Sunday, April 22

What I'm Reading





7 comments:

Jim H. said...

I've never heard of this Schaeffer book. Is it a reprint?
btw...thanks for your fascinating list of recommended books. I sent it to my Catholic apologist friend and he was very surprised to see all the Catholic authors on a reformed pastor's list. Especially that you include both Knox's.

I just finished "Up From Slavery" and now cliam Booker T Washington as one of my heroes. If only we had more men like him in public life today!

I am starting a library for my five year old son, of books I hope he will read as a young man. "Up From Slavery" now tops the list. Could you recommend some other titles that would be similarly inspiring, and readable for a serious young man?

gileskirk said...

JFred: Thanks. Have you read any of the books in the Leaders in Action series? There might be several you'd be interested in--including works on Booker T. Washington, Wilberforce, Calvin, Luther, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, George Whitefield, Lee, Stonewall, and several other noteworthies.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much once again for posting what you are reading. I have purchased the Flying Inn, but havent started reading it yet. What do you think of it so far?

Also, have you read any of E.Nesbit?

Thanks Esther

gileskirk said...

Esther: I have read The Flying Inn before. But, it is even better than I had remembered. It lays out the threat of Islam to the West—in addition to showing the impotence of the Secularist Western response to that threat. It is really quite brilliant.

Interestingly, it deals with many of the issues raised by Edith Nesbit in her children’s books. Several years ago, I read a piece by C.S. Lewis in which he attributed the idea for his Narnia series to an “evening of inspiration reading E. Nesbit.” I had only read one of her books prior to that, The Railway Children. From my research into the origins of Planned Parenthood and the lives of Havelock Ellis, Margaret Sanger, and H.G. Wells I remembered that Nesbit had been one of the founders of the Fabian Society—which had attracted a large number of Edwardian artists and intellectuals to the socialist cause, including Bernard Shaw, Annie Besant, ,Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Named for the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus, who gained fame during the Punic Wars, the Society laid the foundations for Britain’s Labor Party.

At any rate, I began to read more of Nesbit’s work out of curiosity. I came to see that she was far more than just a shill for Socialist theories. She was a remarkable innovator. She almost single-handedly transformed children’s literature (the fantastic Victorian fantasy then dominated the genre) with her real-life settings and her grand adventure schemes.

No wonder Lewis found in her great inspiration--to say nothing of contemporary authors like J.K. Rowling.

Melissa Dow said...

Dr. Grant,

How did you get a copy of Leepike Ridge? Mr. Wilson read the first chapter for the Reformation Banquet here in Moscow, and I'm on tenterhooks waiting for it to come out.

~Melissa

gileskirk said...

Melissa: I was able to get an advance copy from the publisher. You won't be disappointed. It is very much worth the wait.

Anonymous said...

Mr.Grant-

Thank you so much for your educational feedback. I really appreciate your taking the time... and it made me want to do some more research.