Bible Studies

Some time ago, in fact it seems like an age ago, I thought I would have a go at reading the Bible.  I am currently around three quarters of the way through, having just got started on the New Testament.  Of the many things I have learned about the Bible from reading it the comparative lengths of the Old and New Testaments came as a surprise.  I had always imagined that the two sections would be roughly the same length, or perhaps I just did not pay enough attention in Sunday School.

The Old Testament was both depressingly blood drenched, overly long, blandly repetitive and largely narrative free.  The constant imprecations and dire oaths do become hard reading, and the long genealogy lists and compilations of dimensions of things, parts of the OT come across like an Ikea guide to building a tabernacle, are hardly gripping either.

Getting to the New Testament then with its messages of tolerance, peace and love is a breath of fresh air.  The story of Jesus looks to be so short though, he is born, and only a handful of pages later he is about to die, I thought he would get more of a run. Oh well, 79% down, as we Kindlers' say, I'll keep clicking the page turn button.

50 Shades of Fanfic

I don't think I am going to read the current literary craze that has housewives the breadth of the country cackling with delight over how sexy it is.  No matter how many people tell me that 50 Shades of Grey is the best thing since Harry Potter slash fan-fiction. Actually, 50 Shades is Twilight slash fiction isn't it, because that's where author E L James started out ?


 You haven't heard of of slash fanfic ?

Supernatural - you'll never see the Winchester's in the same light
once you have encountered Supernatural slash-fiction.

Well, there is fan fiction - stories written by fans of a particular novel or series of novels which place existing characters in new situations and plots. Some of it is good, much of it is dross. Then you have slash fiction which began as homosexual pairings of literary characters - Frodo buggers Sam, Legolas gives Boromir a blowjob etc. - and has now broadened to become a wider erotic genre encompassing heterosexual relationships and other, stranger pairings. Stranger pairings you say ? Well yes, Lord of the Rings has Ents, and Harry Potter has house elves, and their crazed slash-fic fans don't like to let any possible match-up go to waste.

Free Books

I saw this website posted in one of my university groups...

Real Readers

Keen readers who are willing to write reviews can apparently get free books, in advance of publishing, to read and review.  It sounds good so I have registered with them.  I will report if and when I get my first free books.

A Poverty Of Contemplative Thought ?

"Over the last 100 years or so the loss of the religious as a reputable discourse in common life has led to a poverty of language, and thus to a poverty of contemplative thought and feeling about what we are, and what we need. We need some inner stuff, scaffolding to help us get around our inner space, something to help us map, explore and even settle those places where we are still primitive." - Jane Davis in the essay The Reading Revolutiuon in Vintage Books' Stop What You're Doing And Read This, London, 2011.

The Reader Organisation

What I Did On My Holidays

The Moonlit Mind - Dean Koontz 6*
The New Rules - Bill Maher 9*
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 7*
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins 7*
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins 8*
Snuff - Terry Pratchett 8*
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse - Vicente Blasco Ibanez 8*
Soldiers Of Salamis - Javier Cercas 4*
127 Hours - Aron Ralston 9*
VSI Sikhism - Eleanor Nesbit 7*
Tiger, Tiger : A Memoir - Margaux Fragoso 8*
On The Third Day - Rhys Thomas 7*
The Good Women Of China : Hidden Voices - Xinran 9*
Songs Of The Mexican Seas - Joaquin Miller 4*
Blackout - Connie Willis 3*
Antique Works Of Art From Benin - Augustus Henry Lane-Fox 8*
The Man Who Would Be King - Rudyard Kipling 7*
Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs 7*
The Insatiable Spider Man - Pedro Jaun Gutierraz 6*
Band Of Brothers - Alexander Kent 4*

10%

Cover of Under Fire: the story of a squadOr as near as damn it 10% anyway. Yesterday I finished Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses to finish one of my reading goals for the year, to read at least 100 of the 1001 Books list.

Reading the classics of literature, or at least the classics as nominated by editor Peter Boxall and his team of well read contributors, is an interesting experience, although the 1001 book itself puts these novels forward as the best novels ever written my experience so far has been that in my own opinion, some of these books are wonderful and fantastic, and some of these books are dull, turgid or just plain horrible.

In the wonderful category I would include H G Wells The Time Machine, W Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage even though at points I wanted to reach into the book and give Philip Carey a hard slap, and Under Fire : The Story Of A Squad by Henri Barbusse, a harrowing and all too realistic description of a French unit fighting and suffering in WW1.

The middle ground of books that are just alright takes in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier in which I just could not warm to any of the characters and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje which had some absolutely beautiful writing but a slightly directionless plot.

At the lower end of the enjoyment scale I did not enjoy a protracted trek around the Scottish uplands with Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy, and 120 Days Of Sodom by the Marquis De Sade is just horrible, both of these books took me a long time to finish.

My next reading goal then is 100 books for the year, and as I am on 90 books already I should manage this with ease unless my eyeballs drop out.  How have I managed all this reading on top of a degree course and a job ? Well, it's amazing how much time you can find when you leave your Eve Online battleship in its hangar for a few months.

My Study Diary - by Mike aged 43

"Almost a month since I wrote my first entry for the study diary.

I feel that I am making good progress so far, I have grabbed bits of time to study here and there and have completed up to Activity 29 in the study book. I do feel that I now have a decent grasp of the basics of poetry, although some practise and repetition certainly won’t harm.

I have really enjoyed the poetry section, and learning about the forms, structure and context of poetry has helped both my understanding and enjoyment of the module so far. I feel confident that I have understood most aspects of the poetry module and that I have made good progress.

I have read some other poetry, some by Sylvia Plath, and I am half way through the set poetry book for AA100, so I am gradually widening my knowledge of poetry. I have also read some books which are related to study in general or arts and history, The Study Skills Handbook - Stella Cottrell, Wilfred Owen : War Poems and Others - Ed. Dominic Hibberb, Learning To Look At Modern Art – Mary Acton and taken notes.

Areas that I would still like to develop – I still struggle a bit with iambic pentameter, and I have found from the ‘comments’ section that there are often layers of meaning within poems that I have not always understood, or in at least one case, agreed with. This last point refers to ‘The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping’ which I found hard to see as a protest poem when placed alongside some of the other poets, perhaps in relation to the larger body of Nichols’ work it would make more sense."

Image by Getty Images via @daylife"We need to make books cool again. If you go home with someone and they don't have have books - don't fuck them" - John Waters.