The Weekly Wrap: March 8-14

Becoming a Reader

As a toddler I often observed my mother reading. She was always quite attractive, and never more so than when she was reading. There was something magical about reading and I couldn’t wait to get in on the magic! So, when we began reading in the first grade, we learned to decode the sounds words made, and as we sounded out words and put them into simple sentences (See Dick Run), it was amazing. I was eager to learn more words and move from simple sentences to short stories.

It wasn’t long before regular trips to the library were a must. How wonderful to discover the children’s section and graduate from short stories to chapter books. Eventually, mom shared some of her books she thought suitable. Often, I read with a dictionary to understand words I hadn’t seen before. Some days, I just read interesting articles in our encyclopedia and if all else failed, the cereal box!

I know there are reasons this magic doesn’t happen for every child from family influences to temperament to learning disabilities that just make reading hard. But I hope it is a magic to which every child has access. In my case, role models, good teachers, access to books at home, and library trips were all part of it. Personally, I think a commitment to wanting every child to have access to the magic of reading is a mark of a great society.

Five Articles Worth Reading

It is often argued that religion has been the great enemy of the advance of science. In “Reformation of science,” Peter Harrison argues that Protestantism actually played a vital role in the emergence of the modern scientific enterprise.

Reason didn’t convince author Christopher Beha to go back to church. Falling in love did. In “What Atheism Could Not Explain,” Luis Parrales explores the stories of other atheists who turned to religious faith.

George Scialabba proposes that “perhaps the greatest repository of moral beauty in English literature, [is] the voice of the narrator in George Eliot’s Middlemarch.” He makes an argument for the beauty of a hidden life in “The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch.”

Ivan Keneally explores the moral contradictions of American life in “Mark Twain’s Absurd, Noble America.”

Finally, it seems that encouraging children to continue to read in the middle grades is a crucial link to forming a lifelong reading habit. In “Without Her, These Beloved Classics Might Never Have Been Published,” Mac Barnett profiles Ursula Nordstrom and her career of editing books for middle grade readers.

Quote of the Week

Part of what inspired my thoughts on the magic of reading was this quote from Alberto Manguel in The History of Reading:

“At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.”

Miscellaneous Musings

We had widespread power outages due to wind yesterday. Fortunately, we were not among them. I’m struck by how much we depend on electricity for so much of what we do including reading books at night. At one time, we would have been confined to reading by candlelight. But now at least, smartphone book apps and some e-readers are backlit–for as long as their charge holds out!

Kathleen Schmidt, in her Publisher’s Confidential Substack called out USA Today for adding books that were just announced to their bestseller list. Sarah J. Maas announced two new books to be published in late 2026 and early 2027 that were already on the list. I suspect this is based on pre-orders. The galling thing is that this is not indicated. I personally don’t tend to look at them but rather reviews. Sometimes, I’ll browse bestsellers in my bookstore, but they almost never are what interests me.

Plough Publishing has published a number of graphic art works on everything from a biography of Arvo Part to Anabaptist history. They just sent me a book that accompanies nature poetry with graphic art. For some reason, I find this enhances my reading versus just reading lines of text.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Roger Lundin, The Culture of Interpretation

Tuesday: Fritz Leiber, Gather, Darkness!

Wednesday: Jeffrey Kluger, Gemini

Thursday: Michael S. Moore, Jazz Trash

Friday: W. Ross Hastings, The Glory of the Ascension

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 8-14.

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