[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: Happy birthday, Jack

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by The Night Writer:
Happy birthday, Jack
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1196356763.shtml


   Today's the birthday of the great writer, teacher and Christian
   apologist C. S. Lewis, born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898.
   Coincidentally, it is also the day nineteen years later that he
   arrived at a trench in the front lines of World War I.
   I noticed both of these details at the bottom of the page this morning
   as I did my daily read from [1]A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings
   From His Classic Works. I gave the book to myself about this time last
   year and started the schedule on January 1. It's almost a sad feeling
   to realize that I'm almost finished.
   The book consists of daily, one page (often only a paragraph or two)
   excerpts from Lewis's impressive body of work, mainly from Mere
   Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, A Grief
   Observed, The Weight of Glory and The Screwtape Letters and others.
   Often several days in a row would center around a common theme. It's
   been a fascinating and thought-provoking experience as I've come to
   see new things in works that I already thought I "knew." Some of the
   excerpts from A Grief Observed and The Problem of Pain have been
   especially timely and comforting over the past several months as my
   father's health worsened (funny how I "just happened" to get this book
   when I did). Little biographical details related to each day are also
   featured, and it's been kind of a Tarantino-like experience to track
   the events in Lewis's life in this manner when the days are in
   sequence but the years are not.
   This book would be a great gift for the reader and thinker in your
   family who is often pressed for time. I will echo one of Lewis's
   warnings, however:
   "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too
   careful of his reading."

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/Year-C-S-Lewis-Readings/dp/0060566167/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196354066&sr=1-4