Spring Cleaning
Closed for maintenance (on my house, that is). Check back later for the winner of the Shakespeare books. If you are hoping I’ll post something that will make you mad, check out this article about the leftist loonies at secular universities, whose double standards boggle the mind. The article involves libraries and books, and you can add it to your college-may-not -be-the-best-place-to-obtain-a-real-education file.
If you were in charge of the world, what book would you make all incoming freshmen read? My answer tomorrow.
April 25th, 2006 at 4:12 am
In charge of the world? Wow! Not really sure I want that job. But for the sake of entertaining your question, I accept
Actually I would require each incoming freshman to bear the responsibility of selecting this ONE book to read and write a report/essay on. So, at my private, liberal arts college, I, as headmistress/president, would read these and learn more about my students, as well as know how to tailor the curriculum, ie course offerings. Then at the beginning of their senior years, each student would be required again to select a book, read it, and write a report/essay about it, comparing and contrasting the reasons for selection, why it was liked/disliked, and how the two choices of books were important in this stage of his/her education.
April 25th, 2006 at 5:42 am
The Bible. Most have never actually read it, and no matter what your religious beliefs or lack thereof, any educated person should have read the Bible once at least.
April 25th, 2006 at 6:37 am
Wow! I really like Dana’s idea, but would tweak in that I’d have the student as a senior read the same book he selected as a freshman, and see how much his perspective had changed.
If I had to choose one book (that’s really hard, Carmon) I might choose Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. It’s one of those books that is better read over and over again, but even the first time one learns so much from it, and enjoys the poems even as one gains a better understanding of poetry as a literary form.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Other than the bible, I would have to say How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. This book provides the framerwork for how to read any future book. Reading another book before this would be like giving a child the keys to the car without teaching him how to drive it first.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:36 am
When I was in college, I wanted to become a Christian, so my boy friend’s dad (my now dh) let me borrow his copy of the New Testament. I was not brought up in a Christian family so I was unfamiliar with any part of the Bible. I began reading the Book from the beginning as all books ’should’ be read. Matthew was fasinating, then I started with
Mark, which I felt sounded much like Matthew, then Luke…hey, didn’t I just read these same stories? By the time I finished John, I closed the book because I thought the rest of the Bible was the same! No one told me that was not the way to read the Bible. Though I was brought up in America, I was not brought up American so I was quite naive about Christianity. (remember the guy who always held up the John 3:16 sign at football games? I always thought he was telling his friend John to meet him at 3:16. I couldn’t figure out why he just didn’t say 3:15 so 3:30!)
I think the Bible is the most important book, but without the Holy Spirit to interpret the words, there is no understanding.
I would suggest one of the ICR’s books on creation. When evolution was taken away from me, I had nothing to stand on but the truth of God.
April 26th, 2006 at 11:19 am
I would pick Francis Schaefer’s ‘How Should We Then Live’, which I have not yet read but it is on my reading list. My husband is currently reading it and we have had some thought-provoking discussions. Like why in our modern culture being an Atheist Rabbi is acceptable?!?!
April 26th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Wonder why this kind of thing still surprises me? But it does!
I am still pondering the book question. I have often wondered why more people (non-Christians) don’t just read the Bible as literature.
April 26th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Roberta,
I read ‘How Shall We Then Live’ as a college freshman and it changed my life. I always say I didn’t have a thought in my head until I picked up that book.