The first full-length book I recall reading was not a piece of great literature, but it had a great effect on my malleable mind. It was called Hell on Ice, the saga of sixty men who attempted to reach the North Pole by way of the Bering Strait. Only a few survived, and I agonized with them as they froze and starved on the icy wastes. I was carried out of myself and my pleasant porch hammock into danger, suffering, and death. I became aware of vulnerability, mortality, and human courage.
To my detriment I managed to go through four years of high school without reading more than two or three classics. I had a good freshman English teacher who made me see vividly the world of chivalry and heraldry through Ivanhoe, so that I still love to visit the medieval halls of museums. In my junior or senior year I very hastily skimmed David Copperfield in order to write a book report. I may have read one or two others which I have entirely forgotten, but literature was merely a requirement. No other teacher made me understand what it was all about. B. F. Westcott said, “It is the office of art to reveal the meaning of that which is the object of sense.”
Continued next week. . .
***Excerpt originally published in All That Was Ever Ours, p. 90
Devotional Feature: What’s on your summer bookshelf?
Wouldn’t it be remarkable to have a reading list. . .whatever your age. . .of books Elisabeth Elliot recommends? We are delighted to be able to offer such a curated reading list both in audio form as well as the actual handout Elisabeth shared with her correspondents or at her talks.
We invite you to listen to Elisabeth’s book recommendations and commentary (Questions Most Often Asked: A Recommended Reading List) and to download a copy of her recommended reading list (Elisabeth’s Recommended Reading). Add to your own summer bookshelf!