The Weekly Wrap November 16-22
Bookstore Serendipity
“Serendipity” was one of Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Day” offerings. They defined it as “luck in finding valuable or pleasant things unlooked for.” And that is why I love going to bookstores, or any book sale–even a box at a garage sale!
I asked this on my Facebook page this week: “When you visit a physical bookstore do you tend to be looking for particular books or do you prefer the “surprise me” approach?” From this poll, it appears I’m not alone. One person wrote, “it is very simple, I don’t find books, they find me.”
However, there were a number of “boths.” I’m also like that when I go to Barnes & Noble. I often have a book or two I’m looking for. But what I walk out with doesn’t always reflect that. For example, on my most recent trip, I had a book I was looking for, couldn’t find it but spotted two others that I bought. One was by a favorite author. The other was non-fiction that caught my fancy. I feel like those books found me!
But at a used bookstore or any other book sale, serendipity reigns supreme. I never know what I’m going to find. Here are examples of three of my favorite finds. First was Kenneth Latourette’s history of Christianity in one volume at an out of the way bookstore run by a former college professor. The second was Paige Smith’s two-volume biography of John Adams in a slip case. I honestly can’t remember where I found it. Finally, I found a like-new two volume set of Raymond Brown’s Death of the Messiah at our local Half Price when they used to have 50 percent off sales. Half price of half price–I think I saved $60!
But saving money is only part of it. Often, it is spotting one of those “I’ve always wanted to read that” books. And sometimes, it is just picking up something you’ve never heard of before. But it looks so intriguing. Valuable or pleasant things unlooked for–that’s one of the joys of bookstores!
Five Articles Worth Reading
Ever wonder what it was like to be the daughter of On the Road author Jack Kerouac? Jan Kerouac’s novel Baby Driver conveys much of that. It turns out he wasn’t much of a father. He didn’t even recognize her as his daughter until a paternity test made that unavoidable. This year NYRB Classics has reissued the book. “Father, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?” is Shane Devine’s review for the Hedgehog Review.
A trend in contemporary literature is the plotless novel. That is, it explores the inner life of its protagonist. If you are interested in character development but want a plot, M.L. Rio recommends “Eight Plot-Heavy Books That Will Keep You Turning Pages.”
Were you one of those like me who learned how to type at an actual typewriter? Some authors still swear by them. Somewhere we still have my wife’s college typewriter, the one on which she typed all my seminary papers, working from my hand-written text! She got a dinner out for every paper. If we were ever to break it out, I suspect it would need service. I came across this fascinating photo essay about one of the surviving repair shops that I thought you’d like: “How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life.”
Remember the great foodies of the past? For example, Julia Child or Anthony Bourdain? “Who Was the Foodie?” explores what it means to be a food influencer in a social media age. And one of the interesting ideas is that good food is about more than preparation and taste. Rather it is about the source of that food.
Speaking of food, next Thursday is the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States. JSTOR has put together a potpourri of “Thanksgiving Stories” with all the fixings. A veritable feast!
Quote of the Week
Feminist novelist (The Women’s Room) Nancy French was born November 21, 1929. Here’s something she said that offers much to ponder:
“Fear is a question. What are you afraid of and why? Our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we explore them.“
Miscellaneous Musings
Titles are meant to grab attention as well as give a hint of what a book is about. How the Rhino Lost His Horn by Jack Rathmell caught mine. It’s a narrative of the author’s travels from Appalachia to Africa. It was one of those rare books I accept for review because the author pitched the book personally. That’s always an adventure in itself!
I received another book recently titled In Guns We Trust. It is subtitled “The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms.” The cover also shows an image of Jesus holding an assault style rifle. The book compares its work to that of Tim Alberta in The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory as an effort to understand pro-firearm evangelicals from the inside. I hope it is an honest effort to understand, but the cover came across as polemical to me. But authors don’t always have a lot of control over these things. I don’t think polemics will get us to constructive measures to address the pervasiveness of guns and gun violence in American culture.
Next week I’ll be reviewing Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine, a trenchant critique of techno-capitalism. One thing that struck me is how much he mentions Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford, who foresaw these things more than a half-century ago. And what arrived today? Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul. It is a collection of essays co-edited by a good friend and Ellul scholar, David W. Gill. What a treat!
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: Catherine McNeil and Jason Hague, Mid-Faith Crisis.
Tuesday: Leyla K King, Daughters of Palestine.
Wednesday: Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine.
Thursday: Charlie Mackesy, Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm.
Friday: Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms.
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 16-22.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the United States!
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page