Whole Lotta Love: A Review of Live In Grace, Walk In Love

This is a book that I read as part of my church leadership council’s spiritual development.  As a group, we’re to read a book together over the course of the year.  This book is by popular current Christian author Bob Goff.  I actually finished this book months ago, as it was our 2020 group read.  The last 15 months have been pretty rough on my motivation to put forth the effort for this project, but now is the time to soldier through and get things back in line.

Since there was no prefatory post for this book, a quick description: Live In Grace, Walk In Love is a sort of daily devotional book.  There are 365 one- or two-page ‘chapters’ for lack of a better word.  Each month is sectioned off, almost like individual units.  The point is to read and reflect on each day’s entry.  What do the author’s reflections on faith, God, and scripture call to your mind?  Do Goff’s words and message resonate with you?  Can you find wider application of his thoughts, opinions, and calls to action?

Here is my brutally honest assessment:

 

Toolbox Level 1 (Structure): C

This is the harshest I have scored a book in this category to date and I believe it is warranted.  For a renowned author who praises his editor once or twice during the course of this book, there are too many mistakes to score any higher.  One or two mistakes can be overlooked without too much damage to the book’s score, but several spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors slipped past Mr. Goff’s editor and that will not be tolerated.

My copy of the book looks to be an early printing, though perhaps not a first edition.  It is not uncommon for first editions to contain some errors, but I was surprised by just how many errors I came across.  Considering that this is a one-a-day sort of format, each entry should be small enough for an editor to scrutinize and clean up.  I don’t know if Goff’s editor was left overwhelmed by the number of small entries or if his editor got lazy and put too much trust in his client’s skills with two bestsellers to his name.

Another ticky-tack deal-breaker for me is that both Goff and his editor somehow miscounted their days.  Rather than list the date for each entry, Goff begins the year at #1 and doesn’t reset each month.  By chance, I happened to try to keep count for some reason and I discovered that this book only has 29 entries for April and 32 for May.  Once again, this seems like a considerable mistake considering the format the author commits to.  For it to slip past an editor is twice as surprising.

 

Toolbox Level 2 (Style): B

Each of the first three months of this book have a clear overarching theme (be bold and take chances; love boldly and openly; connect with people in positive ways), but April struggled to find a cohesive theme beyond its obligatory Easter highlights.  Later months return to a thematic arc, but not always in the clearest sense.  After a pretty tight start, it felt to me as though Goff lost track of his thematic intents.

Mr. Goff writes in a very everyman kind of voice.  For someone who spent decades practicing law, he avoids getting bogged down in fancy words and jargon.  His approach to each daily subject is simple and direct.  While this makes Goff approachable to the masses, it also prevents him from writing in a voice that stands out in my mind.  This is my first Bob Goff book, however, so perhaps his style and voice would stand out more in the daily snippets had I taken in one of his full books first.

 

Fulfillment of Purpose: B-

This section and the next both suffer because I don’t think the day-by-day format is really my thing.  Having never read a day-by-day devotional book before, I don’t think that my brain was ready for the format.  As a nerdy person, I like to chew on a lot of meat and I am known to overanalyze and overthink things- especially when the topic is religion and philosophy.  Because of this, I was left wanting more.

From my perspective, two strengths of Goff’s format are the use of both a title for each entry (usually drawn from one of his main-point sentences) and the verse(s) of scripture that follow.  These help ground you at the beginning of each entry, and they oftentimes set a tone that slows you down before the author heads into his next anecdote.  I found myself making a list of his most thought-provoking titles.

For me personally, I rarely felt that entries go as deep as I would like them to.  I have to recognize that this is friction between me and the format more so than friction between me and the author.  How deep can you really get in one or two pages?  Goff provides many anecdotes and ideas that gave me things to think about over breakfast or before bed (whenever I happened to read the daily entry), but not much that I contemplated for an extended period of time.

One thing that is clear to me is Goff’s excitement for living out the Gospel.  You can sense an energy behind his words when he pivots out of his anecdotes and into his message or call to action that cannot be faked.  If this same energy is present in his previous books, then I suspect that this may be a big part of why he has become a popular Christian author.  This energy and his easy-to-digest entries certainly have potential to appeal to general audiences, even though the book didn’t grab and hold my attention.

