What I'm reading

Right now I'm reading two books. One of which I should excerpt from but probably won't because I want you to buy it and read it : )

As my seminary theology professor used to say, "You owe it to yourself to read this book," and invariably, if I did read it, I would have to agree with him. So, you owe it to yourself, and your family, to read this book: How Not to Diet. It's a sequel to his earlier book, How Not to Die, which I read some years back but apparently didn't blog about, as a search on this blog shows nothing. You should read that one too.

The other book, which I read in June/July of this year and then immediately started rereading because I wasn't sure I "got" what they were arguing, will probably, Deo volente, start showing up on this blog pretty soon, is John Walton and Harvey Walton, The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest. I'm not sure I buy everything they are selling and in some cases, I think they "give away" too much, if you follow. We'll see if I still think that as I reread it.

In addition, I'm rereading the Greek New Testament. I just finished Luke and will be starting John. I read about five chapters a week, some weeks more, some less. I'm also reading the LXX, using the Hendrickson/Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft 2 volume Reader's Edition. The Greek is relatively simple, but the vocabulary is rather expansive, so the reader's edition is nice. I'm in the middle of 1 Samuel right now, but because of the garden, I'm only reading about a chapter or two a week. I grabbed that at an AAR/SBL meeting right after it was published, and have been off again on again with it ever since. I tend to read it more regularly in the winter when less is happening.

I'm also reading through the Hebrew Bible, front to back. I've never done that before; I've read probably half to two-thirds of it piecemeal, some areas, like Isaiah, Psalms, and the Minor Prophets, I've read multiple times, but others, like the Torah, I've only barely touched on, so this is fun and interesting. I'm in Numbers right now. In order to keep up a decent pace (about 3–5 chs./week), I've been using the Hendrickson/Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Reader's Edition. I received a complimentary copy because I was involved in proofreading the thing. I proofread Isaiah, Psalms, and most, if not all, of the Minor Prophets, maybe more, but I can't remember anymore—that was about ten years ago now! (I linked to the Christian Book page because I can't find the Hendrickson one anymore; they recently were sold to Tyndale, so I wonder if that's why?)