Thursday, February 3, 2011

latest reading

My husband recently asked me to read a book for pleasure.
Not a book-for-pleasure-learning-how-to-make-something-new,
but simply something to fall into and enjoy with no other end product
in mind. I wasn't sure where to start -- the last time I read a piece
of fiction was over five years ago, when I was in the hospital with a
freshly born Elliott. I happily finished out the final Harry Potter book
while he slept and people waited on me hand and foot.

Fortunately, Ashton's been deep into the world of Percy Jackson,
having read several of them multiple times. So I decided to pick up 
book one and have quite enjoyed the read. While the tone
of the book is decidedly middle school angst, the ideas unfold
in surprising ways and the story is engaging and fun to follow.
I had a hard time putting it down sometimes, and I'm on to book two!
I've been a big N.T. Wright fan for some time now.
I used to listen to his lectures while I painted (follow this link
and scroll down to "Wright Audio/Video" for a selection of 
audio links to peruse), resonating with his ideas about the 
kingdom of God and subsequently speaking to myself in 
what I pretended was a superb British accent. 

I've never read his books, however, as they seem 
generally enormous and specifically academic in nature.
They are often written at least in part as a response to 
some other scholar with whom I am completely unfamiliar.
This book, while it references the work of other scholars,
is very straightforward and is a storehouse of Wright's 
intense studies about the Bible, Jewish thought at the time
it was written, and the historical context in general.

Further, I'm considering memorizing the book of Romans,
since Ephesians is starting to solidify. But I have spent 
much of my life avoiding this particular book of the Bible, 
and I thought I would like to become acquainted with it first.
In this particular tome, I started with the Introduction to 
Epistolary Literature, which was very informative, and 
I'm heading into the section on Romans now. Here goes!

 

4 comments:

Susan P said...

Hi Sue,

Emily Lewis and I are memorizing, Colossians this year. We'd love it if you joined us!

There is a printable booklet of the book online. Let me know if you want the link.

Susan Cepin said...

Cool! I would like the link -- what version are you using?

Susan P said...

I am using NIV. Here is the link. The booklet tells you what to memorize each week so that you will have the whole book memorized by December, but I am just memorizing on and off without looking at the dates so far.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/a-bible-memorization-booklet-colossians-in-a-year-printable/

The link is about half way through the blog post.

Susan Cepin said...

Thanks, Susan!