Since starting my own blog I have started to read the blogs of others. One of the things I have noticed is the number of people displaying obsessive-compulsive behaviour when it comes to books. It is easy to measure spirituality by how many books you can read in a year, or, even more bizarrely, by how many feet of shelving one's library occupies.
On one level I can relate to this. I admit to a certain twitchiness when too long has gone by without me finishing a book, and I can suffer from 'reading guilt' when I consider how much great material there is out there which I have never read and probably will never read. This feeling can be compounded by the reading exploits of others. (Amazon's current top reviewer has posted reviews of 15,208 books! How does anyone do that?!)
Quantity is no indication of quality, however. I think of friends in other nations who have very restricted access to Christian books, but whose lives display a profound spirituality. Of course, I think everyone should read. There is no virtue in being ignorant, but it is possible to read very widely but never deeply. And many of us tend to fall into the trap of reading the latest thing and not reading books of real substance.
I remember the course tutor for my MA advising us that we should focus on books that had stood the test of centuries. I doubt that in 50 years time (let alone 500) anyone will be reading the titles that currently occupy the Christian bestseller lists (and certainly not this blog!). A pastor friend of mine related to a group of us his most recent visit to the local Wesley Owen bookshop. Apparently, this is named after John Owen and John Wesley, to reflect the Reformed and Arminian traditions of Evangelicalism, but my friend felt it should be renamed 'Yancey Meyer' as he could not find anything of substance on the shelves!
So, rather than reading nothing or falling into the trap of seeking justification in the quantity of what we read, better to read a few things which are really worth reading. To this end I am adding a "Read Hot" section at the bottom of my blog where I shall occasionally list books I think are really worth digging out and digging into. I am starting with Augustine's Confessions.
Best of the Rest w/e 24 May 2013
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[image: Best of the Rest w/e 24 May 2013 primary image]
You know the drill by now. Here's the stuff that's caught our eyes this
week. Share and enjoy.
Ar...
1 day ago
6 comments:
Hmm. I had mixed feelings about your post Matt. I agree that there are too many Christian books published, but as I have something of a vested interest I had to challenge this (just a bit!).
Many an outstanding book that lasts has been the product of many other books that came before it butdidn't last. For example, when C S Lewis was editing the manuscripts of the talks that Mere Christianity is based on he was aware of many books explaining Christianity to the 'common man' published in the decades before and often referred to these. None of these have lasted, but without them Mere Christianity would not have lasted as it has. It is impossible to decide at the tmie which books will last and which won't - even in my 10 years in publshing I have read books that I have been convinced were oof lasting value, but they were out of print within 3 years.
There are some books published in the last 30 years thaht show signs of being books that will last. One such example would be 'Where is God When it Hurts' by Philip Yancey which was published 30 years ago now and has yet to be bettered in terms of what if offers the Church. Maybe it will last another 30 years or another 300.
As we are only 200 years or so into Mass production of books (which followed the growth in literacy) it is hard to judge what books will last - who reads William Law these days?
Here's a question. What qualifies as a 'book of substance'?
I need to think about that....
Yes, I agree with you to an extent Ian. Generally I would like people to read a lot more books, and I am constantly encouraging people to get reading. Most of the stuff I recommend to people is 'now', so it is not that I am anti new books. My point was just that people shouldn't feel guilty if they are not reading 'enough' and that most of the Christian paperbacks we read will not last the test of time. I have lots of these myself! I like reading Piper, Driscoll, Yancey, etc. (but not Meyer!) and think they are worth reading. But they are unlikely to be read by my grandchildren.
A book of substance, as I describe it, is one that lasts for decades or centuries, and changes the way we do theology and/or how culture operates. These are books that will still be relevant to my grandchildren, and to theirs.
Phil - good point. I the connotation of this phrase is 'books that have lasted and continue to be read' which isn't quite what the denotaiton is - books with good content. Books with good content (a subjective value judgement anyway) may or may not last.
Matt
How many books written three generations or more ago do you actually want to read - 5, 10, perhaps 15? There are not many. And I assume it is the same with books now - of those written in the last decade maybe (if we are lucky) one of them will last for more than 50 years. I am very sure the majority will nto be read - not because they have no value or substance, but simply it is the way of things.
Yes, that is the way of things. Every generation has to have the story retold for its own context. Your example of Mere Christianity is a good one. I think that it feels terribly dated now, and would be cautious about who I recommended it to; which is why others (E.g., Tim Keller and NT Wright) have recently written what they hope will be contemporary equivalents of Mere Christianity.
Or, another E.g., at the moment I am reading Andrew Wilson's 'Incomparable'. I couldn't recommend this enough. It retells ancient truth for a contemporary audience. But will anyone be reading it in 30 years?
In their book 'The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership', Steven Semple & Warren Bennis argue that leaders should focus on 'supertexts'. These are the books which are 400+ years old and still widely read. It is a short list. The reason these books are important is that they form the foundation of our culture. Get to grips with them and you have got to grips with the whole story.
Its not that contemporary books are without value - far from it - but if you were only allowed another 10 books for the rest of your life it would be wise to go with the supertexts rather than the latest paperbacks.
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