"The Bible is a remarkable fountain: the more one draws and drinks of it, the more it stimulates thirst."
- Martin Luther
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Like many of you, I enjoy reading and, along with that, amassing books. I take special notice of the disparate subjects treated by the books people have in their library. I love to see unlikely pairs sitting together on a bookshelf.
I'll give you a few of mine. My bookshelves are especially random, since my books are completely unorganized, having been placed on the shelves straight out of the moving boxes and never alphabetized or categorized in any way. How about:
James Hastings Nichols, Corporate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, alongside J.P. Mauro, Al Franken is a Buck Toothed Moron, and Other Observations.
Canonical texts of pacifism and conservatism sit together: The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder with William F. Buckley's Up from Liberalism.
Alvin Plantinga's philosophical work, Warrant and Proper Function, holds its own next to a classic in its field, Boston's Gun Bible by Boston T. Party.
Agrarian Wendell Berry's In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World, rests uneasily upon Ann Coulter's Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Berry's slim volume is a pointed critique of American culture in light of 9/11.
What odd juxtapositions can be found on your bookshelves?
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Comments on "Juxtapositions":
2. Alan
- 07/26/2007 4:59 pm CDT
You still have Toward a Feminist Christology? I thought that was the book you gave to me, that I gave to De at Rudy's BBQ. Don't tell me you made sure to have your own personal copy (and definitely don't tell me you went to some theology conference and had it signed by the author!).
3. Mr. Bones
- 07/26/2007 6:17 pm CDT
how 'bout "Where God was Born" by Bruce Feiler, next to "Flowers in the Attic" by V.C. Andrews?
And hey, I gotta question for you. Even though i'm more of a republican and like Rush Limbaugh somewhat, I read the book "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot", by Al Franken, but I never heard of Al Franken is a Buck Toothed Moron, and Other Observations. is it any good?
4. Alan
- 07/26/2007 6:27 pm CDT
It's been several years since I read it, but I don't remember being wowed by it at all.
5. Bird
- 07/26/2007 9:38 pm CDT
I'd go crazy if my books didn't have some order to them. Therefore, I don't really have any funky juxtapositions. The best I can do is The Pilgrim's Regress next to Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. That juxtaposition only exists because that's where my C. S. Lewis collection ends and my chess collection begins.
7. Mandi
- 07/27/2007 9:01 am CDT
I have children's books alongside my books. So you will find A Return to Modesty by Wendy Shalit alongside The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl. They just end up wherever someone stuffs them.
8. Ellen
- 07/27/2007 11:27 am CDT
"A Mother for Choco" (the BEST book to give to an adoptive family) next to "British Kings and Queens" (a genealogy book)
9. Jonathan
- 07/27/2007 6:26 pm CDT
M.M. Bakhtin's 'Dialogic Imagination' next to Frank Herbert's 'Dune.'
Aristotle's 'Politics' lying on top of Terry Pratchett's 'Light Fantastic.'
Dante's 'Divine Comedy' next to the complete Gilbert and Sullivan librettos next to Jean Bodin's 'On Sovereignty.'
The Reduced Shakespeare Company's 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)' sitting alongside Plato's 'Republic.'
None. My shelves are well organized by topic. (I have to actually use my library. :)
But I don't know what some of you may find more humorous:
That Hal Lindsey's book, "Satan is alive and well on planet earth" and "the book of Mormon" sit on either side of "Toward a Feminist Christology"
OR that they sit that way on purpose.