I'm developing something of a book fetish lately. I just love acquiring new books, even if I don't get around to reading them for a couple of years. I've been thinking about books lately, and it struck me that there is something almost immortal about them. I mean people were writing books thousands of years ago, and yet we ultra-moderners in the 21st century are still doing the same thing. There is no "new way" to go about it as such. 50 years ago you made a record. 20 years ago you made a CD, and now you release your music on mp3's. However, a thousand years ago you wrote a book, a hundred years ago you wrote a book, and now you write a book, and as long as people are still able to read, your product will be timeless. Do you want to become immortal? Write a book.
I've discovered a couple of websites which let you download some Christian books for free, which is pretty cool. None of them are particularly new, but you can still find some high quality stuff if you search around. I got a couple of G.K. Chesterton books, and so far I'm a big fan. I've just finished 'Orthodoxy', and it's a tremendous read. Extermely insightful, witty, and intelligent. Some of it went over my head, but he gives a very compelling defense of Christian Orthodoxy in the face of modernism and relativism and a lot of other ism's, and yet he manages to do so by keeping things light hearted, and even romantic. Whether you're Christian or not I think it's a compelling read, and written by a man who was exceedingly well respected, even amongst his foes.
I've got a couple of other random books from these websites also: some existentialist philosophy by Soren Kierkegaard, some existentialist theology by Karl Barth, with a few puritan classics thrown in there too. Will I ever read any of them? Probably not, but I bet you're thinking I'm at least slightly more intellectual now given the mere mention of these books on my blog, and so mission accomplished.
Currently -- ignoring mandatory class reading -- I'm ploughing my way through The Cross of Christ by John Stott. It's a magnificent piece of work, carefully detailing the reasons for and achievments of that most important moment of human history - the crucifixion of Jesus. I should be done with it shortly, but given the topic at hand it's a book I shall keep coming back to again and again. Anway, I can't recommend the book enough.
Oh, on a slightly different note, I've set myself a target this year, and I want a couple of people to be aware of it so that I have more motivation to reach it. I'm trying to memorise the Book of Romans, or at least 15 of the 16 chapters. So far I'm almost done with chapter 1. Will it even be possible to memorise the book and still retain information in my head such as what my name is and so forth? I'm not sure, but we shall see. I've never done anything like this before so I don't really know what to expect, but if nothing else it's at least a plan/goal of some sort. You have to start somewhere, right?
That's about it. I really only wrote this because it's virtually impossible to go to sleep after playing Tuesday night footy, but since I'm getting kind of tired now I may just give it a go. For all you loyal readers out there I may get back to more prolific blogging in the near future given that my course is ending in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure though. There are just so many blogs out there similar to this -- only more informed and intelligent -- and right now I'm kind of thinking what's the point in just adding to the clutter. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a blog, under the illusion that people actually want to read what they have to write. Maybe I'm just indulging in self-pity, given that my hits counter is practically in the negative these days - that's right, people are actually unvisiting my page. That said, it's not as if I've put too much effort in, so you reap what you sow and such. Perhaps I'll get into again after I finish doing Scripture School stuff. And on that suspenseful note...
I've discovered a couple of websites which let you download some Christian books for free, which is pretty cool. None of them are particularly new, but you can still find some high quality stuff if you search around. I got a couple of G.K. Chesterton books, and so far I'm a big fan. I've just finished 'Orthodoxy', and it's a tremendous read. Extermely insightful, witty, and intelligent. Some of it went over my head, but he gives a very compelling defense of Christian Orthodoxy in the face of modernism and relativism and a lot of other ism's, and yet he manages to do so by keeping things light hearted, and even romantic. Whether you're Christian or not I think it's a compelling read, and written by a man who was exceedingly well respected, even amongst his foes.
I've got a couple of other random books from these websites also: some existentialist philosophy by Soren Kierkegaard, some existentialist theology by Karl Barth, with a few puritan classics thrown in there too. Will I ever read any of them? Probably not, but I bet you're thinking I'm at least slightly more intellectual now given the mere mention of these books on my blog, and so mission accomplished.
Currently -- ignoring mandatory class reading -- I'm ploughing my way through The Cross of Christ by John Stott. It's a magnificent piece of work, carefully detailing the reasons for and achievments of that most important moment of human history - the crucifixion of Jesus. I should be done with it shortly, but given the topic at hand it's a book I shall keep coming back to again and again. Anway, I can't recommend the book enough.
Oh, on a slightly different note, I've set myself a target this year, and I want a couple of people to be aware of it so that I have more motivation to reach it. I'm trying to memorise the Book of Romans, or at least 15 of the 16 chapters. So far I'm almost done with chapter 1. Will it even be possible to memorise the book and still retain information in my head such as what my name is and so forth? I'm not sure, but we shall see. I've never done anything like this before so I don't really know what to expect, but if nothing else it's at least a plan/goal of some sort. You have to start somewhere, right?
That's about it. I really only wrote this because it's virtually impossible to go to sleep after playing Tuesday night footy, but since I'm getting kind of tired now I may just give it a go. For all you loyal readers out there I may get back to more prolific blogging in the near future given that my course is ending in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure though. There are just so many blogs out there similar to this -- only more informed and intelligent -- and right now I'm kind of thinking what's the point in just adding to the clutter. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a blog, under the illusion that people actually want to read what they have to write. Maybe I'm just indulging in self-pity, given that my hits counter is practically in the negative these days - that's right, people are actually unvisiting my page. That said, it's not as if I've put too much effort in, so you reap what you sow and such. Perhaps I'll get into again after I finish doing Scripture School stuff. And on that suspenseful note...
No comments:
Post a Comment