Books and Reading on Miscellanea

Making Best Use of the Time

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:02:12 +0000

I read [the 740 page N.T. Wright book on the Resurrection of Jesus] while brushing my teeth over a period of time. … One page in the morning, one in the evening.

Evil, Enormous Multiplication of Books

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age. It presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information, by throwing in the reader’s way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter….

Hears Me My Cattercisum

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It seems to me that sundays get nicer and nicer becous Poply reads me in pilgrime progres and hears me my cattercisum, and I like it very much.

Difficulty of Berivty

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Anybody can have ideas — the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

Challenge of Writing

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Oh that I had the art of easy writing What should be easy reading!

A Modest Cottage with Books

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.

Be Scripture Men

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

If the Scripture be of divine inspiration, then be exhorted, to study the Scripture. It is a copy of God’s will. Be Scripture-men, Bible-Christians.

Lincoln’s Best Friend

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

Books vs. Knowledge

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Nevertheless, though of real knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty.

C. S. Lewis on Devotional Books

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I believe that many who find that ’nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.

Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Actually, the literary tradition that Douglas [Adams] was part of was, at least initially, the tradition of English Humor Writing that gave us P. G. Wodehouse (whom Douglas often cited as an influence, although most people tended to miss it because Wodehouse didn’t write about spaceships).

Fools and Asses

Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.’ Most of us can’t rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book.

John Newton on Jonthan Edwards

Thu, 29 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

‘Edwards on Free Will,’ I have read with pleasure, as a good answer to proud reasoners in their own way; but a book of that sort cannot be generally read: where the subject matter is unpleasing, and the method of treating it requires more attention than the Athenian spirit of the times would bear, I wonder not if it is uncalled for.

The Lord of the Rings Not a Children’s Book

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I find that many children become interested, even engrossed, in The Lord of the Rings, from about 10 onwards. I think this is rather a pity, really. It was not written for them. But then I am a very ‘unvoracious’ reader, and since I can seldom bring myself to really work twice I think of the many things I read – too soon! Nothing, not even a (possible) deeper appreciation, for me replaces the bloom on a book, the freshness of the unread.

Lovers of Books

Fri, 14 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.

Barth on Calvin

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I could gladly and profitably set myself down and spend all the rest of my life just with John Calvin.

C. S. Lewis on Doctrinal Books

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.

Tim Keller on the Lord of the Rings

Sun, 24 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When people ask me how often I have read The Lord of the Rings, the answer is, I actually never stop. I’m always in it.

Sure Mark of an Unliterary Man

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work.

The Story is the Meaning

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The whole story is the meaning, because it is an experience, not an abstraction.

Money for Books

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

On Buying Books

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

Reading and Raking

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When my sons complain that a good book is hard to read, I say, ‘Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.'

Book I Ain't Read

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.