The time of the semester has come when I can give serious thought to other reading. My papers and thesis are handed in, only a project here and a quiz there remain. Though I am glad for the assigned readings during the semester, most of which I can pick anyway, I always anticipate the chance to accomplish some serious reading over the break.

I have several books on my shelf: Daniel Walker Howe’s What Hath God Wrought? The Transformation of America, 1815–1848, Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, Samuel Eliot Morison’s The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England, and David Beale’s In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850.Two other books that I would like to read are John Stott’s The Cross of Christ and Mark Noll’s The Civil War as Theological Crisis.

One long-term reading project that I’m considering is Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization. That history is 11 volumes, 340 chapters, and 8945 pages long, but of course, I wouldn’t feel obligated to read every chapter, let alone every word. Reading a chapter a day, six days a week, I could probably finish the work in a year. Durant’s goal of trying “to see things whole, to pursue perspective, unity, and understanding through history in time” appeals to me, but if his perspective and understanding aren’t worth my time I don’t want to spend a year finding that out. I wonder if any of my readers has read the work and can judge whether the book is worth the attempt.