Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Lent + A Bit of a Reading Challenge

Lent, one of my favorite liturgical seasons, begins today with Ash Wednesday.
What it is: Lent is the season that leads up to Easter, it is characterized by penance, fasting and abstaining from meat on Fridays, acts of charity, solemn prayer, and many Christians give something up for the 40-day observance. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal, of a deepening of faith and prayer. Basically, it's a 40 day retreat that culminates with the glorious Resurrection of the Lord on Easter.
This year, to cut out the things that distract me from my relationship with God, I'm giving up books1. Not all books, though, just the secular2 ones, which is, basically, everything I read. My TBR for next 40 days or so will contain only works of Christian fiction and nonfiction.
Now for the challenge part: I'm opening up my personal challenge to all my readers! It's pretty simple, too.
Guidelines for the Lenten Reading Challenge:
You can either give up all secular books, or add a predetermined number of Christian books to your TBR for Lent, which begins March 9 and goes through April 20. To participate, simply write a brief acceptance post and leave a link in the comments. You can join the challenge any time from now until the 20th, and you don't need to follow my blog to join in.
To give you an idea of what books I'm talking about, here's a list authors4:
  • C.S. Lewis3
  • Scott Hahn
  • Madeleine L'Engle
  • Gertrud Von Le Fort
  • Robin Caroll
  • Christian M Frank
  • Tosca Lee (Havah)*5
  • Colleen Coble (Lightkeeper's Ball)*
  • Ronie Kendig (Digitalis)*
  • Camy Tang (Only Uni)*
  • Cheryl Wyatt (Steadfast Soldier)*
  • James Rubart (Rooms)*
  • Brandilyn Collins (Deceit)*
  • Rachel Hauck (Dining With Joy)*
  • Kristen Billerbeck (A Billion Reasons Why)*
 I'll add to this list as I go. I'll also be adding links on this post to anyone who chooses to participate. I hope you'll join me, and that you have a blessed Lent.

Participants:
Orchid of The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

i am
searching,
searching,
always searching
for Truth
zombie girrrl

footnotes________________________________________
1  *Gasp*
2  Secular = non-Christian.
3  I'm really excited to  finish reading CS Lewis' Signature Classics (Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and A Grief Observed), which I got for Christmas, and the Chronicles of Narnia which I won from Ky of Can't Find a Bookmark.
4  Feel free to suggest any other Christian authors or titles, fiction or nonfiction, in a comment. Much obliged.
5  Thanks to Robin Caroll for suggesting all the authors and titles marked with *'s

14 comments:

Unknown said...

This is an awesome idea...and thank you so much for including me in your list of CBA authors. :) And BTW, I love the smell of books, too!

You asked for some other CBA authors...here ya go:
Tosca Lee (Havah)
Colleen Coble (Lightkeeper's Ball)
Ronie Kendig (Digitalis)
Camy Tang (Only Uni)
Cheryl Wyatt (Steadfast Soldier)
James Rubart (Rooms)
Brandilyn Collins (Deceit)
Rachel Hauck (Dining With Joy)
Kristen Billerbeck (A Billion Reasons Why)

Hope that's a good start for you!

Midnyte Reader said...

Good luck to you in your challenge!

loreleimarsh said...

I think this is a fabulous idea! Bravo. There are a few books that have been lurking on my perimeter that meet this description. I'm going to double0check the library & hopefully be back to join!

Cafe Fashionista said...

Ooh, Madeleine L'Engle. Have you read "Camilla"? If you haven't, please do; it is fantastic!! :)

Zombie Girrrl said...

@ Robin: Yes, that helps tremendously! Thanks for stopping by. :)

@ Midnyte: Thanks!

@ Lore: Let me know what you find. Hope to see you back here.

@ The Fashionable One: Haven't read that yet, but thanks for recommendation!

Orchid said...

Ooh, great idea, ZG (you can so count me in).
I have a few books that I've been meaning to either re-read or read for the first time. I will be back with a post link. ^_^

Orchid said...

Here's the link to my challenge post. ^_^

Orchid's Lenten Challenge

Zombie Girrrl said...

Thanks for joining, Orchid. :)

James L. Rubart said...

Thanks for putting me on your list!

Jim

Zombie Girrrl said...

No prob, Jim. :)

Stormi said...

This is really a great idea, if I didn't have so many secular book that I must review now, I would give it a try..you got some really good authors in your selections. A couple of my favorite authors are Sandra Byrd and Janice Thompson, they write fun ligh-hearted romance reads. Janice Thompson's Weddings with Bella is so much fun!! Good luck on your reading!

Zombie Girrrl said...

Wish you could join, Lady Storm, but thanks for dropping by. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I am so happy to have stumbled upon you!
I am a Catholic YA librarian and I will be bookmarking your blog!
May I make a few suggestions if you haven't already read them:
Kristen Lavransdatter (actually anything by Sigrid Undset is worthwhile -I've read them all)
Taylor Caldwell's Dear and Glorious Physician - new reprint by Ignatius books.
Also some of Louis de Wohl's books are quite good - The Spear for example.
Lent could be pretty long just reading Undset's books. :)

Anonymous said...

sorry, I just thought of one more book that you might like- it's a new fiction by a Christian author Tessa Afshar called Pearl in the sand. It's about Rahab the prostitute who saves the Hebrew spies and is in turn saved when they attack Jericho. It is short, well written and filled with quite alot of those truths that you mentioned you like to seek out.
Best Regards

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Blank Spaces Have Great Potential...