A word from Thomas Merton & a blog you should read.

It seems appropriate to quote Thomas Merton at a time when writing - my own and other peoples - has been under a fair bit of discussion and debate in recent weeks:

If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot be criticised, he will never write anything that can be read. If you want to help other people you have got to make up your mind to write things that some people will condemn.

From his 'New Seeds of Contemplation'.

I was reminded of this by Chloe Lynch, a friend who has a blog you should be reading. So a tip of the hat to her, and head to The Art of Steering to check her out.

Suzy Bower

Check out her blog - Created Creative.

Very good stuff.

Some Blogs and Websites I've been challenged by and enjoying recently.

http://makewealthhistory.org/

http://breathenetwork.org/

http://peterlillypoetry.blogspot.com/

http://joshharris.com/

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/

Go on, check them out.

I have not completely disappeared...

...but won't be fully back until the end of next week.

It's been a busy and eventful term.  I am thoroughly exhausted, and need a long rest.  

It's coming up, as is an utter mauling of Manchester United by Liverpool (we hope, in the worldly sense...).

New Blog

I've got a new blog.  The link is on the right - called 'Attempting Creativity'.

It is going to be full (ish) of stuff I've written - poems and such.

Currently mainly old, but with some new stuff on its way.

New Look, Books, and Sounding Like Other People

I decided to update the image of the blog.  I quite like the new look, especially the continuous nature of the lists down the right hand side... subtle but nice.

Listening to snippets from Jon Foreman's E.P.'s - he is the Switchfoot front man, and has released four E.P.'s over the last year.  They are good, chilled out, stripped down tunes.  Check him out here.

I have been attempting to write a number of book reviews, reviewing the numerous books I have recently read.  It has only happened in skeleton form, and already I don't really like what I've written.  I seem to end up sounding like the many, many book reviews I've read - and not sounding like myself.  Which I suppose is bound to happen to some extent, but I'm not a big fan of it.  So for now my reviews will continue to be skeletons - one day I may post them up here.

The books I have read have brought up numerous things to talk and think about.  The most prominent are epistemology and postmodernism.  But those two subjects will take up another post (or indeed posts), once I've come to a decision about them or build up enough courage to air my questions and limited understanding.