These past 18 months have been pretty harried around here. In addition to our regular responsibilities with Vital Signs Ministries, we've taken on the preaching at Faith Bible Church (with the hours of study that requires) as well as the extra attention needed to care for my Mom. So naturally, when you add things to your schedule, you have to subtract others.And one of the things that has been subtracted is keeping current with our literature-oriented blog, The Book Den.
I hadn't made an entry over there since last January.
It's not because I wouldn't love to keep up with The Book Den. And it isn't that I've stopped reading books. It's just that vexatious matter of having so few hours in a day.
Still, I haven't taken the blog down for two reasons. 1) I keep thinking things will settle down and I'll be able to create new posts over there. For I really did enjoy doing so. And I relished the positive response I received, the discussions it generated with new friends and old, and all the tips that readers shared with me about books and music they were enjoying.
And 2) because The Book Den continues to serve. As I wrote of Vital Signs Blog last February, "One of the most interesting things about running a blog is that your posts never really go away. Though they leave your front page and even your own memory banks, those posts remain there in cyberspace, ready to zoom up on someone's computer screen. At the touch of a keyboard. Anywhere in the world.
All it takes is a reference link or, more likely, a search engine and, Voilà -- there it is again."
And so The Book Den remains open. True, it's rather dusty and dimly-lit. And quiet too -- there's only 30 or 40 visitors who will stroll through the place in the course of a whole day. But there are still gems to find in the shelves.
The most popular discoveries over there (in recent months) have been "Arthur Miller's Greatest Work Was Never Performed;" "White Nights, Dark Dreams: Revisiting Dostoevsky;" "Dorothy Sayers's Surpassing Song of Roland;" "The Perils of Shangra-La: A Review of James Hilton's 'Lost Horizon:'" and "Over 16 Years of Books: The Notting Hill Napoleons' Reading List to Date" compiled back in May 2008.
There's also enduring interest in GK Chesterton entries, Sherlock Holmes stuff, the poetry of Josephine Tey and others, Christmas suggestions, and the sections on For Children (Of All Ages) and Five Star Recommendations.
So why not drop in when you've got a few minutes to browse? Who knows? Maybe you'll even find a new entry over there. (Wink, wink and nudge.)
