One of the influential books I read this past year was Praying with Jane Eyre. I came to it a bit sideways. I had gone to the Midwest Data Librarian Symposium and for the first time in several years, was able to be fully present.

The highlight of the symposium is the closing with a colleague, friend, brilliant thinker, and all- around good human, Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, who wrangles the lot of us into taking a moment to sit and process what we have experienced over the 72 hours. Last year this book was the touchstone.

Written by Vanessa Zoltan, this book takes a critical reading and asks whether a beloved secular book can become a sacred text. She tells her own story through her podcasts and the book, so I won’t recount them here; but I was intrigued by the approach.

Jane Eyre was part of high school reading canon. My recollection of that work or any of the Bronte sisters is dim at best. I remember wanting to be enamored of it. Reading it second hand through the eyes of someone who truly keeps it as a beloved book however has made me want to revisit it. But also, as I was reading Praying with Jane Eyre, I was wondering which book would be the one that I would choose to be my sacred text.

That question stuck with my for several weeks. My initial reaction was the Lord of the Rings. There was a time when I would read it annually. It was the first book set that I purchased for myself. These books were also a touchstone between my father and myself. When my parents got divorced, he started telling us the story of the Hobbit as a bedtime story. We only go to hear it every two weeks as that was our weekends with him. Once that was finished we continued on with the LoTR. However, the longer that I sat with that, it still didn’t resonate. I love those books and they have a of meaning for me but I felt like something was missing.

Thinking of many of the books I’ve read over the years, it didn’t take me long to come back to a series that I read starting in the 80s. In the days of its printing, there were bookstores still in malls and I was just discovering fantasy. These were on display and I quickly found myself coming back to read a chapter or two at a time when I could get there. The series was the Belgariad, though it wasn’t called that yet, by David and Leigh Eddings. I begged for the series for my birthday from my Dad, telling him exactly what the titles were and where to get them in the store. He indulged me by getting me the first three.

I was elated and immediately spent all of my waking hours, and some of the hours I was supposed to be sleeping, reading my way through them. Unfortunately, having only three, I was stuck in the middle of the story and at the apex of critical discovery for the whole story line. I must have reread what I had three or four times in desperate anticipation of somehow getting the last two. Which I did, of course, for Christmas.

Having read the Lord of the Rings by this time, I did understand high fantasy, but I didn’t have much exposure to it. I hadn’t read much of what many would consider the classics, modern or otherwise. Reading this was accomplished what fantasy fiction is supposed to do. These books came to me at turbulent time in my personal life and I was able to escape into the story. In addition I was able to fall into themes of magic and prophecy, and worlds of pure imagination. The characters were vivid and funny. I had no trouble identifying with the male hero as he went through his discoveries.

So when I thought of the books I could select for this experiment, the moment I remembered these, I knew they were the one. I had a deep, visceral response when I thought of them and ever since then the ideas for themes chapter by chapter keep coming to me. I hope to keep a similar format as the book and the accompanying podcast. Read a chapter at a time, offer a synopsis, identify a major theme and maybe some minor ones and discuss. This is best done with another, but I haven’t found another podcast or forum that is doing this. I have found some criticism that I’ll apply when the themes match. And I’ll probably draw from Harry Potter as a Sacred Text as well. And the chapter exercise will end with a reflection and blessing.

If I complete the whole Belgariad series with one chapter a week, it will take about 2.5 years. I doubt that I can keep that pace. But I’m eager to get started.