Eclectic Reading

My seemingly endless hospital stay has given me abundant time for reading. Here are a few of the books I've read during the past weeks:

• The Orthodox Study Bible. Most of it, that is. I may begin posting about it again – which will likely delight some, and irritate more. (My previous comments on the OSB can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

• The Orthodox New Testament, produced by Holy Apostles Convent, both volume one (The Holy Gospels) and volume two (Acts, Epistles, and Revelation). The verbal syntax is unusual (although explained at length in an appendix) and takes some getting used to, but the abundant Patristic commentary in the endnotes is absolutely extraordinary, and can, in any case, easily be used with any translation. These volumes are everything the OSB is not: beautifully bound, tastefully illustrated, theologically sound, with good paper and even a ribbon (which always makes my heart flutter.) I also have the convenient pocket edition, which has the full text of the New Testament without commentary. I will comment more about these in the future. Suffice it to say for the moment that I can't understand how I could have lived so long without these. Buy now.

• The Prologue from Ochrid, by St Nikolai Velimirovic. The daily readings, that is. This really is an excellent way to begin the day. The old 4-volume edition (translated by Mother Maria and edited by Metropolitan Kallistos, published by Lazarica Press in Birmingham in 1986) is much to be preferred to the new two-volume translation from Sebastian Press, even if the latter does contain the daily poems left out of the former. Mother Maria's translation – likely in large part to Vladyka Kallistos' editing – is stylistically greatly superior in quality. (Note that the 4-volume edition is called The Prologue from Ochrid whereas the 2-volume edition is entitled The Prologue from Ohrid.)

• Made Perfect in Faith: Sermons on the Lives and Works of Fifty Holy Church Fathers, by Fr James Thornton. Very highly recommended, especially read in conjunction with The Prologue. This could almost be used as a layman's Patrology handbook.

• Discerning the Mystery, by Fr Andrew Louth. Quite simply, required reading for anyone who is concerned with the study of theology as an academic field. Bears continual rereading. Sr Macrina Walker, OCSO, at A Vow of Conversation, has been reading and commenting on it for months.

• Reflections on the Psalms, by C. S. Lewis. Highly recommended for anyone who has puzzled over the Psalms. I hope to comment on this book in the near future.

• David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. If you haven't read this, you must. Perhaps the most good-heartedly hilarious book I've ever read. (Dark humor is always much easier to comeby, but less satisfying.)

• The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann. Perfect prolonged-hospital-stay reading.

• Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville. One of those books that everyone is supposed to have read, but that almost no one actually has. (Think of Zelig.) I was tempted any number of times to give up on this one, but I'm very glad I made it through. I can't help but think, however, that it would have made a great short story if all the whale stuff had been cut. Just imagine this: you reach chapter 75 (of 135), and the first sentence reads: "Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right Whale's head." And that's exactly what you get. A very dark, skeptical book – a sort of King Lear at sea. Nonetheless certainly worth the effort.

• Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert. A very good illustration of the development of the passions, if nothing else. I must admit, though, that I found it much flatter than I did upon my first reading a very long time ago.

If anyone would like me to comment at more length on any of these titles, do let me know.