Lemony Snicket
What better author to read after a semester of Bavinck, Turretin, and Calvin? My mind has been expanded, illumined, challenged, frustrated, and inspired. So, what could possibly be worthy enough to come next?
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Yes, we rented the movie the other night and were charmed by the artsy presentation of “children’s” dark humor (the little baby, Sunny, whose greatest skill in life is biting things (which really comes in handy), reminds me of our own dear Éva… both more clever than they know). The closing credits are worth a trip to the cinema (or Blockbuster). Anyway, when we find something we are interested in we usually jump in with both feet… so after our trip to the library there will be tears in many other households because we checked out almost the entire series of books (and audio cassettes). We no longer have children living at home, so we have lost our excuse for why we read such things! The good news is that we are so used to reading dense typography and heady content that we are able to fairly fly through these captivating books. After all, we can only justify diversions such as this for a brief period of time while decompressing from exams.
To get you into the mood of the books, I’ll give you an arts & craft project. You can print out, color, and give to a friend (or professor) the following:
The rest of my current reading list for the next week or two includes:
Sinai & Zion by Levenson
The Idea of Biblical Poetry by Kugel
Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, Volume II, 2005
The Drama of Scripture by Bartholomew and Goheen
The Faith of the Outsider: Exclusion and Inclusion in the Biblical Story by Frank Anthony Spina
The Ancient Near East: A History by Hallo and Simpson
May 26th, 2005 at 9:08 am
I hope you checked out “The Carnivorous Carnival” — that’s our all time favorite, with Sunny pretending to be “Chabo the Wolf Baby” (and we sometimes call Éva this)
May 26th, 2005 at 7:36 pm
I have decided, after listening to one of the books on audio cassette, and after “reading outloud in my head” several others, that this series is like a children’s version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. The definitions and “asides” are hilarious.
And I can’t wait to play with Chabo the Wolf Baby and her brother.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
as already discussed, this is a fine way to spend one’s summer. i hope you weren’t expecting a book about the happiest little elf, because… well, you know the rest.
i hope your summer is not unfortunate…
~mel moore