I was talking to Mr HippoCritic who was telling me about his holiday reading. He was saying how much he'd enjoyed reading Mark Driscoll's book, Confessions of a reformission Rev. I've not read it so this post will neither comment on it nor on Mr Driscoll.
I thought instead I'd let you all know what i read on holiday. I managed three books, however two of them were rather short and one was a novel so was quick to read. (HEALTH WARNING - if your easily offended then please don't read on).
Having enjoyed and appreciated the cultural insight of other Coupland books (e.g. Gen X, Life after God, Hey Nostradamus! & Eleanor Rigby) I was very much looking forward to his latest novel JPod. Frankly I was both disappointed and annoyed. Disappointed as the characters seemed as though they had been jettisoned in from other Coupland novels (perhaps there is a subtle point by Coupland that I'm missing here). He writes himself into the story and I found these self references (a) a bit arrogant, (b) quirky (c) bizarre. The Chinese character is such a stereotype of the Chinese gangster that Coupland is fishing for you to read the book and come away saying "frankly I disappointed that Coupland so typecast Kam Fong". Indeed I think the book tries too hard to be ironic.
I was annoyed as there's just so much wasted paper in the book. He has pages of stuff that the characters in the book send each other, e.g. the number Pi takes up 41 pages of the book firstly with one wrong digit inserted and then with an o used in place of 0. Given I think that the book tries to make some point about how wasteful we are and that given the growth of the Chinese economy and that their aspirations are to have a Western lifestyle (i.e. drive a car), then in the words of Ethan the main character "we're fucked". (excuse the language but I'm just quoting from the book).
The second book I read did not contain any swear words so those of you easily offended can come out from behind the sofa. Robin Parry's book Worshiping Trinity is a great we book aimed at primarily worship leaders. If nothing else it should get some people thinking about what we're saying in our worship. I'd recommend it to anyone who is involved with worship at any level in their church.
The third book i read is not really a book. A Passion for God's Reign is really a collection of three essays by Jurgen Moltmann and a response to these by Nicholas Wolterstorff and Ellen T Charry. It's not a book about the Sovereignty of God as you might expect but about the place of theology in the modern world. If your involved in any kind of Pub Theology then this book will be of interest to you, as this is at the very heart of what is being discussed. Given who is discussing it however, this is not a how to book on cafe theology! Go read and discuss is all I'll say!
For what I'm reading at the moment and attempting to understand then see the side bar!
sounds like some good reads
Posted by: jason | Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 03:59 PM