A couple of years ago, I read How to Read the Bible as Literature by Leland Ryken. It immediately made the very short list of books I knew I would be reading again, and probably again. I love language, and I’ve come to see how important understanding language — not just words, but the music they make when combined — is to really getting the meaning of any literature. So I loved that book, with all its talk of metaphor, parallelism, narrative, poetry, etc. It is among my most-recommended books because what it teaches is so fundamental.
It’s late, and I haven’t read a word today. It’s been one of those days when other projects consume all my time. But, just like when I was in school, my mind has been on what I’d rather have been doing, which brings me to Ryken’s book. My current reading, God’s Wisdom in Proverbs, reminds me of that book, zeroed in on Proverbs. It includes such wonderful things as a section listing and explaining eight types of proverbs (synonymous, contrast, comparison, satirical, evaluation, consequence, synthetic, and proverbial discourse), and turning the page into chapter two, you immediately see two bold-face headings containing the words “verb” and “noun.” Short of diagramming sentences, what’s more fun than that? (You think I jest. You are mistaken.)
So, if you haven’t read either, I’m going to recommend that you pick up How to Read the Bible as Literature (an easy 208 pages) as a prelude to God’s Wisdom in Proverbs, and if you’ve already read Dan’s book, it probably won’t upset the time/space continuum to read them out of order.
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3 Comments:
#1 || 11·12·29··18:22 || Kim Shay
I'm so glad I read this post. I just read the first seven pages of Dan's book, and I do have the Ryken book on my shelf.
#2 || 11·12·30··06:11 || Victoria
Thanks for this review. I have been wondering which Bible to use to read through Scripture this year.
This review reminded me that I have the Literary Study Bible in my library. Thanks to your review of this book-I am going to use that edition(the notes are authored by Leland and Philip Ryken) to read through the Bible this year.
#3 || 11·12·30··09:37 || David Kjos
Good suggestion. I’ve got that one, too.