Susie-Q&A

• Nov. 27, 2006 - Lined Up On My Shelf

I've been reading Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year for more than a month. I read it in little bits, while nursing or lying in bed. What a glimpse of London past it is. It's full of tidbits about London thoroughfares, international and domestic trade, burial places, non-conformist religion, medical practices, and the Great Fire of London, all woven through his semi-fictional account of tragic losses of huge proportions. Indeed, Defoe focuses so on statistics and governmental response that it's easy to distance oneself from the human toll of the plague. Then he will suddenly throw in an anecdote of whole families stricken by the plague and evoke in the reader the horror that must have pervaded that year. It's also a fine commentary on human nature. Defoe comments on the largely unchanged behavior of Londonites after the plague abated. His fictional "journalist" H.F. (based on his uncle, apparently, who lived through the plague) views the foibles of his fellow humans with compassion and always judges fairly, though, looking at all perspectives. One can't help but like him.

Today I checked out the first two Elsie Dinsmore books and George MacDonald's The Golden Key. I've already read The Golden Key (it's a short fairy tale) and it's like his others; it must simply be experienced. I wish life were really more like a fairy tale. I suppose it can be, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.

I also found a classic book: A Mother's Book of Traditional Household Skills, by L.G. Abell, originally published in 1852--obviously a reprint. It's full of little gems like the following:

"A straw will make an impression on the virgin snow, but after a time a horse's hoof cannot penetrate it; so it is with the youthful mind."

"Indulge no doubts, for doubts are traitors."

"As the bee extracts sweets from the bitterest plants, so the patient and resigned spirit derives instruction and even happiness from the severest misfortunes and sorest trials."

And that only from the first three pages. I look forward to savoring this one!

Then there is Grudem's work on Evangelical Feminism. And I have to start reading my ESV systematically. Time! I need more time!