Nathan
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 70 |
| correct: | 43 (61.4%) |
| skipped: | 2 |
| best streak: | 9 |
| questions added: | 0 |
]]>
]]>
A very good insight into the life of a Deaf man and his hearing son. ]]>
This is a really neat book. The idea is that you don't have to master biblical Greek in order to be able to use Greek tools. It does a great job of introducing you to Greek grammar, teaching you how Greek differs from English, and showing how those differences become important to exegesis of the New Testament. Mounce also spends time discussing why the various English translations differ, such as differences in translation philosophy, ambiguity in the original Greek, and availability or choice of source manuscripts. There is a fascinating chapter on the history of Biblical manuscripts and translations. He's also really good about making sure you understand the limits of your Greek knowledge, and often warns of the dangers of becoming over-confident in your knowledge.
He also recommends a lot of specific books and software tools. Perhaps even more helpful, he warns against a lot of resources either because they're not good quality or because they're too advanced for non-scholars. While I haven't bought any of the commentaries, concordances, or software tools he recommends, I do own another book by him called An Interlinear for the Rest of Us. He calls it a "reverse" interlinear, since it lists the English (NIV) at the top and then rearranges the Greek to fit the English word order. It then has the original Greek at the bottom of the page in case you want to see it that way.
Overall, it was a somewhat dry but highly informative read. It was really fun learning to read Greek: I felt like a 1st grader again trying to sound out words for the first time. I haven't really put my new knowledge to use yet, but I look forward to the opportunity. I'd definitely recommend it.
απολαμβάνετε! ]]>
I had read this book in high school, but I decided to read it again after I picked up a copy at a garage sale for 50¢. I found that I enjoyed it much more, now that I am older and able to look back on my own high school years much as the narrator does in this book.
For such a short book, A Separate Peace packs in a lot of subtle meaning. The questions of identity seemed to me the dominant theme through the book: Gene (the narrator) and Finny are best friends, but increasingly rely on each other and by the end of the book are so co-dependent that each seems to think of the other as an extension of himself.
The book also takes place during World War II and The War sets the most important backdrop for the story. The way in which each character responds to the reality of The War is an important theme as well. In the end, Knowles concludes: "it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart."
I'll confess that while the major themes were pretty accessible in this book, a quick read through sparknotes was also helpful for me in picking up on some of the significance of some of the more subtle points in the book. ]]>
This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer prize-winning author (for Soul of a New Machine) with a unique style. He basically picks someone interesting, and follows them around for a year or so and records everything they do. He combines that with a lot of research and interviews and then still manages to write a book that reads almost like a novel.
In Among Schoolchildren he follows around Mrs. Zajack, who is a really good fifth-grade teacher in a really difficult school. It is fascinating to looks in on her classroom for a year and witness how a truly good teacher teaches.
In one sense, it's a very encouraging book. Mrs. Zajack is everything you hope your child's teacher will be: she works hard, cares deeply about each child, treats every child fairly, gives a lot of individual attention, manages the children's behavior well, and all of that. But it also demonstrates clearly that even a great teacher can only do so much, and that the most important factor in determining a child's success or failure is--almost without exception--their home life. That's an important "almost," though, and at the end of the year even one of the students with the most problems shows some encouraging signs of progress.
Having just married an educator, I think this book will be valuable as I try to understand my wife's work.
Now if I could just remember to return this book to the library. I probably owe $5 on it already. ]]>
by C.S. Lewis
I'm glad to hear that you liked it, too. I thought it was a really clever way to deliver his thoughts. I remember really liking Screwtape's toast at the end, though I can't remember what it was about. ]]>
The end of an era.
Please hold a moment of silence...
Thank you. ]]>