“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!”
Deathly Hallows cover released (a wrap around!).
Click here for a full image, and non-US covers.
Category: Books
In the 50th anniversary edition, Christianity Today published their take on the top 50 books in evangelicalism’s last 50 years (H/T Ref21). I’ve read a decent-sized chunk of those. I’ve got my fingers on the pulse of evangelicalism, I guess. Some of those titles are frightening. Simply frightening (and I’ve read some of those I call that!)
Does it matter? Does anyone care what a movement considers important? What a magazine considers important? Yes. Tim Challies outdid himself today with his post, By Our Books Shall We Be Known. Challies quotes, Jay Parini’s essay “Other People’s Books” (which I clearly need to find):
What interests me about other people’s books is the nature of their collection. A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements.
Other people’s books draw my attention, of course. They excite curiosity about their owners and the worlds they inhabit. But it’s finally my own books that matter, as they tell me about where I’ve been, and where I hope to go.
If that doesn’t describe my psyche, I don’t know what does. (other than a nasty coal mine…but that’s another post for another time)
The rest of the post is just as incisive. Other than the stuff about film, I like to think I’d have written the same thing–were I as talented as Challies, or took the time.
I’ve long thought that the idea of reading The Chronicles of Narnia in chronological order is plain silly. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first, and needs to be read first. Prequels, like The Magician’s Nephew, demand a knowledge of the “quels” they’re “pre-” to. As I’ve been reading the series with my kids over the last few months (we step into The Last Battle today), I’ve become even more convinced that Lewis told them in the right order when he wrote them, not when he talked about it later.
John Miller over at National Review Online makes the case wonderfully. Mostly by quoting the two books vying for first read. He’s right, it’s Wardrobe all the way.
Lewis put the matter more succinctly in a letter toward the end of his life: “An author doesn’t necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else.”
Lewis of course understood the meaning of Narnia. But a wise expert is not the same thing as a final authority — and on the question of which Narnia book should come first, Lewis was utterly wrong.
“Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
My wife (happy birthday honey!) would testify that nothing could describe me better…
Ooh, it’s Banned Books Week–that time of the year when librarians can change their posters and make people think of all sorts of scary things that can happen if a book it stomped out. Now, to an extent, I see the point, and can share the concern. But frankly, I bet it’s publicity like this that helps keep people banning certain books.
Well, the Crusty Curmudgeon posted a list of Banned Books, and like him, I’m a sucker for these lists. So here’s the list with the ones I read in bold. I count 18, which means I’m just a little bit naughtier than Scott.
- Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
- Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou–I think I started this one, but can’t say it for sure.
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier–read this and a sequel or two as I recall…creepy, intense, but I loved it.
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain–this one goes down as a “YOU MISSED THE FRIGGIN’ POINT OF THE BOOK IF YOU BANNED IT!!!” I love this book, and it grieves me no end that people trash it…
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck–it was a nice book. Like it better than The Grapes of Wrath
- Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling–yup, read ’em all at least twice (well, haven’t read the Order of the Phoenix twice yet…hmmm, know what I’m doing on semester break…)
- Forever by Judy Blume
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Read it several times, don’t remember a think about it
- Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman–should probably read it just so I know what the fuss is all about
- My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger–should probably read it just so I know what the fuss is all about
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
- Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine–looked dumb then, looks dumber now
- A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Sex by Madonna–oh my, can’t believe I’m admitting in public that I read this. What can I say? I was in college, curious, and my roommate had too much money. So he bought it, brought it back to the dorm and we read it…and got really bored (when we weren’t freaked out)
- Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
- The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle–read this and the sequels several times…don’t see why this would be banned (unless people don’t like Gnostics, which hey, I can relate to…)
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
- Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
- In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
- The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
- The Witches by Roald Dahl–not my favorite Dahl, but as I recall it was okay
- The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
- Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
- The Goats by Brock Cole
- Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
- Blubber by Judy Blume–I think it was this book that made me decide that only the books about boys by Blume should be read by boys.
- Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
- Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
- We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
- Final Exit by Derek Humphry
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee–this falls into the same category as Huck Finn. YOU HAVE TO READ A BOOK BEFORE YOU BAN IT, IDIOTS!
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton–um, whatever. Didn’t really see the point of all the excitement about this one
- The Pigman by Paul Zindel
- Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
- Deenie by Judy Blume
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
- Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
- The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
- Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
- A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley–been on my “to read” list for about 15 years
- Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
- Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
- Cujo by Stephen King
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl–wha? how is this on a banned book list? Did I miss something?
- The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell–don’t own it, never made anything from it, never felt the slightest bit of interest in doing so
- Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
- What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
- Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume–tried it, remembered the lesson learned from Blubber and stopped
- Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
- Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
- Fade by Robert Cormier
- Guess What? by Mem Fox
- The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
- The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding–best literary example of Total Depravity, but hated the book
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
- Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
- Jack by A.M. Homes
- Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya. Absolutely don’t see why this would be banned. Called over-rated? Sure. But it was a nice little story.
- Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
- Carrie by Stephen King
- Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
- On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
- Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
- Family Secrets by Norma Klein
- Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
- The Dead Zone by Stephen King
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain–not even going to comment
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
- Private Parts by Howard Stern
- Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford–this has got to be a misprint
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
- Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
- Sex Education by Jenny Davis
- The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
- Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
- How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell–got to be banned by a petition from PETA
- View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
- The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
- The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
- Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Man, my Amazon.com recommendations are gonna be messed up for weeks after me doing some searches to confirm what I remembered….