My midwestern journey was a success. bbq was eaten and used books were bought (as usual). I went to a Chiefs game. Lots of other things too. It was good to see the family - beat up the sibs, reassert my basketball dominance; that sort of thing. And of course (the best part) someone Special came too (”a blog is no place for romantic sentimentality…”).

These are the books I have recently acquired:

/ A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway (nice old hardback edition)

/ Animal Farm by Orwell (I’ve read it, now I own an antique hardback)

/ V. by Thomas Pynchon (one of the best modern novelists)

/ Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (my fav. play of all time)

/ Metamorphosis by Kafka

/ Discourse on Method and The Meditations by Descartes

/ Selected Poetry of Browning

Matt B. also has loaned me a couple of books recently. Waking the Dead (Eldridge) is a book that several people have suggested to me. I’ve read a few chapters, though I’m not sure I’ll continue. I generally don’t read contemporary Christian literature because I think that most of it tends to be comprised of boring recapitulations commodified for the protestant middle class. A lot of it is also poorly written.

The other book MB gave me was The Mystery of God: Karl Barth and The Postmodern Foundations of Theology (William Johnson). I’ve read the introduction and am quite fascinated, though unsure if I have the spare attention and time that this book commands. This is a book of huge words and fascinating thoughts. I really enjoyed the introductory comparison of Barthesian thought to Mozart’s compositions. Barth’s “theocentricism” is in dissonant “equiprimordial countermelody” that stands in harmonic counter-balance to his “so called christocentricism.” (figure that out if you dare).

I also just finished two fascinating books on Islam. What Went Wrong? (Bernard Lewis), and Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (John Esposito). I don’t think I’ll examine this topic here, but I highly suggest both books (esp. Lewis) to anyone interested in getting a firmer understanding of conflict in the Middle East.