I enjoyed my reread of Mere Christianity probably more than I enjoyed my first (and second) read of it. C.S. Lewis is just a master at capturing his points with analogies. It was a difficult book for our book club, and we all wished we’d split the book into two meetings, or just read part of it.
I ended up reading it at a fairly speedy pace, since someone borrowed my book and I didn’t get it back until about three days before book club. (I didn’t finish all of it before the meeting.) This is not a good way to read Mere Christianity. While his analogies are well thought out, the concepts were quite challenging: he’s trying to capture the basic doctrines of Christianity as explained to a non-Christian. I do believe he succeeds, though I don’t think he’s going to convince anyone to become Christian who doesn’t want to be convinced.
There is so much depth in Mere Christianity, though, that I want to continue to revisit it, this time much slower. Maybe I’ll read a chapter a day and find a favorite quote from each chapter.
Beyond this book, though, I’ve wanted for a time to capture all those great inspiring quotes that classic literature has given me. So, since I have nothing better to do (*sarcasm*), I’ve started a tumblr where I’m going to post some of the inspiring quotes that I’ve come across in books I’m reading. I like how tumblr allows one to queue a number of posts in advance, so that’s why I am gong to use that for now. I don’t intend for tumblr to be a place for comments and discussions, but if one likes a quote he or she can always reblog it at tumblr or tweet it.
I put about two weeks up right now in the queue, from quotes in the books I’ve mentioned on Rebecca Reads in the past. Not all are specifically Christian or faith-based, but I think the quotes I include come from some of the “best books” and give inspiration to the reader in some way. Books in the queue: To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, So Long a Letter, and so forth.
I also have all my rebeccareid.com feeds leading into a tumblr. That’s mostly for my use, and I don’t know who might care to follow that as well. It has Rebecca Reads, The Classics Circuit, my seldom used photography site, and my once a month posts from my cooking site. I also may expand my Friday Reads tweets on Friday in a tumblr post to give more detail on what I’m reading and planning for the coming weeks.
I realize I haven’t said much about my reread. I don’t really intend this to be a “review” of sorts. I simply want to say I’ve been inspired once again by Mere Christianity and look forward to rereading it, slowly and in depth, for more inspiration.
I haven’t read Mere Christianity since college, but I actually read it with a group and we discussed just a chapter or two a week and ended up with plenty to talk about. It would be a tough book to manage in just a week. From my dim memory of the book, I think I’m inclined to agree with you that he explains everything really clearly, but his argument isn’t going to convince anyone who’s really skeptical. I’m not sure it can be done with logical argument.
I like that use for Tumblr. I’ve mulled over starting one for book lists or photos, but I really don’t have the time (not that that’s stopped me before, LOL).
Teresa, yes, I don’t have time either but I’m really liking the idea of capturing the inspiring quotes I like.
We do a book club meeting once a month, so we had a month to read it. It was NOT long enough for most of us!
I started a tumblr account, but my use of it comes and goes…
Kailana, yeah, we’ll see how this goes.