Today's nonfiction post is on The Book of the People: How to Read the Bible by A. N. Wilson. It is 244 pages long including notes and is published by Harper Collins. The cover is red fresco of Saints. The intended reader is someone interested in a casual history of the Bible. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book - From renowned historian, biographer and novelist, A.N. Wilson, a deep personal, literary, and historical exploration of the Bible.
In The Book of the People, A. N. Wilson explores how readers and thinkers have approached the Bible, and how it might be read today. Charting his own relationship with the Bible over a lifetime of writing, Wilson argues that it remains relevant even in a largely secular society, as a philosophical work, a work of literature, and a cultural touchstone that the western world has answered to for nearly two thousand years: Martin Luther King was "reading the Bible" when he started the Civil Rights movement, and when Michelangelo painted the fresco cycles in the Sistine Chapel, he was "reading the Bible." Wilson challenges the way fundamentalists—whether believers or non-believers—have misused the Bible, either by neglecting and failing to recognize its cultural significance, or by using it as a weapon against those with whom they disagree.
Erudite, witty and accessible, The Book of the People seeks to reclaim the Good Book as our seminal work of literature, and a book for the imagination.
Review- This was a strange book about the author, a friend of his, and where the Bible met between them. Wilson takes the reader from the beginning of the Bible and his friendship with the mysterious L all the way to end the gospels. Now Wilson does not go from a to b but jumps around from book to book and story to story. You would think that would make it interesting but it is not. The only parts of this book that I enjoyed were the parts with L. She was interesting but the rest of this book was boring. I was bored reading about Wilson's personal interpretations of the Bible and it's stories. I was bored reading about all the travel that Wilson has done. I look forward to seeing L, reading her words, and I was sad when I read of her death. If the above sounds interesting or fun to you then try this book. If not then do not read it.
I give this books Two out of Five stars. I was given this book to review by Harper Collins.
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