Torch, Summer 2006

I read The Da Vinci Code soon after it hit the best-seller list. Not because it was on that list, but because while rolling up my mat after a yoga exercise class, the woman next to me asked, “So, what do you think of the book The Da Vinci Code ?” Another woman overheard her and made a comment, and I, not having read the book yet, couldn’t join the conversation. I’m not an extrovert, so it wasn’t about not being “in” socially, but it was a sort of signal to me. What I read grows out of the whys certainly, but I have also found that choosing the next book to read is like following clues in a scavenger hunt. I use several very good annotated book lists which help guide my reading, but beyond that I “follow rabbit trails” into the next book and the next. I read reviews, I keep my ear to the ground, I solicit recommendations from all my reading friends, I pick up a book just because I like the weight of it in my hand. I believe that God is behind it all! Well, this signal, this being “outside the conversation” led me to the library in search of this book. Just to see what it was all about. Just to be able to talk about it. I liked it immediately (even before it was a movie). Oh, in some ways, it bordered on being what I call a “beach read” — it was interesting, fast, and plot-driven. It was a mystery and a love story. What’s not to like! Oh, and did I mention that Jesus and Mary Magdalene are an item? Now, that intrigued me and disturbed me. Now I had to think about this. Now I had to converse; first with the book and author, then with the scriptures, then with myself, then my friends, and finally my culture. This is where I loved to be … with literature and myself and the Word and the world … I read because I am curious. I want to be someone I cannot be. I want to go somewhere I cannot go or feel something I have not felt. I read to pay attention to the wider world, to experience other “camera angles” on life. I read because I love and respect language. To me, language is both a playground and a cathedral. Perhaps most importantly, I read because I find that all these little and charming stories, all these dark tales and great love stories, remind me of the One True Story. In almost every volume I devour, I hear echoes of something that is my own heart’s best food. I read to get in on the conversation … to listen, to have a voice, a place at the table. And what are some reasons I don’t read a book? I don’t read because someone tells me I should (with the exception of required textbook readings … sorry, students!). I don’t read because I think somehow that I will be smarter or more popular. I don’t read so that I can bash a book or an author or an idea. I don’t read only to use the book as a springboard to witness. 20 TORCH / Summer 2006