I read this many years ago, and decided to revisit it. The book itself is intended as an introduction to the Christian faith, but as I’ve come to expect from C.S. Lewis, its also a very dense book, and one that I felt that I had to read carefully; there were some paragraphs that I had to read again and again.
This book was quite hard to get into at first; the first part is one that some readers would want to skip, as the book sets out its author’s case in favour of Christianity, almost like he were defending it in a court of law.
Having set out what he believes, Lewis then write about different Christian virtues, and how people of faith might be expected to behave, before finishing with a chapter about the Trinity, and the concept of being transformed into “Little Christs”.
At times, I thought parts of the book hadn’t aged well (there was a reference to “nasty countries” having “nasty religions” that might do more than raise a few eyebrows nowadays, unlike in the 1940s when it was first written. I would have been tempted to give this just 3 stars as it was hard to digest every single argument, but I enjoyed some of the illustrations that were used, and that encouraged me to give it an extra star. Church is described as being like listening to a secret wireless device from God himself.
I’m not sure if this would be a book to encourage all non-Christians who are looking into the faith, as it is definitely aimed at a more scholarly audience, but it felt like an engrossing book, and one that I would probably want to go back to just so I could remind myself of the author’s principal arguments.
Hubert Parry, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, "Jerusalem"
I finished What We Do in the Shadows last night (I understand Season 5 was the last). I thought it was okay, not brilliant, not awful.
[Spoiler (click to open)] I was glad they didn't kill any characters off. Guillermo realising he didn't want to be a vampire after all was a neat plot twist.
I could guess the final episode would revolve around Nandor having found out he'd got himself vamped by someone else.
I'm thinking again about my values, which are mostly my honesty and fairness to others, so I'll figure out how to use them today. I think I can definitely use these at work when helping colleagues make a particularly important decision this morning.
After work, I'm going to a seminar on dating at Euston Church, which hopefully will be informative.
I'm just thinking about my values, and how I can use them today.
Certainly, I can use my own commitment to doing what I say I will do, and dedication to Stag Walkers and getting people walking; so I'll hopefully go to one of my local pubs tonight, and see if I can put out some leaflets advertising our upcoming walks.
This was only my second Jeeves and Wooster book, and at times I found the narrative quite challenging because there seemed to be a lot going on.
I'll try and sum things up briefly, so it involves Bertie Wooster being obliged to take on a lot of responsibilities, something to do with his family's "code" that says they should always help out their friends. So, in this book it involves agreeing to petty theft, and even taking the blame for things he didn't do.
One of the main plots also involves one of Bertie's friends, who is so nervous about public speaking that he has written down all the things he doesn't like about his audience in a notebook so he can keep those in mind when addressing them. Predictably, he ends up losing the notebook and starts attempting to get it back before it falls into the wrong hands.
The ensuing events are predictably farcical, full of increasingly bizarre misunderstandings, and while I found some of the chapters slightly exhaustive just with trying to keep up with the fast pace of things, but overall I enjoyed it. One of the funniest moments really summed up how Jeeves really is the brains of the comedy duo. When one character suggests consulting a higher power, Bertie Wooster responds: "You mean, Jeeves?"
I feel that I should get my hands on another Jeeves and Wooster novel.
This is the second book in the Wolf Hall trilogy, and sets off where the original book ended. The title comes from a phrase that is used in the book, but which does not appear until around page 365.
So, Henry VIII has divorced Katherine of Aragon, and is married to Anne Boleyn. Those who are familiar with British history, particuarly Henry VIII's wives, will know that things will not end well for Anne, and sure enough the book leads up to her beheading, after Thomas Cromwell's involvement in helping create false charges of adultery against her. At one point, the book describes Anne as "a book left open on a desk for anyone to write on the pages, where only her husband should inscribe".
First off, this book was slightly shorter, and less complex, than its predecessor, meaning that it was a slightly easier read for me. The narrative style was the same as the original, and I noticed that at times Hilary Mantel wanted to really give the reader the impression of having been transported to the past, and witnessing the events first hand, with some sentences making items sound tangible, even portraying the reader at times as being able to touch and hear things, and read inscriptions.
There were a lot of events in this book that I wasn't familar with, or which I had forgotten about. Much of the first half of the book deals with Katherine of Aragon's ailing health, and her eventual death (I had not been aware that she was the first of Henry VIII's wives to die). There was also a story involving a stillborn boy that Anne had, which I remembered learning about in school. There was also a story involving an accident where Henry VIII was believed to be dead (I wasn't sure if this was based on factual evidence or fictionalised for the novel).
There were some other minor details I enjoyed, including the fact that Henry VIII was described as meeting with Jane Seymour, his third and favourite wife, early on in the book, and how later on Cromwell forbids Jane from removing gloves in front of the King (a portrayal of moral values of the day in which this book is set). Anne Boleyn is described as giving her money away to onlookers as she heads to the execution block.
I remember watching the dramatisation of this book on the BBC some time ago (it was shown as a serial along with Wolf Hall), and the writer made a big thing of the execution, which seemed to last for almost a quarter of the episode. It takes up less time in the book, but is still described in the same painstaking detail as the rest of the book.