 

Reading Experience: C

Once again, the bulk of this score boils down to me not really meshing with the day-by-day format.  When I set out to read, I want to dive deep and devote serious blocks of time to consuming and absorbing the material.  Reading entries that are a page and a half long at the most left me feeling like a stone skipping across the water.  The in-and-out nature inherent to the brevity of format just wasn’t enough for me.

There are two specific criticisms that I can attribute to the author.  First is that some of the content of his anecdotes betrays his everyman approach.  Goff states several times how treating people with love doesn’t have to be overthought or bogged down with weighty theological concepts, which is appealing to a lot of people.  I find hard to believe, however, that he is the ‘simple guy’ he says he is when he’s regularly and so casually mentioning conferences he’s been to, how frequently he travels the globe, his career as a lawyer, or his private lodge in the Canadian wilderness.  Sure, his approach to living out and sharing his faith may be simple, but his lifestyle seems to be anything but.

A more direct quibble that I have is the repetitiveness of the author’s entries.  It’s less subtle when you are reading just one entry a day, but I found myself catching up several times throughout the year.  Repetition of points and ideas over multiple days is a proven method of helping your message sink in.  When those points are repeated multiple times in one sitting, however, it sounds more like an author who has a lot of similar little things to say about just a handful of things.  Some of his entry titles are very similar, and he either reused several verses or used enough similar verses that it felt redundant to me at times.

 

Overall Score: 2.42 out of 4 (C+) 

While Bob Goff chose the format for this book, I feel the need to give him the benefit of the doubt.  His words sizzle with energy at times, so I assume that this was not the best book to serve as my introduction to him.  The format itself is limiting to any author, and the format does not seem to be one that suits me as a reader who happens to enjoy taking religious and philosophical content to Nerd Factor 5.  There’s nothing that anyone can do about either of those truths. 

There are some clear editorial flaws in this book that were hopefully corrected in later printings.  Beyond that, I have to be honest and acknowledge that this book, and more specifically this book format, just isn’t for me.  Perhaps the fact that this book was selected by someone else for me to read plays a role as well.  If you are someone who has read day-by-day books before or you enjoy daily devotional content, don’t let this review scare you away.  This book might be enjoyable for you.

The Bible & More: Update #1- Prefaces and Intros and Essays, Oh My!

I started reading my bible materials over four months ago, but very little progress has been made on reading the actual Bible yet. At first, a weekly small group snatched up most of my reading time, but it was a good thing. The small group study jumped through the major points of the Hebrew Bible (aka Old Testament). I tried doing both at the same time but I got a little disoriented by jumping back and forth for both purposes. I cannot, however, offer a good excuse for my lack of reading after that class ended in late November.

Despite the lack of progress, my thirst for knowledge was rewarded through reading all the introductory materials to each of the first three books on this Bible epic of mine. I also read numerous essays in the back of my Bible. These provided a wealth of information over a broad range of topics. Here are the highlights from each book:


New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV):
The editor’s preface and reader introduction cover all the bases of why this Bible is structured like it is, with footnotes from the NRSV plus expanded footnotes from the Oxford editorial staff. The intro section offers a suitable and condensed history of the process of creating an English-language Bible, but the essays at the back lay out all the gory details.

These essays take you on the journey through the languages of the Bible’s history: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and (much later down the line) English. This timeline touches on the approaches and sources used to create each version, both in language and canon. As if that weren’t enough, readers can dig into more than just the text criticism of translating the ancient words into English. If you like, you can read about the approaches to English translations via formal and dynamic equivalence. This is how we end up with the clunky word-for-word New American Standard Bible, the loosey-goosey paraphrasing of The Message, and everything in between.

Gluttons for punishment can take it even a few steps further and read detailed histories of how the Bible was interpreted in ancient times, premodern times, and in modern times by both Jews and Christians. These present topics like source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, and numerous cultural hermeneutics through which to interpret scripture. As a chaser, you can read about how archaeology has challenged the historicity of various biblical narratives.

While I appreciate the rich historical information in all these essays, several sections frustrated me. Part of my purpose for reading the Bible is to obtain a better sense of clarity over things like canon and interpretation. At times, I felt even more bewildered than before I started. For instance, the dispute between literal and allegorical interpretations began in the third century CE Christian church. Over a millennium later, Luther and the Protestant Reformation sought to simplify and clarify this dispute (among several others) but the explosion of denominations and local-language Bible translations that followed only made matters worse.

In other words, the supplementary material in my Bible did not instill me with much confidence about much of anything because there appears to have never been much clarity on some of the hot-button issues Christians debate.


