Saturday, May 1, 2010

Book 15 of 15 Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel World of Christian Pop Culture by Daniel Radosh

Here's another one to which I don't have time to do justice. This was fascinating and a great read (it reminded me a lot of "The Year of Living Biblically" and indeed had an endorsement from A. J. Jacobs on the back cover). 

I was very impressed by how kind Radosh was; you could look at the fringes of Christian pop culture and easily write something scathing and well-received. Instead, Radosh really looked not just for the worst of Christian pop culture but also for the best, and was willing to have his mind changed when the people he expected to be awful turned out to be thoughtful.

He did find things he really disagreed with - and I had points at which I really disagreed with him - but I really appreciated this outsider's look at my own subculture. It was insightful and has left me with a lot to think about.

I wish I could write more about this one, but I was gone to a writing conference all day, and want to make sure I get my last blog post in for this challenge.

This has been a great challenge; I actually undertook it to force myself to do less online reading. It worked, and it felt like a sort of opposite-fast - I forced myself to give something up by giving its timeslot (plus a bit extra) so something else. A bit different that strict abstension, but I think it worked.

More on the 15/15 challenge here.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

3 comments:

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

Hey, you did it!!! :) Good for you!

MomCO3 said...

Hooray! You did it! While I didn't follow your example exactly, you inspired me to pick up a few harder =) books than my ususal bathroom fare, and I feel my brain growing.
I hope the conference is GREAT!
Annie

Jessica Snell said...

Thanks, Emily!

And, Annie, that's great!