Book-Spotting #20

Krakovianka found a book in a thrift store in Poland, an English book, a book she and I have been wanting to read. I love stories about book finds.

I’m reading Moby Dick this month–via email. I signed up at Daily Lit, a website that sends subscribers a daily portion of a selected work of literature. I don’t usually like to read books on the computer, but since I have to read Moby for the American Literature class I’m teaching at co-op, I think I’ll make an exception. The Great White Whale might be more digestible in small daily portions. Thanks to Beck at Frog and Toad Are Friends for the link and information for Daily Lit.

On Stephen Lawhead’s new book, Hood, a reinterpretation of the Robin Hood story that I hope to read soon:
Robin Hood Was Welsh and Never Went to Nottingham Claims Book

Back to an old favorite, Pride and Prejudice. Tex, at Mere Orthodoxy demonstrates the tangled web that Miss Austen weaves when she invites us to laugh at the foibles of the Bennett family, their friends and aquaintances.

“Miss Austen invites her readers to participate in the very behavior which she is at work to moralize against–vanity and prejudice. . . . The diversion of picking motes of dust out of the eyes of one’s brothers might be quite harmless and forgiveable if it were not for the portrait of love found in the character of God and most forcefully presented in the person of Jesus. If all the world is my toy and a stage on which every character moves simply to delight and entertain my Self, then there is perhaps even a nobleness in using people for one’s own pleasure. However, the Christian notion of love destroys this very cavalier and flippant attitude.”

Ouch! And on that rather uncomfortable, but nevertheless edifying, note, I’ll end this edition of Book-Spotting. May your pleasures be at once educational, enjoyable, and honoring to the God who made us and loves us.

2 thoughts on “Book-Spotting #20

  1. Thanks for the link to Daily Lit – what a great idea! I’m not brave enough to try Moby Dick, but I signed up for Howard’s End.

  2. Sherry,
    Thanks for the comment. I think I just might have to read a couple more of her books in the coming months. Reflection upon character flaws can be a most edifying endeavor, if done with the right amount of humility and humor.

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