I recently came across a great comment from one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s letters (written in April 1959). Tolkien is advocating reading books with more difficult books to children rather than confining the reading to easier books. Tolkien states: “A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of …
In light of recent posts here on reading and particularly on reading history and fiction, I thought this comment from A. T. Robertson was pertinent. Robertson was a giant in the land as a scholar and a preacher. This quote comes from an interview with Frank Leavell in “The Baptist Student” in 1932. “For diversion …
I have frequently at this blog commended broad reading including fiction and have defended and advocated the reading of fiction in other venues. I was pleased then to find (via Justin Wainscott) this article by Mary DeMuth titled, “Why Should Christ-Followers Read Fiction?” DeMuth deals with common arguments against “wasting” one’s time on fiction. I …
Just yesterday I came across this quote from a letter by C. S. Lewis. It captures a truth important to me about reading to children, and the sorts of things they need exposure to. Of course Lewis also argues elsewhere that stories themselves have a keen power in pointing us to Christ. So awakening the …
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I am going through some old books and in one book of poems by a Perry Tanksley I came across this poem entitled “A Thousand Miles Away.” It is a negative counterpart to my “Bedtime with My Boys” and a good reminder of the value of reading to and talking with our children. My boys …
Old books are fun. You never know what gem you might find in what appears to be the most unlikely candidate. So it is always worthwhile taking a look. For example, I recently found a 1917 volume titled, Public School Methods, vol. 4. The title did not sound very promising, but I discovered that the …
Each year I look forward to the annual holiday sale from Oxford University Press. They regularly have exceptional deals on prominent books. This year the sale is even better because they teamed up with Amazon. See the sale homepage here.There are not many things in their bible/theology section that I like. They are good for …
Brian Denker sent me this quote from Jerome recently. It is a good exhortation to earnest study, and perhaps especially relevant as start of term approaches here. “Read often, learn all you can. Let sleep overcome you, the roll still in your hands; when your head falls, let it be on the sacred page.” – …