Will the advent of electronic books make “real” books obsolete?Continue readingAre Ebook Readers the Next Big Thing?
Year: 2010
Teaching Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” to Biblically illiterate college students reminded me of the great extent to which Western literature assumes familiarity with the Bible. Continue readingBiblical Illiteracy and the Modern Reader
Aristotle and C. S. Lewis agree: reading good fiction is good for you. It develops your moral imagination, by allowing you to imagine the consequences of actions in particular situations.Continue readingReading and the Moral Imagination
Even devotees of “great literature” sometimes indulge in tasty but less nutritious fare. The novels of Martha Grimes and Clive Cussler make a fun “amuse bouche” in between helpings of more substantial fare.Continue readingIf Books Were Snow-Cones
Reading the Bible doesn’t have to be — and shouldn’t be — an intellectual grind. Lectio divina is the ancient way of not only reading but praying the Bible.Continue readingThe Ancient Christian Art of Spiritual Reading
I enjoy the way Madeleine L’Engle’s young adult stories create a sensation of metaphysical mystery in which we are all caught up.Continue readingMore Recent Reading: Madeleine L’Engle’s “Dragons in the Waters”
The premier Christian historian of the 20th century has been virtually erased by the takeover of Marxist ideology in American higher education.Continue readingDynamics of World History
What have I been reading lately? Light stuff — mysteries, histories, and the impending collapse of Western civilization.Continue readingNow Reading: Life, Death, and the End of the World as We Know It
Comparing two modern editions of Plutarch’s Lives shows how the modern world has learned to scorn the value of moral character.Continue readingPlutarch’s Lives: Instructive Biography
Lindsey Davis’s Didius Falco mysteries are fun romps through the early Roman Empire.Continue readingDidius Falco Mysteries, Imperial Fun
Like John Maddox Roberts’s SPQR series, Steven Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa mysteries take place in the late Roman Republic, but betray modern prejudices.Continue readingRoma Sub Rosa, A Revisionist View
If you like historical mystery novels set in ancient Rome, John Maddox Roberts’ SPQR series gives you an entertaining yet historically accurate view of the late Republic.Continue readingSPQR, An Insider’s View of the Republic