What's Going on Here?

 

Firstly, a note about how to navigate here at Book by Book. If you will look to the right of the screen you will see links to purchase my books, which you are highly encouraged to do! And then directly under those you will find link to things like "Home" and "What's Going on Here? and "Genesis in Thirteen Easy Installments" and so forth, a list that will grow as we make our way through the Bible. You've already found "What's Going on Here?", so that's great! If you want to go to what I've written concerning a particular book of the Bible, just click on the name of that book. Before I'm done there will be sixty-six gosh darned links cluttering up the place. These Book by Book Pages are where I am archiving past entries, placing them in order. I hope that helps.

    As for why I'm even doing this, well, for quite some time I have been aware that if I want to consider myself anywhere close to being well read, which I do, I need to add more of the classics to my Yes, I've Read That One list. Not that I am completely lacking in that regard. Dickens, Twain, Hawthorne, Whitman, Thackeray, R.L. Stevenson, Austen, Steinbeck, Tolkien, Melville, Richard Armour (look him up, great stuff), Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Ibsen, David Foster Wallace, Harvard Lampoon--you get the idea--they have all been a part of my life for decades. But one classic, in fact the one that consistently ranks Number One when it comes to most copies in print every single time they take that particular census, is one I've only ever dipped into, the reading equivalent of a toe in the stream, never actually diving in to read cover to cover.

    This puts me in the vast majority of those who were raised in the Christian church, whether it be Mainstream Protestant (whatever that means), Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Unitarian or Trump Voter. Especially Trump Voter. It also potentially puts me, and those like me, at the mercy of folks who make it a point to present themselves as not only believers but well versed (no pun intended) in the content and meaning--or lack of discernible meaning--contained in the Bible. It also puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to truly understanding and appreciating the literature and art and music and history that has been shaped in ways big and small, positively and negatively, by The Good Book.

    So here I am, ready to remedy the situation, approaching my task in the best way I know how, as a reader of a book that so many have and continue to maintain contains the Word of God, the Indisputable Truth. I'm not interested in pursuing all manner of outside references to see what scholars current and past have had to say about this book, I'm going to read it in it's most universally accepted contemporary version and see what, if anything, it has to say to me without outside interference cluttering things up and trying to make me see stuff that just isn't there. My entries here will be my honest impressions of what is on the gosh darned page.

    My original intention was to create an entry per book, but that got kyboshed at the starting gate when it became obvious that Genesis was going to need more than one entry. Way more. So let's just say that each book will get however many entries I feel I need and each installment should be easily readable by most folks in ten minutes or less. My source text will be the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, which I understand is as close as we're gonna get to a universally accepted version of this oft translated/revised/reworked Literal Word of God and which besides is the version I happen to have on hand. If I do find myself inspired to add another version I can tell you it won't be the one currently being hawked by a certain combover for $59.99 + S&H.

    I am not approaching this project with any premeditated motives outside of intellectual enlightenment. And to be honest, since the last three novels I've started have all stalled out, I need something to provide me with a reason to write on the regular basis. If I'm lucky perhaps I'll find a good plot and/or character to work with. I am not looking for some sort of reawakening of my faith, but neither will I reject any movement in that direction. I'm also not looking to discredit or debunk. It is not my intention to take a strictly satirical, wise-ass or "oh yeah?" skeptics approach, although readers here will soon learn that my writing style can lean in the direction of wise-ass at times. If what I read sends me in a particular direction that's the direction I will go. I want to read it as a book, recognizing that it has a history like no other book, but when all is said and done, it is a book. If anything, I will be trying to come at it from a sort of editorial point of view, making believe I have a late draft in hand and the author(s) has solicited my feedback.

    I make no promises as to how much time will elapse between entries, as I have no way of knowing how much time and effort each of these 39 (Old Testament) + 27 (New Testament) books will take. And if my experience with them so far is any indication there are going to be sections that are anything but stay-awake-all-night-page-turners. But come heck or high water (a nod to Noah) I intend to get through the whole thing and issue reports along the way. If you stick with me maybe both of us will learn something, who knows? If it's just me, I will still count it a victory as learning what I can about this most central and consequential of volumes.