Book Notes -- What's Going On?

I can't figure out what's going on. Maybe I'm in a manic phase (some people think I'm ALWAYS in a manic phase). I don't usually have the huge down times though that those who I know who struggle with being manic have.

But scattered around my home and the church right now must be close to a dozen books that I have "started" reading.

Here are the titles (and a note about why I got them, if I can remember):

Rory Stewart's book about his walk across Afghanistan after September 11th called The Places In Between.
A Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (recommended to me by the son of Granny D when we visited her at her home in New Hampshire).
Gandhi's Letters to Americans (I bought this here in the U.S. after spotting it first in Ooty, India in the year 2000)
Two books by Mike Tidwell: the first was written in 2003 and is entitled Bayou Farewell (it's about how the levee system in New Orleans is destroying the land) and the second book was written in the wake of Katrina and is called The Ravaging Tide -- I thought that reading these two together would be really interesting)
I'm reading a novel entitled The Walking Guide by Alan Cowell who has been a reporter around the world -- in many of the more current hot spots.
I'm reading Defying Hitler by Sebastian Hafner (it's been on my shelves for ages and been calling to me).
I'm reading a book entitled After by Steven Brill. It's his collection of stories of many different people (including Indiana's own Mitch Daniels) in the minutes, hours and days following September 11th).
Garrett Keizer's book The Enigma of Anger and Thich Nhat Hanh's book, simply entitled Anger are both on my list because of conversations that parishioners have had with me that has sent me to these books.
I also have been reading Dennis Ross's book The Missing Peace (about his involvement with the Peace Process in the Middle East over the last 20 years)

A pretty eclectic mix I know. But I can assure you that they are good reads. But the words of Marvin Gaye -- "What's Going On" -- keep ringing in my ears. I wonder if I should read more theology or "church books" from time to time (they sneak in there every once in awhile) - but these books give me insight into worlds that I might not otherwise know. I feel hungry and thirsty to see and know the world better. The different experiences of what it means to be human are endlessly interesting to me. And books open those worlds to me.