100 Weeks, Silmarils...

Where to begin?
Firstly, I am yet again being horribly unfaithful to writing anything in my blog.
I make no promises. This blog mainly for religiously-themed dissertations has been quiet because quite frankly the number of religious themed discussions I have lately has dropped to near naught.

Secondly, among other new activities in my life, I have joined a Bible study at the local Cathedral. I think I have been with them now for months (at least three if not way more than that). We are studying the entire Bible through a progression of 100 weeks. Although, I should say that "Studying" is a very loose term because we are actually reading it and then pointing out what stood out to us. It's more like we are reading the Bible on our own multiple times and then digesting it as a group. I love it.

We, unfortunately, have just entered Leviticus (レビ記) and my mind is spinning. Why? Did I mention that this Bible study is in Japanese? Yeah, I read whatever section were are going over twice in English and then as many times as I can in Japanese before we meet. I am the only non-native speaker of Japanese at our meetings and I'm the youngest member as well. You can see why my head would be spinning. I can attest to learning a lot though.

Leviticus though is not being fun for me. I want to blame it on being in Japanese, but Leviticus just really wasn't that interesting the first time I read it years ago either. On the other hand, some of my group is having trouble with the descriptions of the animal sacrifices. One of the older women didn't even get through the first five chapters of the book. To be honest, I don't know how to react to that. The descriptions seemed detailed but not necessarily gross out level to me. In fact, I think I read the chapters while eating...anyway...

Thirdly, I have finally acquired a Kindle-ready device (ASUS EEE Pad) which means my drought of reading material in English has officially ended. One of my acquisitions for Kindle has been a copy of the Catholic Ignatius RSV second edition because I didn't bring my copy with me from America (I brought my slim black NRSV).

I'm hoping Japan's Catholic peoples get a Catholic Japanese Bible up for Kindle. Until then I'm content with my 1955 translation and physical Japanese Bible. Which leaves me pondering, why are we Catholics always so behind when it comes to technology? I mean, the Pope first twittered this year I think.

Fourth and final for now, I am re-reading Tolkien related books. I am starting with the Silmarillion. Since I started seriously dabbling in writing stories and such after the last time I read any of Tolkien's books, it is weird. I used to read in the past like a adventurer with a rocket strapped to his back... fwing! done reading.

Now, I still have that rocket strapped to my back, but the adventurer now has a fine-tooth comb and a highlighter. Everything from "that description felt forced and I don't like that literary device" to "okay, if I were writing this story, how would I have come up with that?" passes through my mind well reading. I analyze and mentally tab patterns to emulate and mistakes to avoid. I enjoy this a lot but don't expect any books from me anytime soon.

My mistake in the past was to always read good, excellent books (Silmarillion, or more recently Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell). An experience reading particularly terrible fantasy that I picked up in Ireland taught me that I needed perspective. Now, I pick up all sorts of books (about three novels that were free for Kindle come to mind) and devour them. These books, both good and bad, are teaching me through their contrasts.

Example lesson: Monologues as noted in the Incredibles, are unhealthy for villains, but I would add are the dead space that will kill a good story.

That's all until next time I check in again.