The Weekly Wrap: August 24-30
Old Reviews
Earlier this month I marked twelve years of blogging. Consequently, I’ve written a lot, and its all still here! This is my 3,846th post. Over the 12 years my posts have been viewed over two million times.
I don’t often think about what I was writing about in 2015. But I’ve been going back through my old posts, aware that there are a number of broken links. And I’ve been staggered by how many of those links I am finding.
The saddest experience is discovering bookstores that I wrote about that have closed (on the other hand, I wrote about Barnes & Noble when it looked like it was in trouble). The second saddest thing is to discover books that I reviewed, some newly published at the time, now out of print.
It makes me wonder about the value of reviewing. Why bother when a number of these books will go out of print within ten years?
Part of the answer is that reviews matter most close to the time of publication, when authors and publishers are launching the book. Yet a number of books have caught on over time by word of mouth. When I review backlist books, I’m part of that chain.
Another part of the answer is that past reviews serve as a reference point in the discussion of works that continue to have a readership. I consult other reviews of backlist books when I write mine and try to add to the discussion.
In the end, I can live with reviews being ephemeral. The book is the thing. I love pointing people to books I thought worth reviewing and encouraging a reading culture. In the end, it really doesn’t matter where they heard about the book if they profited from it.
Five Articles Worth Reading
One of the big book launches of the week is R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, in which two graduates go to Hell to retrieve the soul of their Ph.D. advisor. “In ‘Katabasis,’ R.F. Kuang Takes Readers to Hell“, is Kiersten White’s take for The New York Times
This is hardly the first time a descent into Hell has been the subject of a literary work. Perhaps the most famous is Dante’s Divine Comedy. In “Digesting Dante” Richard Hughes Gibson traces the history of the work’s reception and shows that its success was not always a given.
Another aspect of Katabasis is that the students are studying “Magick.” Richard Cytowic, in “When Your Father Is a Magician, What Do You Believe?” describes the influence growing up with a real-life magician had on him.
For some of us, reading Moby Dick was a kind of descent into Hell, particularly if we had to read it in high school. Caleb Crain describes what fresh insight came when he read the book when he was Ahab’s age in “Another cruise.”
Finally, on a lighter note, many of us have read Shakespeare’s plays or seen them performed in other venues. Through “Take a Virtual Tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London” you can get a 360 view of the theatre and see a clip from Julius Caesar, staged in the theatre.
Quote of the Week
Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. made this observation that I hope to fulfill in serving as a guest preacher in my church;
“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.”
Miscellaneous Musings
Katabasis raises an interesting question. For what would you forfeit thirty years of your life? That is the price of admission for entering Hell.
I had one of my rare experiences weekly of walking out of a bookstore bookless. I went to Barnes & Noble to check off their 50% off hardcovers sale. A few near misses but nothing that said “buy me.” I was probably aware of the queue of books in my TBR pile.
For the theologically oriented, Michael J. Gorman’s I Corinthians is one of the best recent commentaries I’ve read. His concluding reflections and questions in each section of the commentary combined with his clear exegesis make this a great commentary that brings knowledge and devotion together. I’ll be reviewing it next Friday. Speaking of which…
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: The Month in Reviews: August 2025
Tuesday: Malcolm Foley, The Anti-Greed Gospel
Wednesday: Christopher Sadowitz & Jim Harries eds., Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, but God
Thursday: John W. Miller, The Last Manager
Friday: Michael J. Gorman, 1 Corinthians
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 24-30!
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