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.