Wednesday, June 22, 2005 AD
Book tag (1)
So I got tagged by Thomas with this one. Like I don't have enough to do with my time. ;-)
1. How many books do you own?
Haven't the foggiest idea. Probably 1,500 to 2,000 between me and my wife.
2. What was the last book you bought?
Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 by NT Wright, on Monday. I also received my copy of the Brotherhood Prayer Book in the post on Monday, but the actual "buying decision" for that was back at the beginning of May (good ol' surface shipping...).
Other recent purchases: the pocket version of Celebrating Common Prayer, a pocket edition of the New Revised Standard Version and a secondhand copy of Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich.
3. What was the last book you read?
Books currently on the go include The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition by Jaroslav Pelikan and The New Testament and the People of God by (no groaning at the back, there) NT Wright.
Looking over the list of books recently purchased and read, I realise that I need to lighten up a bit, so I'll probably read some fiction next.
4. What are some books that have meant a lot to you?
[Adopts pious tone:] "You mean, apart from the Bible?"
I'll try to keep this a little shorter than Thomas managed. :-)
Some of the books that have had the biggest effect on me (perhaps that's not the same thing, perhaps it is), in roughly chronological order, include:
And am I the only person to have had "Freeze Tag" by Suzanne Vega going round my head for the whole time I've been doing this?
Update: Peter Ould, consider yourself tagged.
1. How many books do you own?
Haven't the foggiest idea. Probably 1,500 to 2,000 between me and my wife.
2. What was the last book you bought?
Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 by NT Wright, on Monday. I also received my copy of the Brotherhood Prayer Book in the post on Monday, but the actual "buying decision" for that was back at the beginning of May (good ol' surface shipping...).
Other recent purchases: the pocket version of Celebrating Common Prayer, a pocket edition of the New Revised Standard Version and a secondhand copy of Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich.
3. What was the last book you read?
"Actually, I'm re-reading TekWar, by William Shatner" - Father Ted.Erm, in fact the last book I finished (always an important distinction with me) was Paul for Everyone volume by Tom Wright (hmm, bit of a pattern emerging here?), covering the letters to the Galatians and Thessalonians.
Books currently on the go include The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition by Jaroslav Pelikan and The New Testament and the People of God by (no groaning at the back, there) NT Wright.
Looking over the list of books recently purchased and read, I realise that I need to lighten up a bit, so I'll probably read some fiction next.
4. What are some books that have meant a lot to you?
[Adopts pious tone:] "You mean, apart from the Bible?"
I'll try to keep this a little shorter than Thomas managed. :-)
Some of the books that have had the biggest effect on me (perhaps that's not the same thing, perhaps it is), in roughly chronological order, include:
- Chaos: Making a New Science, by James Gleick: the book that made me switch from wanting to study physics at university to studying mathematics, without which the next two items on the list might never have happened.
- Mere Christianity by CS Lewis: the book that played a pretty major part in my return to faith in 1994.
- The Passion by Jeanette Winterson: the subject of one of my first serious conversations with the woman who had lent it to me, who I proceeded to marry.
- The Last Word on Guidance (now republished as Guidance and the Voice of God) by Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen: a book I read very early in my Christian life, and for which I'm profoundly grateful for protecting me from the nonsense about "finding (or missing) God's perfect will for your life", "laying out fleeces" and so on that could otherwise have caused me the same anguish that this issue causes many other Christians.
- The Faber Book of Vernacular Verse, edited by Tom Paulin: recommended to me by my friend Nick (an occasional lurker round here - hi, Nick!). While I had enjoyed poetry before, it was normally as a delivery vehicle for ideas. This book helped me start enjoying poetry for the language itself.
- The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer: God is there; He is not silent. The importance of antithesis ("A is A, and A is not not-A"). The line of despair (and the existential leap into the upper storey). These are just a few of the ideas from Schaeffer's books that spring to mind now, and that continue to have a strong influence on me, hopefully for good.
- Gospel Trilogy by Graeme Goldsworthy: a.k.a. Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom and The Gospel in Revelation. All now out of print, sadly. Introduced me to "biblical theology", of reading the whole of Scripture as relating to, and fulfilled in, Christ. One of these days I will try to get round to blogging some of this stuff. If you're in an Anglican conservative evangelical church and you hear the words "God's people under God's rule in God's place" - and you will, sooner or later - then that's Goldsworthy's influence at work.
- Luther's Small Catechism and The Spirituality of the Cross by Gene Veith: to paraphrase Wren's memorial in St Paul's Cathedral, "if you seek their monument, look around you".
And am I the only person to have had "Freeze Tag" by Suzanne Vega going round my head for the whole time I've been doing this?
Update: Peter Ould, consider yourself tagged.