Reading the Old Testament:
I intended to start this book third, thinking that a book called Reading the Old Testament would best be started just before I started reading the Old Testament. It didn’t pan out that way. Fortunately, chasing my Bible essays with this book’s opening chapters proved to be an uplifting decision.

The first five chapters of this book include the following:
-a general background on the Bible
-the geography and peoples involved in the Biblical narratives
-commentary on archaeology and how it relates to and intersects with the Bible
-various forms of criticism (analysis) by which the Bible can be examined as a document
-a more detailed look at the Pentateuch’s composition through source criticism

Each chapter is dense but still easy to follow. It’s clear that the author writes from a pro-Christian perspective, but little, if anything, lacked objectivity so far. One thing that the author does very well is impressing upon the reader the amount of time, energy, and care that translating the Hebrew and Christian Bibles consumed over the last several millennia.

While the supplementary essays in my Bible talked about the many translations, it didn’t mention the sheer amount of effort that went into each and every translation throughout history. This may be part of why I felt so frustrated by the lack of reassurance from my Bible! In Reading the Old Testament, the author slows down and highlights the fact that, while many fallible humans contributed to the writing and translating process, God oversaw the work of translators from ancient Israel through the latest edition to come out in print or digital. It’s a simple but beautiful point, and one that makes it easier to understand the Bible to be the inspired word of God.

I remember enjoying this book when I was in college, and I can see myself enjoying it again. Time will tell if I think that the author’s pro-Christian perspective is a helpful or a hindering quality. If nothing else, it should serve as a counterweight to the third book I’m working through on this journey.


The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament:
This book got booted to third in the batting order because its introductory materials were slim. By slim I mean a three-page preface. Even that three-page preface was short and sweet, highlighting the fact that the authors and editors weren’t looking to make many waves with their publication- a surprising admission to be sure.

I recall looking through this book when I first bought it on a whim several years ago. After leafing through it in the bookstore, I thought it contained the clarifying information that I was looking for and purchased it. When I sat down to use it as a clarifying resource, I fretted over what I found inside.

I must not have read the preface section to this book all those years ago, because I grew concerned that the book was dishing out cultural comparisons between the ancient Hebrews and other surrounding cultures in an effort to suggest that ancient Judaism copied a lot of their foundational elements from other cultures and religious traditions. The preface makes it pretty clear that this is not their goal. In fact, the editors admit that they really don’t have much of a goal in mind for their work, except to round out people’s understandings of what cultural and regional norms may have looked like to the ancient Hebrews. In fact, they admit that some of what they dispense is just information for information’s sake. That sort of thing is right up my alley.

I see this book walking a tightrope. Given the assertions of the editors as to the purpose of this commentary, I believe that my critique of this book will be based on how well they live up to those claims. It is easy to find a wealth of contextual information on any page as I leaf through it, but will that leave it feeling true to its purpose, in violation of its stated purpose, or even feeling purposeless? We’ll find out as we go along.

Up Next: Genesis 1-11 and the Book of Job

NOW READING: The Bible & More

From the start of Project Bookshelf, I intended to read the Bible toward the beginning of however long it may take to read every book in my house. In a silly bit of symbolism, I had hoped to read the Bible when I was 33 years old- a commonly-believed age for Jesus when he died. My slow progress with the dictionary derailed any hope of even starting the Bible when I was 33. But here I am, at long last, starting one of my big project reads.

It’s time to crank this project back up to Dork Factor 5. After reading one book at a time for the last several years, I’m plunging straight into the mayhem of reading multiple books at once. Fortunately, all of my next concurrent reads are all related. I will read the Bible alongside two Bible commentaries (one focusing on the Old Testament and the other on the New Testament), two other books providing contextual information (again, one for each testament), and a book focused solely on helping a reader better understand the Book of Revelation.

Based on introductions and prefaces, here is the order I will start these books in:
-The New Oxford Annotated Bible- NRSV with Apocrypha (3rd Edition)
-The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
-Reading the Old Testament
-The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
-Reading the New Testament
-Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation

The Bible itself will span the full length of this reading project. During the Old Testament, I’ll be reading three books at once. During the Apocrypha, I will be reading only the Bible. For most of the New Testament, I’ll be tackling three books simultaneously. At the end of it all, the Book of Revelation will see me add a fourth book into the mix.

