Tim Smith > Recent Status Updates

About 80 pages left and the book is sadly becoming less interesting. When the author is writing in a prose style on themes, mythology, philosophy it’s very interesting but the story and dialogue itself just isn’t. It’s a really strong set up and ideas but theres not a very strong character or story.

This book is basically about a divorced mother attempting to write the very book im reading. I had to ask Chat how to describe this and it found this French term: “Mise en abyme — a more precise literary term for a work containing a representation of itself. Your example is very close to this: the book you are reading is about the protagonist writing the very book you are reading.”

This is one of those books that is either really deep and poetic or sloppy and all over the place. I can’t say I’m loving it so far, but I am fascinated by if this is leading to something or not.

This book is interesting. Not the most exciting story so far, but the way this is written is just so different than other things I’ve read.

Wright’s Old Testament summaries are definitely a mouthful. If you’re familiar with his ideas you can read and skim, if you are not you would need to read very slowly and pause frequently to process his ideas. He does not hold back on using academic language or assuming the reader is engage in Bible discourse.

Part I Review: 2 of 5 stars. If you’re interested in biology and brain structure, this is a great book. But if you aren’t, it feels like a sea of research with very little practical advice. I also found much of it unsurprising. I skipped pages because just I don’t need this much evidence to know that men can have anxiety/depression or that couples who share household work tend to have better relationships.

So far the book is very much on biology and brain structure. Which honestly is not all that interesting to people outside of STEM.

Today’s Passage: John 4:21-38

Chapter 9-11 felt a little slow compared to the earlier chapters but I did like this quote on spiritual warfare “Hear me. It is folly to think of avoiding an invisible enemy by an amount of creeping and skulking. If these creatures mean to bring us to battle, be sure they will succeed” ( p. 128-129).