Back in the mid-1980s, when Pam and I were dating (for 5 years!), I started a goal of reading 52 books a year. One per week. I got the idea from something I read. Pam adopted the goal, too.

I reached that goal for seven or eight years. It was kind of a contest between Pam and me, to see who would end the year with the most books. Back then, I usually ended the year by going to see my parents in Arizona, so it wouldn’t be until I returned that Pam and I could compare lists and declare a winner. I think I won just one year, with around 85 books to her 84, or something like that.

But then came a year when, in June, Pam hit 52. I mentioned the idea of her ending the year with 104 books, and expressed doubt that it could happen. She rose to the challenge and did it–104 books read in one year. Now, Pam isn’t a skimmer. I tend to skim, but Pam reads every word. She’s just very very fast. And it’s why, sometime during the early years of our marriage, I gave up on the 52-a-year goal. I guess I was just demoralized with the realization that I was seriously out-classed.

But Pam hasn’t quit. She has continued meeting her goal every year. And in 2004, she outdid herself again. She ended the year with 110 books read. A good share of them were Christian fiction. That’s what she mostly reads. That and various secular mysteries (especially medical mysteries, a la Robin Cook and Michael Palmer).

Very recently, the blogger at Bemuseme, one of my favorite Christian blogs, wrote about the book The Red Tent. It’s a book about the women around Jacob, writen from the point of view of Dinah by a modern-day Jewish woman. I read the book in 2002, and it was the best book I read that year. I’ve trumpted The Red Tent around a number of people. I felt I learned as much about Jacob’s world from that book as I did from a lifetime of Sunday school classes.

Bemuseme talks about how we Christians like to tie up all the loose ends. The post I’m talking about is located here. It’s a wonderful little essay. He writes, “Judging by what I’ve observed, evangelical authors would not carefully craft a story rich with ambiguity and wonder, love and betrayal, drama and passion. Instead, if recently successful Christian fiction is any indication, our version of Dinah’s tale would be stale, heavy-handed, preachy and poorly-written.”

He gives an example from his own life. “I believe God hates divorce, and that it’s rarely if ever what God wants. But how do I reconcile that conviction with this fact from my life: if my wife’s parents had never divorced, I would likely never have met her? What am I to make of that?… What theological construct allows for both the wrongness of their divorce and the rightness of our marriage?” Isn’t that a great conundrum?

Bemuseme just raises some great questions, and comments far beyond what I’ve extracted. I encourage you to take a look. It’s worth the journey. And while you’re at it, read some of his other stuff. He’s good.