Books
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A Little In The Way
I bought a used desk a month ago and it has been sitting in my garage. I have traded my office to my wife, and the room that will become my office/study is getting new flooring. All good, except it is taking quite a bit of time. A big box store who shall remain unnamed is supplying the materials, and has so far been pretty unprofessional. Pushing delivery dates, failing to communicate, both with me and the installer, that sort of thing. Things happen, but it is getting fairly silly at this point. Hopefully, early next week the materials will be delivered, and then the install can begin. So, in…
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What Are You Reading?
If you are on my blog properly, you will see that my reading list is on display. But I thought I might illuminate my current reading selections, and ask you to share what your nightstand looks like (assuming you have books on your nightstand). Parable of the Sower: I just started this yesterday evening. A friend who is moving offered me the chance to browse and take from her science fiction collection. This one was actually off to the side, but she thumbed it a moment and handed it to me. Valuing my friend’s judgment, I decided it would be an earlier-rather-than-later read. So far, “odd” sums it up –…
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In The Mail: Small Group Edition
I am going to be co-leading a small group this spring on spiritual disciplines. A couple books were suggested to help with planning, and since I didn’t have either in my library, I decided to go ahead and grab them:
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Used Books Day
Friday, my wife had to be dropped off in Easley. I decided to go the extra distance and make a run to Mr. K’s Used Books. Supporting such a trek was the fact that my wife had set aside a box of books to trade in, while cleaning out her office. Turns out that most of the books were not accepted as trade-in. But, with the little bit I had made, I was able to pick out a couple interesting items: Introduction to the Theory of Relativity by Peter Gabriel Bergmann Der Spieler und andere Romane (Dostoyevski, in German!) Medieval and Modern Greek by Robert Browning (ooooooh) And the opportunity…
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In The Mail: Social Sciences, Mathematics and Fiction
So, this is likely the last of the new books for a while, considering the holidays are over, and I don’t know of any more on the way. These came before the weekend, but I’ve been fairly busy…
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After You Believe
I had the pleasure of preaching today, a 30,000 ft. view of discipleship. I quoted from After You Believe, and said I would post a link. Well, I will do just a bit more and provide the quote itself: Love is great-hearted; love is kind,knows no jealousy, makes no fussnot puffed up, no shameless ways,doesn’t force its rightful claim;doesn’t rage, or bear a grudge,doesn’t cheer at others’ harm,rejoices, rather, in the truth.Love bears all things, believes all things;love hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails… Fair enough to hold before yourselves that astonishing portrait. But don’t imagine that you can just step into it on a cheerful sunny morning and stay there effortlessly forever. The last…
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In The Mail: Spoken Uyghur
I’ve been drooling over this book for a while. Time to remove it from my wish list! It is aesthetically quite fetching, I think. Pretty reds and oranges, crisp paper. An interesting amount of extra white space at the bottom of each page, though.
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Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis: Motivation
The final three chapters, chapters 6-8, were a nice bridge from the shortened specifics of linguistic study and history towards a sounder study of scripture. Six focused on issues directly relating to Hebrew, seven to Greek, with eight being a well-spoken defense, a resounding “yes” answer to the question, “Is it all worth it?” Chapter 6 focused on issues with Hebrew linguistics, and my background and grasp of Hebrew is smaller than it is for Greek (itself not all that great). I’ll admit that as the author spoke on the troubles of understanding the verbal stems and their potential relations, I was intrigued. But I also felt like I was…
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Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis: Groundwork
At this point, I am about to start Chapter 6. It’s a good breaking point to look back and review. Chapter 1 was a simple, crisp introduction, a nice chilled soup starter. Chapters 2 through 5 are more substantial, a meaty sort of entrée1. It remains to be seen if the remaining chapters are a full on main course, an entrée in the American sense, a matched course, with substance following gracefully on what has come before, or a round of dessert, potentially fruity, cake-y, dense, decadent or sugary sweet. Or maybe it will be some mixture of all of them! Now that the saliva is going, back to the…
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Library Outing
After reviewing my local university’s library website, I found that at least one of the books I earlier posted about was available. Helpfully, I am an alumnus, and so can borrow books pretty easily. Thirty minute trip later – parking is a pain, though traffic is light right now – I had Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication in hand. Unfortunately, it is a much older edition (1979). Turns out even the edition cited in L&BE (6th, 2010) has been superceded. The size difference is immense, also, with the edition I borrowed having 357 pages, and that of the latest (7th, 2017) edition being 608 pages. At a whopping…