I am really looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.
I spent some of today becoming engrossed in the "Being an Asian in Modern British Society" podcast; it felt like quite an eye opener, and I listened to two of the podcasts.
The people making it was Muslim, so it was fascinating to hear about life from their perspective, and what growing up was like for them.
A lot of what they talked about was "finding a balance" between their family's values, and UK culture; for example, going out clubbing not to get involved in the drinking culture, but because they enjoyed the company, or music. I was somewhat shocked at the mention of a young Muslim woman being told she "shouldn't be there" because she entered a nightclub wearing a hijab. As they mentioned at one point, they weren't sure if UK society would ever be fully inclusive.
The second podcast also mentioned how difficult it was to balance their school and mosque learning, both of which they had to do homework for, and at least one of them had found themselves having to concentrate on school, and commented on "not knowing the basics of Islam".
The second podcast I listened to was all about gender, and about how much harder Muslim women have in Britain than men; I sometimes find myself wavering during podcasts, but this one kept me enraptured throughout.
Otherwise, I had quite a boring day; I was meant to be doing a webinar this morning, and only remembered about three hours later; I will have to hope that it got recorded. I clocked off work at 4, and did the after-work music quiz. Most of the time, I was winging it - my music knowledge isn't great. I finished 8th.
I am really ready for the weekend; this has been a boring week.
I've been thinking of my values today, and how to apply them to my life today.
First off, there are my Christian beliefs, which I hope were on display this morning when I did the usual prayer zoom call with church friends; good to be able to join after missing the last two weeks.
Secondly, good manners, and I like to think I've got politer as a result of the lockdown and social distancing, so no temptation to cut up slow-moving pensioners who are on their way into the supermarket because I don't want to get stuck behind them. My walk today was full of my usual polite social distancing, backing off if I saw someone coming the other way, not responding with a sarcastic, "you're welcome!" when they didn't thank me.
Then, there's honesty, which can often be my achilles heel because there are so many times when I'd like to lie, but feel bad doing so; I'm not sure how I could apply this to today, except maybe in this post.
But there's also diplomacy so unlike some people I know I won't blurt out things that are true, but a little too brutally honest, so potentially insensitive to others' feelings. I did think once again about e-mailing the person who runs the Christian group at work, explaining my absence, without blaming anyone, saying something like "I'm not enjoying myself; I don't feel able to contribute effectively", but decided against it just because usually when I start to give reasons for why I'm not doing something, I end up shafting myself in various ways - usually people not inviting me to things "because I give detailed reasons as to why I can't attend", and also because I've been told it's a really "passive" thing to do.
I remembered how I'd hastily sent a friend a couple of WhatsApps on Saturday Night, but five minutes after thought better of it. He's a friend who can be unpredictable with his responses, and I became so convinced that I'd suggested something so foolhardy that I'd only get critism over it. Of course, when you delete a WhatsApp, it still comes up as a "deleted message" so I had him asking about it. My only response was to say, "I thought better of it" without going into reasons that might end up not looking tactful.
I've not had to use tact today, yet.
I suppose finally, there's perseverence, not giving up on things; my jigsaw is an example; I looked at it today, and I'm often tempted to think, "how can there be enough space between these pieces to add the missing bits?" and "are some pieces missing?" but I'm determined to keep going with it.
I'm still going with the 30 day fitness challenge, though I think on certain days when I have a zoom call at about quarter past eight, I need to try and rationalise everything I do; today I tried to fit in Bible reading, Daily Calm, reading a book, fitness, a shower, breakfast and a short walk before the prayer meeting, and I barely managed them all.
The fitness challenge is going well, but I am starting to feel the burn on the "wall sits"; I may have to soon wave the white flag on doing a continuous wall sit for too long, and break it into two separate ones.
Today, I started on the "30 minute challenge", and had a walk of more than half an hour at lunchtime.
The walk was my third for week 2 of National Walking Month.
Work was okay today; I'd been expecting a long meeting, and the sort where it feels like everyone has something intelligent to say except me.
In so many circles, I feel like this - which brings me back to the work Christian group.
Yeah, when I've been waiting half an hour to speak, and when I do, several faces on my screen look out at me like, "are you for real?", it isn't good for my confidence. Like they say, it is often better to keep quiet and have people think you are a fool than to open it, and leave them in no doubt.
Edit: I sidetracked myself and forgot to finish the story: It turned out that it wasn't some big round table discussion, just our director reading out a bunch of facts, and departmental plans that made me zone out a little. The good news was the meeting, expected to be over an hour long, ended up being just half an hour.
I have managed one success today: I finished filing away some unsorted, and very messy, notes that I'd accumulated from work, working out what might be needed, and what could be binned, making my intray somewhat neater.
I enjoyed his allegorical works, i.e. the Narnia series, but I doubt I will ever read this or his other "scholarly" pieces, especially if he is as much of a bigot as you imply.
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
hopeful
thankful
enthralled
relieved
ditzy