friday five: what’s on your shelf?

Deb has been clearing out her study and culling books to give away, and so she brings us this Friday Five all about books.

…with that in mind, let’s talk about the books in your life!

1. STUDYING: What is your favorite book or series for sermon prep or study? Or have you moved from books to on-line tools for your personal study?
I don’t have sermon prep, but I do like to know something about the lectionary passages each week. I have been using the Daily Feast from the Feasting on the Word Folks (and the RevDoc is a big fan of Feasting for her sermon prep) for my morning prayer time. I like the Hear the Word podcast from the PC(USA) to listen to the lectionary passages read aloud, and the Sermon Brainwave podcast from the Working Preacher folks.
In my other life, my go-to for Shakespeare is Harvard Professor Marjorie Garber’s Shakespeare After All. If I need a contrasting view, I use Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. 

2. IN THE QUEUE: Do you have a queue of books you are longing to read or do you read in bits and pieces over several books at a time? What’s in the queue?
I don’t have too much in the queue right now. I downloaded Renew 52 from Luther Seminary, and I bought Kenda Creasy Dean’s Almost Christian awhile back, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I do have a stack of borrowed books I need to look through and figure out what I want to read, skim, or return.

3. FAVORITE OF ALL TIME: What’s one book that you have to have in your study? Is it professional, personal, fun or artistic? (For instance, I have a copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It just helps sometimes.)
My copy of Celtic Daily Prayer stays in my office. I also have a lovely little copy of Jane Eyre Harvard Divinity Grad and another former student (let’s call her The Dove) gave me when I got married that stays on the desk.

4. KINDLE OR PRINT? or both? Is there a trend in your recent purchases?
Pretty much eBooks. There are a few I wish I had in print to rifle through, but I’m pretty happy with reading on the iPad/iPod and having the library with me.

5. DISCARDS: I regularly cruise the “FREE BOOKS” rack at our local library. (I know, I know. It’s a bad habit!) When’s the last time you went through your books and gave some away (or threw some away?) Do you remember what made the discard pile?
Just a few weeks ago I culled a whole bookshelf worth of books from two shelves. There were a lot of mystery and sci-fi/fantasy books in which I had lost interest in the series, but had held on to the five or six books I already had. Anything where I keep up with the series, I kept.

BONUS: Post a picture of the present state of your study!
Yikes! In my defense, my desktop computer hasn’t been working for months so I really haven’t been using the office space. Then, it becomes the one place I can dump things when I’m picking up the rest of the house. With the kids in Arizona this weekend, maybe I can try to do something about both the computer and the office space. It would be helpful for next term.