The challenge in all this is keeping each book separate in my mind. The commentaries shouldn’t be difficult to separate mentally, though there may be some overlap with the footnotes in my Bible. The Reading books will offer more general context to sections of the Bible rather than individual verses. My evaluation of the Bible will be geared towards its accessibility to the reader, the clarity with which it communicates its message, and the quality of its introductory sections, footnotes, and supplemental essays in helping a reader understand the Bible itself and its message on a deeper level.

I will not be evaluating the validity or merits of the Bible’s message. Any Bible is a translation prepared by many people with the express purpose of conveying a religious message. I will judge the conveyance of the message and the editor’s ability to clarify cultural and contextual differences rather than the message itself. To do otherwise seems improper to me.

While these six books provide the meat of my next reading adventure, I will supplement them with portions of two other books: The Atlas of World History and World History Volume I- Before 1600: The Development of Early Civilization. I won’t be reading these two books in full for a final rating at this time. Rather, I will use them to gain a broader understanding of the historical timeline of the ancient world taking place at the same time as events in the Bible. Israel, after all, was but a small kingdom wedged between giant empires. A lot more was going on that may have had a trickle-down effect into the lives of biblical events. My other books may provide some cultural context based on the writings and customs of other civilizations but I am a history nerd, so I want as broad and full a picture as possible.

These six books will more than double my current page count. This leaves me clueless as to how long it will take me to read through them all. There will be a start-and-stop element to this process, as I read a chapter from the Bible, look through footnotes, consult the appropriate commentary, and possibly read the chapter again. I’m hungry to work my way through this challenge, but I’ve bitten off more than I can chew before.

‘Mysterium Tremendum’ is Not a Harry Potter Spell: A Review of The Idea of the Holy

I thought that I might write an update post at the end of July. Then I thought I might post an early-August update when I finished the main body of the book. But here we are; the book is finished and I’ve spent two weeks thinking about what to write. Everything was going to be different about this reading experience, considering it was my first non-reference book. I didn’t expect the process of even approaching a review would be so different or so difficult.

Toolbox Level 1 (Structure): B+
It didn’t take long to come across a book that scored less than an A- is this category. Two main factors stand out to me as explanations. First, this book is translated from German, though I think that may affect the Toolbox Level 2 score more so than this one. Attempting to replicate the author’s original words as closely as possible may explain why the presence and absence of commas in certain places confounded me at times. Second, the original publication is over 100 years old. Language is always changing, so some of the guidelines for commas (and a few curious spellings) may have been different at the time. The answer is probably a combination of the two. It made the reading the slightest bit clunky but not a deal-breaker.

Toolbox Level 2 (Style): B
Rudolf Otto was a theologian, a philosopher, and a professor. In other words, he was a perpetual academic. In my short time on this earth, one of the few universal truths I have developed in my mind is that academics like to write far more than they need to. Whether it’s ego or overthinking ways in which they may be misunderstood, people like Otto get insufferably wordy at times. It is possible that such wordiness was acceptable or even the norm among German academics back in 1917, but yours truly is a big fan of conciseness.

The main problem with Otto’s writing for me is the amount of tangential and subordinate clauses that he pins to the main crux some of the time. One or two tangential or subordinate clauses per sentence is manageable. Otto, however, is fond of cramming multiple of each into the same sentence. The result forced me to re-read many comma-filled labyrinths to make sure I followed his point correctly. I prefer sentences to be 50 words long at the absolute most; Otto pushed many of his sentences past 70 words. A few even topped 90.


Fulfillment of Purpose: B+
Otto’s core thesis is compelling. While the evolutionary science of his day was chipping away at religion by suggesting that mankind created more complicated and sophisticated religious stories as our brains developed the capability to do so, Otto proposes the opposite. He argues that God and holy experiences have always been complicated and sophisticated, and mankind’s understanding of and articulation about God has improved thanks to our highly-evolved brains. Rather than understanding religious experiences as a construct of the human mind, Otto presupposes God in an eloquent way. God has been the same this whole time; mankind has only gotten better at expressing what it’s like to experience Him.

Many chapters are spent laying the foundation for his big idea. He gradually introduces terms like ‘numinous’ (something possessing strong spiritual or religious qualities) and ‘mysterium tremendum’ (an almost overwhelming feeling of awe and mystery when encountering the numinous), adding layers to their meaning in an attempt to describe more fully the sensory overload of a religious experience. Otto adeptly relates it to the chill-inducing qualities of music, art, and architecture that are hard to put into words that, even when adequately done, can’t quite capture the magic of the moment.

