Of the Making of Books
Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 6:00AM A friend send me this email, and he's given me permission to post it here. It's a good rant, and I'd be curious to hear your reaction.
In any case your comment about reading it got me thinking about my own reading plans. I have been finding it very difficult to get into any book lately. This may in part be due to fatigue and a longing to get some rest. I fear it may be my brain frying. But I also think it may be that the evangelical community, especially the reformed types, are cranking out books at a frightening pace. (And the shameless self-promotion that accompanies it makes me to want to read them even less.) I find them all rather mundane and have been wondering how to get myself back into getting excited about reading. "Of making many books there is no end" and I think I have been too susceptible to the pressure to read them all. I have succumbed to the blogosphere's subtle suggestions that quantity is necessary regardless of its depth, that just because something is "reformed" it must be good, and that just because someone has written a book means that we should pay money to hear him answer questions on a panel at a conference.
It is a rare book that is not saying the same things said better by someone else in years gone by. Books are, I think, like worship songs. The good ones survive the test of time, but most of them are, deservedly (mercifully) soon forgotten. The trouble is, of course that we cannot look into the future and see which ones are going to last, so we have to slug our way through all the nonsense.
I think the reformed community is in danger of measuring their sanctification by books read, conferences attended, attitudes promoted and people offended. I think I need to read less of the stuff that is being pushed on us and more of stuff of substance. Your comment has led me to think that maybe I need to get back to the classics. I have the works of Richard Baxter on my shelf untouched for years now, as well as the works of Flavel, the Institutes, sermons of Matthew Henry ... . I haven't read Pilgrim's Progress in years and there are biographies that would be a much better way to spend my time than in persevering through yet another book on God's will simply because a man with good theology wrote it. (Do I really need to read it because of some nuanced approach that hasn't occurred to me before?) I have fallen prey to a certain degree to the promotions that imply, if not outrightly state, that one cannot be a good (reformed) Christian if one is not up to snuff on the latest offerings of our all stars.
If my brain is fried it is because I have willingly put it on the griddle and allowed it to be cooked by the expert chefs of a movement that may be in danger of saying "you need another cook book". Well, maybe. But maybe not. Go read the Institutes. Share the good stuff with us. Maybe we'll hear it and stop being enamoured with the novel, even the novel dressed up to be looking like the faithful of the past.
What do you think?
Reader Comments (9)
Nail firmly hit on head. It will be interesting to see which books are still being read as “classics” 30 or 40 years from now, if any.I also think that the same can be said for all the novel “theologies” that abound. We should spend more time walking along the time-tested “old paths” that have given many a soul safe passage.
Couldn't agree more. I've been a Dead Authors Club member for a while now. My reading has been (and will continue to be) heavily weighted to authors whose works have survived for at least one generation past the authors death.I also think my brain has been googled, and blog-ified. Way too many short pieces and summaries for me to concentrate and focus for more than a few paragraphs
I just may need to quote this. :-)
Could not agree more. Well said! You should write a book,..... ;>)
"I think the reformed community is in danger of measuring their sanctification by books read, conferences attended, attitudes promoted and people offended." (I have a feeling it's true for most of the Christian community).Our culture is fascinated with self-promotion and putting out thoughts, words and images on display for the public. Youtube, Flickr, Blogger...they are all examples of this. I don't think it's wrong for everyone to write a book, it's just where our culture is going. The book is in many ways just replacing the blog. In the end though, I only read 5 out of 200 posts on my rss aggregator, and I probably will read even less of that of books that i'm told to read.So i think your friend is right on, and says it well. I'm all about everyone writing their own book, go for it, it's a good way to discipline yourself to collect your thoughts. But if it is done in another meaningless pursuit for fame and recognition (which many blogs are done) well like he said and most comments said, eventually it will fall away and be of no real value to society.
At Mass (communally) and in prayer (privately) I am in the presence of God. I with Him. Him with me. Does not being in relationship, transcend any medium that speaks about relationship?I don't mean to suggest an either/or dichotomy but rather that our priorities are errant.If we make time every day to read and write but do not give a greater amount of time to being in the Lord's presence, are we making a wise choice?What is it that we need to know that our Father will not tell us?
Darryl,Good thoughts. I would concur with most of the comments. My senior pastor and I were discussing the other day not so much the number of books but the length of them. Many present day authors can sum up their points much quicker than they actually do. As a result, not only are there probably more books than necessary, but they are certainly longer than necessary. If the information contained in such books is intended to be passed on to others, it might make sense to condense their writings for the sake of transmission and accessibility.Obviously this is not an across the board suggestion. For instance Frame's books are long, but when writing about such matters, I get that they need to be long. But many writers need better editors. Save the really lengthy books for Frame and Dostoyevski. Just a thought for what its worth.
I read a lot (sometimes 3 to 5 books a week, sometimes 2 a month), fiction & non-fiction, christian & non-christian, but I don't read everything. If someone I trust recommends it and I can pick it up at the public or seminary library, I'll at least check it out.Sometimes, I find a book is probably good, but just isn't about a subject I'm interested in. Or, maybe the author is writing about something I've recently processed and moved on from. Doesn't mean it isn't a good book - just that I'm not the audience, or that right now isn't the time for me to be reading it. Sometimes I'll put a book down, thinking it's kind of worthless, then pick it back up a couple years later and find it's exactly what I needed to be reading.I think it's great that people are writing. The key is remembering I don't have to read everything just because it's on someone else's "must read" list.
I would be interested in hearing of some of the current books out, examples of books from long ago that said the same thing only better. There are some obvious ones, but I am wondering if somebody has other examples.