Playing Tag (sort of)

On June 8th, Bonnie tagged me. As I indicated previously, I consider it an honor. She's a serious blogger.

I put up a post, asking if anyone out there who reads this blog, and has a blog, wanted to be tagged. Either no one read it, or no one wanted to be tagged, so I won't tag anyone, but I do have some blogs I'd like to mention. Disclaimer: I have known the first three authors personally. I don't know them well.

My criteria are:
1) Blog is not mostly personal. (Such blogs are great! I subscribe to about a dozen, but they probably are not usually of general interest.)
2) Blogs are posted at least a couple of times a week.
3) Blog is not widely known, judging by the number of Bloglines subscribers and commenters.
4) I subscribe to the blog, and am glad I have.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Schenck Thoughts is from a Professor of New Testament. He posts some serious, but readable, theological stuff.

Candice posts at A Beautiful Mess. She covers a lot of ground. There's personal stuff, devotional stuff, photos, and stuff about contemporary music (which I am, and probably shall ever be, ignorant of.) Brief, readable posts.

Candice's pastor is at the eponymous Perry Noble.com. His posts are short lessons, probably quite a bit like what Jesus did. One negative about his blog is that you can't post a comment, but he's a busy man.

Respectful Insolence is on science, usually debunking various things. Orac is usually right on target, skewering somebody's sacred cow.

A Window in the Garden Wall posts a C. S. Lewis quotation every day, sometimes with calendar information on Lewis, or a relevant link. Posts letters, poetry, fiction, literature, all of Lewis' work, I guess.

I hope one or two of you go to one or two of these, and find something you like.

There are some questions I'm supposed to answer, as part of being tagged.

Total books owned: Like Bonnie, a lot. Less, now that my wife and I are cleaning out a lot of them.

Last book I bought: A paperback copy of Catherine Asaro's The Last Hawk, on a whim, at a used bookstore. It was enjoyable, but not deep, science fiction. I use the local public library a lot for my reading material, plus some of the books my wife brought home from school.

Last book I read: A Gathering of Days, by Joan W. Blos, which is a Newbery award winner, and one of the books my wife brought home. It's the fictional journal of a girl coming of age in New Hampshire in the 1800's. It deserved the award.

Five books that mean a lot to me: (I'm going to cheat here!)
1) A succession of bibles, with, currently, an NIV study bible, the Blueletter Bible (on-line search and other tools, and several versions), and the ESV daily bible readings as most important.
2) Many science books. Amram Scheinfeld's The New You and Heredity turned me on to genetics when I was in high school. George Gamow's A Biography of Physics was great in college, and I read some of it again during the last academic year. There have been many more, and I hope there will be new ones just as important to me.
3) Many books that try to integrate science and faith. John Polkinghorne has written several of these. Stephen M. Barr's Modern Physics and Ancient Faith is another good one. So is Ian Barbour's When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?
4) Most anything by C. S. Lewis. I found the Narnia books while a graduate student in science at the University of Wisconsin, and they were great. They still are. So are Till We Have Faces, Mere Christianity, and other works by him.
5) I have posted about my three favorite works of fantastic literature. These are by J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard Adams, and Ursula K. Le Guin. I also hate to leave out works by Patricia A. McKillip, Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, and Jack Vance. I'll stop there.

Thanks for reading!