It’s all heady, dense stuff, but Otto pulls it off well through the first nine chapters. While the first third of the book introduces the concepts on a general basis, as something common across many religions, Otto shifts gears and spends three chapters talking about how the numinous and mysterium tremendum can be found in Judeo-Christian scripture and in the writings of Martin Luther. This reveals Otto’s bias for Christianity as the best embodiment of his theory of the numinous, and it awkwardly breaks the momentum of his work.

The author spends another six chapters writing about the development of man’s ability to experience and articulate the numinous. These chapters come from a general perspective again, but are then followed by three closing chapters that steer the reader once more toward the suggestion that Christianity is the current apex of numinous articulation, if not the embodiment of it. This highlights that Otto had two purposes for this book. First, he aimed to refute the evolutionary science of the day by establishing a comprehensive presupposition of God. Second, he aimed to sell the reader on Christianity being the best and most accurate realization of man’s evolving ability to comprehend the numinous experience.

This first goal is a home run for me. I recall embracing it when I read portions of this book for a college class, and I embrace it now. The second, more subtle goal sucks some of the air out of the room. I realize that Otto was a Christian theologian, so his bias is for Christianity. I just wish he didn’t wear that bias so nakedly. He takes a few potshots at other religions, Islam in particular, that betray his academic credentials. He studied and wrote on comparative religions, which helped him realize his concept of the numinous, but his focus on Christianity as the best example was disappointing in a way that I can’t articulate. I’m not looking for his theory to stay within the realm of pantheism, but I feel as though he should have kept building the general construct together and saved all the Christian-specific content for the end. It felt disjointed the way it is presented.

Reading Experience: B
Did I mention this book is heady, dense stuff? Between the deep theological substance, the slow ratcheting toward each point, and the wordiness on display in every chapter, I wouldn’t say I love this book. I’ll heap praise upon the main point of Otto’s work to anyone who will hear it, but this book is not for everyone. I don’t say that as a way to portray myself as intellectually superior for having gotten through it. This is a tough book to read. At times, it felt like a chore to me, but the payoff is mostly worth it.

I would shift some of the chapters around, or at least advise a different reading order. It might be easy to suggest that Otto is guilty of over-writing his magnum opus, but I think it is more of a case of the author over-explaining himself. As an academic, he sought understanding more so than we common folk do. Looking back on it, I get the sense that he approached his theory from multiple angles. This leads to repetition of thought via explaining his point two or three times in a row but in slightly different ways each time. I didn’t need that, but others might.

Overall Score: 3.17 out of 4 (solid B)

I told my wife that the world needs a CliffsNotes version of this book. Intellectually stimulating though it may be, it drags in too many places to earn a broad recommendation. The ideas presented are worthy of a small group study but it needs condensing to make it approachable. Perhaps I’ll revisit this book some day and try to turn my notes into an outline that does both the numinous and the mysterium tremendum justice.

This was a very fascinating book to select for my first non-reference read. At the start, I stated that I wanted to use The Idea of the Holy to cultivate a proper mindset for reading the Bible. I think that I was successful in using this book in that way. The Bible is a chronicling of human beings experiencing God in intimate ways. With Otto’s concepts of the numinous and mysterium tremendum, I can impart those concepts on and infer them from the pages of scripture. It will add depth to my next read.

Another outcome of this read was one of personal introspection. Otto talks about the Holy being a balance of the rational and the non-rational, the logical and the mystical. Too much emphasis on one side tips the scale and misses the true, full picture. I had myself pegged as being too far to one end of the scale for years but this book suggests to me that, while I am in many ways entrenched on one side of this spectrum, the core of my beliefs is actually anchored at the other end. It is a balance that baffles me but also gives me hope.

NOW READING: The Idea of the Holy (1958)

I’m choosing not to jump right into fiction for my first non-reference book. Believe it or not, reading any fiction will be prefaced by two books about writing fiction. I’ve had enough instructional material for now, so this is actually an exciting turn for me. If you’ve heard of this book, then my nerdiness is only being reinforced for you right now.

The Idea of the Holy was first published in 1917 in the author’s native German. A few years later an English translation came out. My copy is a revised English translation from 1958. It was required reading for an Introduction to Religion course that I took my sophomore year of college, and it was my first taste of serious theological study.

