Spring What?

We’ve already got quite a few excellent articles queued up for this coming week. Expect them to begin early tomorrow. In the meantime, Tony Kummer over at Said at Southern has tagged me for the Spring Reading Days Meme.

Some of you may wonder what on earth “Spring Reading Days” even is. Allow me to explain.

If you go to a normal school, you will experience what is known as Spring Break. This is a week-long experience with quite a bit of cultural baggage. Most Americans think “Spring Break” and associate it with beach parties, hedonism, and at the very least lots and lots of sleeping in.

Needless to say, Southern Seminary is a very different place. The phrase “Spring Break” has been transformed to “Spring Reading Days” connoting less beach-tastic excitement and imprudent actions and more… well, reading. It’s an attempt to stare one of the more popular popular culture staples in the face and say “we’re not biting.”

Of course, most students and teachers coyly acknowledge that our days during this coming week will not likely be characterized primarily by “reading.” We’ll also be writing. Oh, and some of us will be on vacation, visiting family, or catching up on movies. My only real break was this weekend which was more relaxing than usual because I don’t have any immediate classes to catch up on. I was able to watch a lot of movies and do quite a bit of reading. This coming week I will be reading even more.

And that’s when the meme comes in:

What are you reading on Spring reading days? I’ve got two very small books to read for Intro to Old Testament: Making Sense of the Old Testament by Tremper Longmas III and Mission in the Old Testament by Walter C. Kaiser Jr. Also, for down-time I’m reading the new Paste Magazine, an excellent source for “signs of life in music, film and culture.” My wife and I are trudging through Augustine’s Confessions.
What do you wish you had time to read? Tons. Most immediately, I’m halfway through Auralia’s Colors by Jeffery Overstreet. I have really enjoyed it but once the semester picked up I was forced to abandon it for now. It’s pretty amazing so far and I hear it only gets better.
What have you decided NOT to read that you were assigned to read? Who, me? Seriously, I’m hoping to keep up with the assigned reading, though it’s possible that in light of the two book reviews being due next week, my Christian History reading may suffer.
What is one great quote from your reading? Our church has begun using the accordion during worship every now and then, so this quote in Paste magazine caught my attention: “The accordion can quickly color a piece of music into a much darker or even grotesque sort of tune. I think in pop music it tends to make things sound a little anachronistic, in a good way.”
Why are you blogging? (You’re supposed to be reading!) Because you tagged me for this thing! Also, I made a commitment to putting out a new podcast every Tuesday, so I’ll be blogging that then.

I’ll be tagging: Riley, Ben, Drew Dixon, Kiel, Josh Dove.