During a rather long winter season of even longer colds and influenza and whatever other respiratory ills were lurking about like villains in a bad gothic novel, I thought I'd peruse our state library's online offerings and read me some modern literature. Ugh. Of 800 offerings categorized 'Christian' 600 were Amish/Western type romance fluff, very few of the others were even that enticing. I sampled a few of these Hallmark movie turned novels and after a few cavities I gave up in despair, apparently all that it takes to be a Christian nowadays is to refrain from any sort of PG13 content, throw in a few sentences about a Good and Faithful God, and look we're 'Christian.' This is why I stick with stuff written prior to 1973 (that and most 1930 and prior writings are public domain!). I've been reading things like The Worm Ouroboros and The Once and Future King, along with Chesterton, Austen, and Tolkien lately (and boy is my daily lingo waxing archaic!). Good solid books that make you think and grow and ask questions and ponder. Habits society doesn't think we need any longer, what with AI and google, but which I argue we need even more desperately if we can ever hope to compete with such. So put down that flimsy modern novel, or better yet, get off YouTube (or at least watch a good documentary!) and get ye to a library or even project Gutenberg and find a book actually worth reading, yes it might be hard, or a little slow, but it will make the world a broader, more interesting place and you an actual person, instead of a soulless bot who knows nothing but the latest feed on social media!