I remember being overwhelmed at times by this book and others from the same course. There I was, a know-it-all 19-year-old kid getting smacked in the face with a heaping dose of academic might that cut me down to size. And yet, I was fascinated by it. Much like the numinous that Otto writes of in this book, religion possesses a unique draw and power that can only be understood when you feel it for yourself.

My personal reason for reading this book now is to help put me in the right frame of mind to encounter that which is holy when I tackle my next book- the Bible. The author writes from a Christian perspective, but the subject matter is more theology than doctrine. Rather than tell me the right way to believe in God, I want to use this book to prepare me to think about God in a clearer way. I’ll let the Spirit move me as it will when reading the scripture.

If this book proves to be a dense, slow read, I may post a reading update partway through. If not, I will just post a review like my last book. Something tells me that this one will be a slower, more deliberate read though, and I welcome that.

If Prescriptivism Is Wrong, Then I Don’t Want to Be Right: A Review of The Elements of Style

I knew it wouldn’t take me long to finish this book. Coming in at a trim 128 pages, The Elements of Style lives up to every ounce of praise and hype that you may have heard about it. The only reason you may disagree with my assessment is if you despise prescriptivism and prefer that language devolve into a fluid and chaotic mess. If you fall into that camp, then read no further.

Toolbox Level 1: A
As was the case with The Bedford Handbook, The Elements of Style is flawless in this department. It was written by an English professor specifically for his students. How could it not fetch the highest of marks? This category is essential to a writer because you cannot hope to write an effective composition without these structural elements. Unless I come across a book that fails to excel in this department, I may merge it with Toolbox Level 2.

Toolbox Level 2: A-
It feels strange to give a book called The Elements of Style less than perfect marks in the style category. I only do so because there are a few points where either Strunk or White come across as too condescending. Whether they were trying to hammer home their point too much or simply lost themselves in a moment of ivory-tower glory, a few quips go a tad too far. These remarks only cross the line for me on style issues that have clearly evolved since Strunk first committed his commandments to print. White affords some leeway for the evolution of written communication, but even he slams the gavel down in a showy way once or twice.

Fulfillment of Purpose: A
Do you have to follow all of the rules laid out in this book? No. The authors each admit this. Strunk and White do suggest, however, that knowing the rules well allows writers to break those rules more effectively should they choose to. The Elements of Style is a firm foundation for writers to embrace and embrace it they should.

I walked away second-guessing my own tendencies: Am I making the most effective use of commas and semicolons? Am I guilty of overwriting, overstating, or overexplaining too often? These questions and more bounced around my head while I read this book. It is easy to grow overconfident in your writing skills, but it takes a stiff jolt to shake you off of that comfortable perch. This book will serve as a wake-up call to any writer open to introspection every time they open it. Strunk and White may plunge weaker writers into insecurity, but those who have the gift will use this book as a stone to sharpen their iron against.

Reading Experience: B+
This book is short and the writing is crisp. These two facts make it easy to read through The Elements of Style so quickly that you fail to absorb enough of its wisdom. I read most of this book twice to ensure I got the most out of it. As much as I enjoy the authors’ ways with words, I think that a cover-to-cover read is the wrong approach for this book. That keeps it in line with the other reference books I have read to date.

I set out to read the five main sections of this book in one sitting each, but in doing so I realized that, while wittier than The Bedford Handbook, this book should still be used for specific guidance rather than general reading. Some of the consecutive rules, principles, and suggestions build upon each other. Others reside as stand-alone nuggets of wisdom. Without constant layering, retention of this book’s wisdom is hard to achieve.

Overall Score: 3.75 out of 4 (solid A-)
From the start, I was interested in comparing the rules and recommendations in The Elements of Style to those found in The Bedford Handbook. Only the first section of Elements concerns the ingredients found in Toolbox Level 1. The Bedford Handbook drifted a little bit into Toolbox Level 2 but only as far as exact word choice, appropriate language, and some paragraph structure instruction. Elements only covers a few Toolbox Level 1 points and even then in just a general way; thus I find that both books are necessary for different reasons, neither one replacing the other.

The portions of the book written by Strunk possess a more colorful voice than White’s contribution, but they are not so unalike in tone and voice that it disrupts the coherence of the book. Both men offer valid, if not exactly timeless, advice. Time will continue to chip away some of the rules they affirm so rigidly, but much of this book’s guidance will continue to be essential to proper written discourse as long as the English language remains in use.

