Quotes from Children of Men

In The Children of Men, P.D. James describes a particular church as “a place where silence was more than the absence of noise.”

Later, she rightly describes true cultural change:

“No government can act in advance of the moral will of the people.”
Julian said: “Then we will have to change the moral will. We have to change people.”
Theo laughed. “Oh, that’s the kind of rebellion you have in mind? Not the systems but human hearts and minds. You’re the most dangerous revolutionaries of all, or would be if you had the slightest idea how to begin, the slightest chance of succeeding.”
Julian asked, as if seriously interested in his answer: “How would you begin?”
“I wouldn’t. History tells me what happens to people who do. You have one reminder on that chain round your neck.”
She put up her distorted left hand and briefly touched the cross.

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Loss of an Historic Independent Book Store

Canada's oldest book store is closing after 169 years of business--yet another book retailer is unable to compete in a dot.com book world.

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Scottish, Once Again

In typical bureaucratic fashion, the Library of Congress changed their catalog system and swept 700 years of Scottish literary tradition under the heading of "English." Thankfully, the ire of the Scots has made them reconsider and to restore Scottish literature as its own literary heritage. The Washington Post has an article here.

Reading Statistics

If you have read one book in the last year, you have read more than 25% of the people in Great Britain, according to a report from the Office of National Statistics. Thirty-three percent of adults had not bought a book in the previous twelve months, and thirty-four percent said that they did not read books at all. Almost half of males between the ages of 16-24 had not read a book in the previous year.

Another survey indicates that the parents or guardians of one third of British children never read them a bedtime story. In the United States, only 53% of children aged 3 to 5 were read to daily by a family member.

The lowering of literacy levels cannot help but have a detrimental effect on a clear understanding of doctrinal issues and the ability to learn Biblical truth from reading.

The Decline of Reading

The New Yorker has a thought-provoking article about the "Twilight of Books" that is worth reading.

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Now Here's a Shelving Idea!

Click here for additional images from people with this unique method of cataloging their books. This might be addictive!

Quotes from The Intellectual Life

The intellectual is not self-begotten; he is the son of the Idea, of the Truth, of the creative Word, the Life-giver immanent in His creation. When the thinker thinks rightly, he follows God step by step; he does not follow his own vain fancy. When he gropes and struggles in the effort of research, he is Jacob wrestling with the angel and “strong against God. (xviii)

It requires penetration and continuity and methodical effort, so as to attain a fullness of development which will correspond to the call of the Spirit, and to the resources that it has pleased Him to bestow on us. (3)

Ambition offends eternal truth by subordinating truth to itself (6)

A life with too ambitious an aim or one content with too low a level is a misdirected life. (xxii)

All roads but one are bad roads for you, since they diverge from the direction in which your action is expected and required. Do not prove faithless to God, to your brethren and to yourself by rejecting a sacred call. (5)

When the world does not like you it takes its revenge on you; if it happens to like, you, it takes its revenge still by corrupting you. Your only resource is to work far from the world, as indifferent to its judgments as you are ready to serve it.

Genius is long patience (8)

Things have value in exact proportion to what they cost. (253)

To understand a single thing thoroughly, we should understand all things. (141)

The half-informed man is not the man who knows only half things, but the man who only half knows things. (122)

Order is a necessity, but it must serve us, not we it. (194)

The Handling of Books

Patrick T. Reardon wrote an insightful article about the practice of dog-earing, highlighting, and writing in books. Have faced some of the same trials and ultimate concerns over the sanctity of bound material, I understand his quirky points--even if that makes me quirky too. I once stopped reading a book because it fell off of the bedside table and the cover creased.

English Lit Up in Smoke?

In a recent article in the Telegraph, A.N. Wilson writes a remarkable article about personal freedom, literature, pubs, history, political correctness, and smoking that manages to offend almost everyone. That takes talent!

Horton Foote

One of my favorite authors, playwrights, and screen writers is Horton Foote. Alex Witchel has a great article about Foote, his history, and his upcoming productions. At the age of 91, Horton Foote is still very active--for which I am grateful. I have had the wonderful opportunity to produce several of his plays with high school students, and films such as Tender Mercies, Trip to Bountiful, To Kill a Mockingbird, and 1918 are among some of the best screenplays written.

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The Smell of Books

Patrick T. Reardon of the Chicago Tribune has a wonderful article on the smell of books. One can put the appropriate smell of books up there with complete sets, quality paper, and design elements as a requirement for all-sensory bibliophiles.

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King's Meadow Classical Christian College Survey

King’s Meadow is moving through the preliminary process of establishing a Christian classical college program. One of the steps necessary in order to be authorized by the state of Tennessee is to demonstrate the need for such a program. We’ve developed a short (16 question) on-line survey to ascertain the potential interest of the community. Please take a minute to complete the Classical Christian College Survey and please pass it along to other folks you know who might be interested.

Quotes from Bed and Board: Plain Talk about Marriage

Robert Farrar Capon wrote this book in 1965, and some of his observations about family, home life, and roles were prophetic. He is perhaps best known for The Supper of the Lamb—a wonderful Chestertonian look at cooking and theology.

“We have drowned [children] in commercial bilge, stuffed them with TV dinners and surrounded them with the racket of four appliances running at once; we have bequeathed them insoluble problems, and precious little discipline with which to handle them. But if, on some distant day, the smell of fresh bread can still break their hearts, I do not think that all will have been too hopelessly lost. (29)”

“The Christian mind has lo, these many years been pretty well switched off as far as ordinary life is concerned. It has taken what was available without asking any questions. Of course, in religion and morals it tried to do its own cooking; but across the rest of life—schooling, housing, marrying; working, playing, spending—it has been content to buy whatever packaged mixes were available on the shelves of the secular idea market. The result is that Christians, who would like to think they were different, have only succeeded in making themselves indistinguishable. They who would like to hope they had the answers, have only the same questions as the rest of the world. And so they sit on the sidelines, capable of an occasional pious comment…(33)”

“We live in an age that, for all its multiplication of red-hot aids to living, is characterized increasingly by a singular lack of concern about how to live. Excellence has a hard time meeting competition in any age, but in ours we have made a real specialty of shoddiness and shallowness. We float with the tide. Our idea of the right direction is keeping our backs to the wind. Worse yet, our ability to mass-produce our specialties has surrounded us with more to hear, more to read, more to watch, and more to taste than even kings ever dreamed. We have arranged matters so that a man can go from kindergarten to the old-age home so surrounded by things to do that he need never decide what he is. The one question he must not ask is: Who am I? If he should happen to wonder, somebody quickly gets him a lollipop, or a new car, or another wife or a stronger tranquilizer. And the worst part of it is that the somebody, more often than not, is himself. (41)”

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