CLEOEJACKSONIII.COM
  • My Home Page
  • My Life and Ministry
  • My Ongoing Thoughts
  • My Favorite Bible Verses
  • My Favorite Stories
  • My Favorite Jokes
  • My Favorite Quotations
  • My Favorite Web Links
  • My Contact Info
"Helping Others Communicate"

GOOD READS

7/16/2018

 
I will forever be indebted to a favorite college professor of mine, who, years ago, taught me always to prepare and complete a summer reading list.  With varying degrees of faithfulness, and success, I have followed his admonition ever since. 

To be sure, most every reader has a selection of “beach reads” ready for vacation.  I have been little different down through the years.
 
In part, because the whole purpose of a vacation is to get away, relax, and clear the mind, I have always included adventure and thriller fiction novels on my list. These allow my mind the opportunity to escape and focus on things other than the everyday matters with which I must deal on a regular basis.

I am often asked who my favorite authors are.  In this particular genre, at least, they include the likes of authors such as Steve Berry, Michael Crichton, Clive Cussler, Ian Fleming, Raymond Khoury, and James Patterson, to name but a few.  

Through the adventures of their various protagonists, I have travelled the world vicariously.  Along the way, I have fought off man-eating beasts, salvaged long lost treasures, defeated sinister villains, won the hearts of fair damsels, and generally saved the world!

As of late, however, I have become somewhat convicted about my summer reading lists.  The simple truth is that there are so many classics of yesteryear that I have not yet read that I can hardly justify reading many more modern tales, no matter how inviting, until I have checked off some of their more worthy predecessors. 

Accordingly, I have now spent the better part of June and July of this year plowing through such adventure classics as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (first published in 1719), James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (first published in 1826), and Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo (first published in 1844).

And what I have discovered in the process is just how rewarding this venture has been.  For I have found the same, if not a deeper, level of reader satisfaction in these older works as in any of the newer ones.

And I have found something more as well.  Early western novelists, such as Defoe, Cooper, and Dumas, did not have modern technology and machinery with which to wow their readers.  There were no airplanes, no trains, no automobiles, no machine guns, no computers, etc... 

They had, therefore, to develop intricate plots, exotic settings, and, above all, rich characters who were deep in quality, complexity, and value.

What is more, they used these articulate creations to communicate and underscore fundamental truths about the world and the nature of we who inhabit it.  In short, their purpose was not merely to entertain; but also to educate, and above all, to inculcate.  

For their finely crafted tales serve to underscore the fundamental values that have made men and women worthy of admiration and emulation ever since our species first began to relate tales of heroism to one another.

In this regard, Defoe's book is actually the story of a man who comes to know and rely upon the God of the Bible as his protector and provider.  Cooper's work is a gentle reminder of the temptation to confuse man's will with the will of this very same God. And Dumas' work is a cautionary tale about the seductive, though ultimately destructive, power of revenge when undertaken by a mere man, given that revenge is the purview of this God alone.

Albert Camus once said that a novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images. If this is true, then the classics of western civilization’s fiction are images worthy of our inquiry and investigation.  And for this reason, therefore, as you prepare to go off on vacation, I ask not, “What’s in your wallet?”, but rather “What’s in your book bag?”

NOTE:  And excellent blog post on the value of reading fiction for believers can be found here:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-fiction.html.

Comments are closed.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All