[On Other] – BONNIE J. McKERNAN

Books of 2020 and a Remnant of Readers

January 20, 2021 No Comments

With two moves, house renovations, house selling, and countless traveling, I kept my 2020 reading goal to a manageable twenty-four for the year. Plus, I process slowly and like to linger on them a bit. As a #rabbittrailreader I’ve possibly read triple this in words and pages and chapters, but it’s been good and needed for me to set a small goal of books to actually finish (I use the Goodreads Reading Challenge).

I was curiously observing some frantic discussions recently, centered around current political climates and fears of book bans and all manner of inevitable suppression and whatnot because of things read in a forum here or an article there. It wearied me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. After all, I’d probably be all #keepyourhandsoffmybooks if this truly became a problem and it’ll always be incredibly important to me that my children have access to books that are good and true and beautiful.

My husband sent this though, and I found it poignant:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
—Neil Postman

…I tend to think it’s the latter we ought to be worrying more about these days. The information overload and conjectures on all sides, continuous stimuli for fight and flight, never-ending opinions from all, each touted as truth. No time, energy, or desire to read good books because of hours and minds too filled by current events and information-overload. We’ll either rely on everyone else for knowledge or think we already have it all.

I’m personally thinking it’s the perfect day to curl up with a cup of tea, a good book, and remind myself that I have unfettered access to the Truth that will outlast all of this.

As I set my goals for this year, what books are you eyeing for 2021?

My 2020 Books:

Dominion by Tom Holland
Little Woman by Louisa M. Alcott (read-aloud)
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle
Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter (read-aloud)
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Images of the Spirit by Meredith Kline
A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology by J. Richard Middleton
The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N.T. Wright
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (read-aloud)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (read-aloud)
Forgotten God by Francis Chan
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (read-aloud)
Science and Providence: God’s Interaction with the World by John Polkinghorne
Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed our Understanding of Space and Time by Michio Kaku
The God of Hope and the End of the World by John Polkinghorne
The Wild Birds by Wendell Berry
Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World by Walter Brueggemann
Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates (read-aloud)
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
Roots and Sky by Christy Purifoy
Lonely Man of Faith by Joseph Soloveitchik
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New by Annie Dillard
Genius and Discovery: Five Historical Miniatures by Stefan Zweig

[On Faith], [On Other], [On Schooling]

Read a Poem a Day

December 17, 2020 No Comments

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).⠀
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This is good advice for us all, and I’ve been thankful for The Trinity Forum and Coracle for their commitment in promoting such things. It’s hard to find places these days where reasonable words can be heard, whether about politics or poetry.⠀
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As such, I loved Marilyn McEntyre’s discussion of poetry on Friday (amongst many other things) as she and David Bailey discussed, “Speaking Peace and Seeking Reconciliation in a Fractured Culture.”⠀
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She brought up how promoting poetry is a public responsibility, rather than a private practice. Especially in these days of division and derision. Like hymns and psalms, it introduces truth in a subversive and surprising way. It helps refresh depleted soil. “Truth-telling is paradoxical,” and “reading poetry teaches us to think about words.”⠀
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“Why read a poem at a time like this?” Marilyn asks in an earlier essay I’ve read.⠀
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“The good ones offer even unpracticed readers, even resistant readers, some shock of recognition that brings them to terms with something true—a feeling, a memory, a fear, a sudden insight.”⠀
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“People who can read poetry well have learned to look closely and long at what they see and honor its complexities. They know how to think metaphorically, tolerate ambiguity, recognize the extent to which meaning is made, not just given, and read creatively and critically. They care about language and respect its power. They will not easily be duped, or persuaded by propaganda. They are discerning listeners, and make their judgments with deliberation. We need them in boardrooms and pulpits and on the floor of Congress and in labs and labor unions.”⠀
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So if there’s any good time to start the practice of reading poetry, I’d say 2020 is that year.
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[On Other]

J.R.R. Tolkien as an Artist

January 3, 2017 No Comments

I love art. So in honor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday (January 3,1892), what better day to highlight some. Did you know that he was a gifted and prolific artist??

In October of 1936, Tolkien delivered the manuscript of The Hobbit to his publisher which included his personal illustrations. When HarperCollins began preparing for a book on the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit, they discovered more than 100 of Tolkien’s illustrations, which had been buried in his archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford (and had only recently been digitized).

These manuscript drawings were released in The Art of the Hobbit (which I bought over Christmas), and it’s a magnificent volume celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit, including 110 beautiful, many never-before-seen illustrations by Tolkien, ranging from pencil sketches to ink line drawings to watercolors.

I’m in love with the art deco vibe. Here are some of my favorites…

More of his artwork can be seen here.

December 1956: British writer J R R Tolkien (1892 – 1973), enjoying a pipe in his study at Merton College, Oxford, where he is a Fellow. Original Publication: Picture Post – 8464 – Professor J R R Tolkien – unpub. (Photo by Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Getty Images)