King Crusoe’s Reviews > Holy Bible: King James Version > Status Update

"2 Kings" *really* continues the trend from its predecessor of wrapping the narrative of the Israelite people(s) in with known history a bit more actively, which is cool! Definitely just as dense at times. The coolest part was definitely Elisha, and that is even more the case if you're familiar with Christ's life.

Read my review of "2 Kings" here.

So, "1 Kings" begins the transition from the more legendary side of biblical history from the prior two books and begins to line up a bit more with the historical record, which is definitely one of the more interesting things about it and its immediate follow-up. Maybe have some maps and timelines handy for it, though.

Read my review of "1 Kings" here.

I will admit I expected a tad more from "2 Samuel", realizing it would be the book focused centrally on King David. There's still a lot to get out of this, and a lot to enjoy - particularly in the realm of political drama - but I confess I was slightly more into "1 Samuel" and Saul's story. Slightly.

Read my review of "2 Samuel" here.

I was very surprised in reading "1 Samuel" knowing that the David & Goliath story occurs midway through. Why surprised? Well, because the book is mostly about Saul. David is here, and politics between him and Saul feature heavily, but I really loved learning more about Israel's first king to start.

Read my review of "1 Samuel" here.

"Ruth" is a divergent piece of the Old Testament in the way it tackles narrative from a more character and thematic way compared to a generally broader overview like in previous books. It is also especially rich in subtext in ways that are way more apparent, even to unfamiliar readers.

Read my review of "Ruth" here.

The transition from "Joshua" to "Judges" is memorable because of the way it starts to shirk the indulgent details of things that overall aren't really relevant into something more narratively driven. That said, the book is also somewhat repetitive in it's own way before it features a unique kind of epilogue (of sorts).

Read my review of "Judges" here.

"Deuteronomy" is interesting because it is basically a summary and distillation of the the three books that come before it. It serves as a form of narrative bridge in between the bulk of the exodus story and the crossing over Jordan.

Read my review of "Deuteronomy" here.

While there is some story stuff in "Numbers" to break up some of the more tedious material that at some times reminds of "Leviticus" and in other times is its own personal kind of monotony, this book is largely a struggle because it doesn't change much of the pace of the reading, which can make it seem worse than it is.

Read my review of "Numbers" here.

Forgot to update this a couple days when I finished reading Leviticus. Different from the previous books because it doesn't contain any proper stories - instead being mostly instructions, laws, etc.

Read my review of Leviticus here.

Started "Exodus" on April 8th . . . and then proceeded to take nearly a month away (I won't make excuses), but then finished over another 10 days once I got back to it, finishing yesterday!

Read my review of "Exodus" here.