi and Fantasy together as one genre of book that I enjoy, because my reasons for liking Fantasy are basically the same as my reasons for liking SciFi. But I listed them separately because there are far fewer fantasy authors that I have enjoyed.

The fourth on my list of book genres that I enjoy are historical biographies and autobiographies. This is new for me. I didn't used to enjoy these books at all, but lately I have found great enjoyment in reading about John Calvin, Martin Luther, Galileo Galilei, Augustine, John Bunyan, etc. It is those stories of the people that are famous in Church/Religious history that I find appealing. What were these people like? How did they live? What were their weaknesses?

This is not a list of the only types of literature that I read. I have enjoyed Poetry and the Classics. I have enjoyed the occasional Teacher book or the topical Christian perspective sort of book, but these four categories is where I always head first to find a good read.