Some may be able to intelligently read this book in just a few sittings. I envy them. Perhaps my reading comprehension and retention skills are closer to average, but I see two ideal ways to read The Elements of Style: first as a true reference book, there for you when second-guess yourself or find yourself written into a pickle; second as a writing nerd’s bathroom reader, enabling the reader to refresh his or her memory of one or two sections per pit stop. Either way, you can’t go wrong turning to this book. The pages are few but the well is deep. Draw from it often.

NOW READING: The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition (2000)

This will be the last reference book covering words and writing skills I read for some time. My next few reads will still have a reference component to them but they will serve as a supplementary material. Stay tuned for that announcement; this current book is short.

I purchased The Elements of Style at the recommendation of Stephen King. It is listed chief among the horror master’s recommended materials for improving your wordsmithing. King’s On Writing is a terrific read in it own right and I look forward to getting to it before I tackle some fiction. I don’t remember when I got this book but I believe that I requested it either for Christmas or for my birthday one year and this reading journey was taking shape in my head.

This book’s goal is to clear up weaknesses that plague writers. Coming off the heels of The Bedford Handbook and its dose of Toolbox Level 1 content, I hope to use this book to strengthen my ability to assess Toolbox Level 2 content in future reads. In the end, I hope that enhancing my ability to recognize good style will lead to exhibiting good style in my own writing.

I don’t believe that I will post any reading updates for this book. It is a slim thing, not even 150 pages. If it is as enlightening and essential as Stephen King claims, I suspect that I will make short work of it.

Thank God I Don’t Have to Write Research Papers Anymore: A Review of The Bedford Handbook

It should come as no surprise to hear that this was the most useful book I have read so far along this journey. Words for the sake of words was an interesting way to start my reading quest but it wasn’t very useful. I will admit that the dictionary’s usage notes provided some worthwhile commentary and highlighted the importance of selecting the right word to convey what you wish to express. The thesaurus and my word roots dictionary contained few, if any, insights. Assessing The Bedford Handbook required the most thought to date, both while reading it and while sitting down to write this review.

Toolbox Level 1: A
Much of The Bedford Handbook’s focus is on honing and perfecting the structural elements of writing that fall under Toolbox Level 1. For that reason alone, it should come as no surprise that this book scores as high as possible. I didn’t note any spelling errors or any odd grammatical turns. This has me thinking that I may want to reevaluate how this category is weighted compared to the others. Perhaps not every book will score so high. If they do, however, then I may have to do a little fine-tuning.

Toolbox Level 2: B
I wasn’t able to dock my previous reads for their style and structural elements. Form and function are very basic for dictionaries and thesauri. While a B may not seem like taking a book to task, I feel it is a harsh but deserved score. The author’s style isn’t suspect but I feel that the organization of this book leaves something to be desired. It’s filled with great content but the chapters are not arranged in a manner that benefits the readers in the greatest need of assistance. Parts I and II are fine where they are but I am still baffled by the decision to stick the grammar section in Part XI. I think a more natural and logical progression was missed, resulting in far too much page turning.

Fulfillment of Purpose: B+
If I wanted to be nasty, I could punish this book for how dated some of its research guidelines now seem. I suspect that more research is done online now than in physical books. I could also rail against the fact that the website supplements this book points readers to no longer exist. In fact, Ms. Hacker’s website, the backbone of The Bedford Handbook’s online presence, is no longer in operation- not even by the publisher. This is almost to be expected, however, for a reference book that’s old enough to drive. For this section, I chose to focus on the strengths this book has to offer.

While the organization of the book could be better, the content is excellent. The MLA, APA, and Chicago reference and works cited sections will come up big for you if you are writing a research paper. The only way it could fail you is if MLA, APA, or Chicago style rules have changed, so it would be best to pick up something more current. It is 2019 after all.

The value of this book extends well beyond research papers. Even if you think you are a good writer, there at least two or three chapters in this book that will make you realize that you still struggle with something. I plan on coming back to this well of information as I start to write more. Heck, I’ve already used it to assess and correct some of my reading posts.

Reading Experience: B-
Given that I am neither writing research papers anymore nor struggling with ESL issues, this book was hit-or-miss as a cover-to-cover read. The chapters that I could relate to or gain help from kept my attention. Chapters focusing on areas I don’t think I struggle with were easy to read less intently. Those chapters that I had no interest or stake in were chores to read.

This is probably how most reference books covering a broad range of topics feel though. I’ve been sheltered by my first three books because they have very narrow foci. This is the first book I’ve read with more than just a few pages containing paragraphs, making it hard to compare to the dictionary, thesaurus, and word roots guide. It reads like a true book and yet it reads quite differently from non-reference material.

