While surfing the net the other day I came across this new book by Nina Sankovitch called Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading (Harper Collins, 2011). The book will be coming out in early June and judging from some of the comments and early reviews I look forward to reading it. The book is about the power of reading. In short, Nina spent an entire year reading one book a day and blogging about each book on her blog. Why did she do this? Nina spent a long time caring for her sister who had a debilitating illness and she eventually died.
What caught my attention were comments about how Nina changed and found healing through the written word. This is something that many people have mentioned. Every time I pick up a book whether fiction or non-fiction, whether a memoir or a collection of short stories I always come through a different person at the end. Sometimes I identify with the plot or a character or the specific situation in the book or story. If anything I always learn something about humanity and the human condition.
From a Christian perspective this reminds us of the power of The Word, aka the Bible. We forget that the Word of God is powerful, it inspires, encourages, reproves, leads to repentance, and reminds us of God's goodness and grace. The Word of God is powerful, it changes lives. Herod and Pontius Pilate put Jesus to death yet his memory, ministry, and legacy lived on through the preached Word of God and later the written Word. The world could never stop Christianity because they cannot stop people from talking about Jesus.
I look forward to reading Nina's memoir later this summer. I also hope that each one of you continues to read, study, and pray the Scriptures, which are really powerful.
