Reading log

What I’m reading:

Peter Leithart, A Great Mystery – slowly! - 14 sermons from weddings – surprising stuff – short homolies, more philosophical / theological than from a biblical text, interesting ideas and good stuff, not very plagerisable

For fun:

C. S. Forester’s Adniral Horblower omnibus – good fun, undemanding, heroic. I devoured all (20 odd is it?) the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey novels in a couple of years – I think they’re better literature. I don’t know why I seem to have liking for seafaring yarns. I’ve never sailed properly. I cant always tell what’s going on, but its often very exciting.

I’ve nearly finished these so I’d be gratfeul for suggestions for what next: no more sea for a while - something not too too trashy but not too much like doing your homework. Maybe some Morse or Cadfeal? Or some not too worthy 99p Penguin Classic?

Wodehouse, Jeeves and Wooster omnibus has sat by my bed for a while – fun enough and mildly diverting but I’m not compellingly gripped. Can I be bothered with more, what oh?

Academic:

Still speech act stuff, mainly Vanhoozer. Time to move on!

What I might read next:

Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready: directions for defending the faith – theory and practice of presuppositional apologetics and a few chapters on specific issues such as the problem of evil

I’ve just ordered:

Robert Alter, The Pleasures of Reading in an ideological age – a plea for reading great literature – highly recommended by Ros Clark who’s been arguing that Bible teachers need to be better readers

David Allen, Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity – I’m a sucker for self-help / management books – I guess I’m lazy and hoping for a magical quick fix – this one seems to be much esteemed by computer geeks

Academic (though not till Monday, of course):

Those few "good" (i.e. significant) books (on language and literary theory)

Stuff on semiotics, words as signs and the Bible

* * *

Cataloguing some of my books on Library Thing has reminded me that I’m better at buying books than I am at reading them. But I don’t think I’m very good at buying them either: I can’t resist a “bargin” which turns out to be cheap because its junk.