Thursday, January 24, 2013

Andy Naselli

BCS recently announced that we are hiring Andy Naselli as our new Assistant Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology. I am very excited about him coming on staff and his family being a part of our community at BCS. I really like Andy and look forward to years of service together for the furtherance of our mission.

Nevertheless, I laughed out loud when I read the following sentences on his blog, where he was describing five reasons why he was coming to BCS.
On Christmas Day 1998, I read The Pleasures of God. I was riveted.
Riveted? I’ll say. I would have been starving. And tired. And late for work. Probably a week late.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Books Completed in 2012

Here is the list of books I completed during the calendar year 2012. My goal is a minimum of 12 books completed per year, or an average of one per month. If I start a book in one year, and finish it in the next, it counts in the year it was completed. My sights are set low, but this way the goal is attainable. (Obviously, I am not shooting for stars and hoping for the moon: I am settling for clouds.)

Caveats: 2012 was a difficult year, and I had great difficulty focusing on anything deep, difficult, or serious outside of work, which accounts for the proliferation of novels on this year’s list. Yes, I do feel a bit sheepish that the novels I read were more on the side of escapist fiction than classic literature, but I think G.K. Chesterton had it right here, here, and here.

I also previously posted on books read in 2011, 2010, and 2008/2009.

Cover Her Face, by P. D. James
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Wandering Fire, by Guy Gavriel Kay
Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, by Shel Silverstein
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly, by Gail Carson Levine
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling
Graphic Design: The New Basics, by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips
The Chronicles of Amber, Volume 1, by Roger Zelazny
The Chronicles of Amber, Volume 2, by Roger Zelazny
Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry
The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Supremacy, by Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Ultimatum, by Robert Ludlum
100 Cupboards, by N. D. Wilson
Dandelion Fire, by N. D. Wilson