For the last ten years I have lived with the Gospel of Mark–poring over its text, tracing down every Old Testament allusion, reading books, commentaries and journal articles, teaching the book in week-long intensive courses, letting its currents roll over me. All this is no accident, because I am the inheritor of a tradition.
Continue reading “Discovering the Gospel of Mark”
Category: Book culture
Who Do Books Make Us?
Maybe I’m old fashioned. Maybe I’m out of style. Maybe I’m the hipster culture’s worst nightmare. But I still think books make a difference.
David Brooks’s piece in the New York Times cites another study that shows the power of print. When students take books home for the summer, the impact is as great as attending summer school–aligning with the 27-country study I mentioned here previously.
Brooks makes the interesting point though, that books not only improve our thinking or reading abilities, books make us into different people. They shape not only how we see the world but how we see ourselves. We gain an identity as a learner or science fiction fan or lover of history or maybe just as a reader.
Books help make us who we are. And I think that’s a good thing.