Bucket List

I crossed an item off my bucket list this week! I’ll bet you’d like to know what it was. Well, before you get too excited I should warn you…my bucket list isn’t like most other bucket lists. Mine is a list of books.

You see, when this whole idea of writing a bucket list (that is, things one hopes to do before one kicks the bucket) first became popular I gave it a great deal of thought. Not so much about what I’d put on my list, but whether or not it was a good idea to even have one.

Making a list of things you hope to accomplish in a day or a week is one thing, but to list your goals for your life seems to be pushing the envelope, especially when a lot of the things on these sorts of lists are so self-serving.

I think back to a Bible lesson I learned as a kid. The people of Israel wanted a king. Everyone else had a king and so the Israelites wanted one too. God told them (through their priest) that it wasn’t a good idea, but they felt sure it was the right thing for them. So God gave them what they wanted, and just as he predicted, things went down hill pretty quickly after that.* The moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for.

And so I’ve always been careful not to get too specific in my prayers and sort of let God do whatever he felt was best for me. It’s worked so far. I’ve no complaints.

Anyways, I thought about it long and hard and finally decided a bucket list of literary classics was the solution. It’s a list I can pursue in my free time and will cost me virtually nothing (thanks to the public library).

All right, enough beating around the bush, or should I say the bucket. This week I finally read (drum roll) “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (applause) Here’s what I thought about it.

I liked how the story is told from Nick Carraway’s perspective. Nick plays only a small part in the events of the book, but we experience it as he does. That was neat. I also thought the plot was gripping (once Nick finally meets Mr. Jay Gatsby) and there were some insightful parts as well. My only problem, and it’s not Fitzgerald’s fault, is that the subject matter was of no interest to me. I’m just not all that impressed or amused by high society in the 1920’s. Critics say Gatsby tells the story of the American dream. If that’s the American dream - America’s in trouble!

So, want to know which books from my bucket list I did like? The first ones I read: “The Trees,” “The Field,” and “The Town,” also known as the “Awakening Land Trilogy” by award winning author Conrad Ritcher. These epic novels tell the story of Sayward Luckett Wheeler and her life as an American pioneer beginning in the late 1700’s and into the early seventieth century. Like Gatsby, Sayward went from being a nobody to someone well respected and well off. But unlike Gatsby, she did it with honesty, hard work, and moral fortitude. The books are beautifully written, insightful, and very interesting. I highly recommend them.

Now I’m reading a book called “Eternal Love.” I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. It’s not on my bucket list. I’ve found that most of the classics are rather tragic in nature, so I have to read a cheap romance novel or two (or more) in between tackling the classics to sort of cleanse the imaginative pallet, as it were. But after that I think I’ll try “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. When I finish it, I’ll be sure to give you my opinion. Until then, happy reading!

* 1 Samuel, Chapter 8