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 linkand 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!