Overall Score: 3.25 out of 4 (solid B)
The Fulfillment of Purpose section is easily more important for a reference book than Reading Experience. The purpose of this book helped me get a better sense of the kinds of things I should look for when evaluating a book’s Toolbox Level 1 ingredients. This is precisely why I read this book when I did. It will help me evaluate both my own writing and the writing of others. It’s foundational stuff that may be easy to ignore as a reading-worthy subject, but it is also the kind of foundational stuff that separates the wheat from the chaff if we only choose to focus on it.

While I wouldn’t call this an enjoyable book, I have no regret calling it a worthwhile book. That may lose me points with the anti-prescriptivism crowd, but I believe that a fair amount of prescriptivism is necessary in written works. In face-to-face conversation, you can ask for clarification. Written communication is an all-or-nothing pursuit. You are either understood or you are not. If you follow the rules for grammar, usage, and mechanics laid out in this book, then you will have a better chance of having your written words understood. On some level, we all just want to be understood, don’t we?

READING UPDATE: The Bedford Handbook- Part XI – Index

Excited as I was to move past the MLA, APA, and Chicago drudgery, I made a point to slow down while reading the four grammar chapters. The Bedford Handbook loses points for relegating these chapters to the tail end of the book. Some of the terminology presented in these chapters is necessary to understand the guidance offered in earlier chapters. These four chapters aren’t even that dense, so I think it is more logical to put the grammar refresher chapters right before the chapters advising how to punctuate clauses and sentences described in the grammar refresher. Doing so would have spared me a lot of awkward back-and-forth page flipping.

Because I just can’t get away from dictionary-esque things it seems, this book also contains a glossary of usage. It was a nice way to wrap up the useful content of the book. After that was the answers section for all the mid- and end-chapter exercises that readers can partake in. Since I used the exercises to test myself while reading, I had already read over the answers section once, allowing me to skip it.

I admit that I skimmed over the index rather than read it in earnest. I kept an eye out for any terms or topics that I either didn’t remember or wanted to take a second peak at. They were few and far between.

It is a relief to be done with another book. I finished this one in 100 days. Blasting out a reference book in that short a span of time feels good but my page-per-day count is still on the low end. Perhaps my next book or two will lift that up some more. I’ll post a review in a few days.


Page Count: 928/928 (100.00%)
Countdown to my next update: 0 pages

READING UPDATE: The Bedford Handbook- Part IX – Part X

This latest section I finished off was the most useful to me as a college student. As an adult who no longer writes research papers with works cited pages, this section was about as riveting as watching paint dry. There was one snippet, however, that provided much needed advice for all communication, not just the written word:

“People believe that intelligence and decency support their side of an argument. To change sides, they must continue to feel intelligent and decent. Otherwise they will persist in their opposition.”

Aside from this gem of a quote, there wasn’t a lot to see. This portion of the book contains a few chapters about how to approach researching for a paper, avoiding plagiarism, and structuring an effective argument. The research chapters show their age, with broad warnings against using the internet pretty much at all. It also provides a small, clunky list of search engines trusted by the author. About half of those listed no longer exist.

One of the biggest affronts to all that is good and decent (at least in my silly mind) came in the form of a list of over 21 different reference and documentation styles that the book suggests are common. It seems as if every other academic or scientific discipline has come up with its own style guide for research documentation. It all just seemed a little too much. I’m not opposed to different disciplines being unique in certain ways, but this overabundance of style guides seems like it has to be intentional out of misplaced pride or arrogance- having your own system just to have your own system if you will. Perhaps some of the style guides listed have vanished over the last 17 years. I hope so, because it was hard enough in college to bounce back and forth between MLA and APA style depending on the professor.

The rest (and majority) of this section was split into three documentation guides for MLA, APA, and Chicago formats. This is where The Bedford Handbook was worth its weight in gold when I was in college. In the end, it probably only saved me a few percentage points per paper, but those extra points helped me graduate cum laude.

The final stretch of this book is upon us. After a few chapters on grammar, a usage glossary, and the index, I will be done and on to one last reference book. I admit that I got fidgety several times during this last section, so it seems my tolerance for reference material is waning fast. It’s a good thing my next book is a short one.

Page Count: 811/928 (87.39%)
Countdown to my next update: 117 pages