Saturday, December 6, 2008

Silent Reading

It's been a strange week, being muted by laryngitis. I had to cancel all my appointments, including a message I was supposed to give at the seminary chapel. Mostly I've been doing lots of reading. My voice is barely starting to return (barely) and providentially I was planning to take this weekend off to go to Sacramento to visit "the kids" and run a marathon. I wouldn't have been able to preach anyway.

My energy finally started to come back Thursday and I've done a couple of tune-up runs and my lungs are clear so I'll give the marathon a go. Should be OK. I still have a nasty deep dry painful nighttime cough, but today's the first day my throat hasn't hurt.

Here are some of the books I've been reading in the past few weeks:
  • Jesus and the Victory of God, by NT Wright (scholarship on the historical Jesus)
  • Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler (mystery, good but not great)
  • Refiner's Fire, Mark Helperin (long, outstanding novel!)
  • Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz (re: Captain Cook)
  • The History of Christian Thought, Jonathan Hill (basic but I need the review)
  • Sources of the Self, Charles Taylor (great book by a great philosopher, very deep)
  • Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered, James Wilhoit (excellent and comprehensive guide to spiritual growth)
  • The Unnecessary Pastor, Eugene Peterson & Martha Dawn (various essays on spiritual leadership)

4 comments:

Scotte Hodel said...

Mark - as a Mac user, you should be aware that there are options to overcome speechlessness ...

Here's a short demo that I put together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1evyw09noQ

Unknown said...

Swallow a blue tooth? I'd be willing to try it at this point, but:

A: I don't know where to find one- will a gold tooth do?

B: I've been told that 100% of the people who have done this have come down with cancer.

Today my voice is partially back, on a sort of random basis. Before I couldn't talk, and knew it. Now I don't know if sound will or won't come out until I attempt it.

I gotta tell ya, Scotte, you should just be very thankful that you don't have MY problems!

Anonymous said...

I've been reading A Soldier of the Great War by Helperin and love his writing...I'll have to look for Refiner's Fire by him..thanks for the recommendation!

Unknown said...

My favorite Helprin book is Freddy and Fredericka: hilarious and stimulating.