Writing

Delivered

Tony Reinke Book announcement, Book Notes, spurgeon, Writing

Today is the day I have anticipated for more than a year. This morning I delivered to the publisher the manuscript for Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. The book is slated for a September 2011 release, plenty of time to learn patience and contentment from my friends.

One great benefit of writing a book is seeing my need for others. And the Lord surrounded me with a strong team of counselors along the way. As I wrote the acknowledgments for the book I was overwhelmed by all the names of generous friends who invested their time in my book over the past year.

Getting the book written has required a team of friends and scholars. The scholars that helped out include Leland Ryken, Gene Fant, Stephen Dempster, and Carl Trueman. Each of these men were accessible to answer questions. A couple of these guys edited full chapters for me. Fant took the time to edit the entire manuscript at an early stage and provided much writing guidance as a bonus (motivated by pity, I wonder?). Whatever the motive, these guys came through in a big way and I thank God for them.

Many friends also helped make this possible. The book was Justin Taylor’s idea to begin with. His early help writing was critically important. Justin is wise and creative, and any wise and creative bits in the book were likely his handiwork (the joke in chapter 11 about Al Gore is his). Likewise I’m thankful for Randy Alcorn. Last summer he encouraged me to write, and that encouragement—coming from him!—was a source of confirmation from the Lord. His role in the life of this book project goes a lot deeper than he is aware of.

Of course Tom Bombadil comes to mind as another faithful comrade (“Tom Bombadil” being the loose fit blog alias he wears over his superhero tights). Tom is a likeminded friend who helped out at every step of the way, cheering me on with encouragement, and frequently pleading my cause before the Throne of Grace. He was a huge help. And Jon Smith (real name, no tights) comes to mind. Although he didn’t know it at the time, his early encouragements last summer about my series of blog posts on reading were instrumental in my decision to write the book. Jon works with college students and he read and edited the manuscript from that perspective—very helpful!

And so many other friends helped out, Josh Deckard, Mark Fedeli and Andrew Mahr should be mentioned specifically. Thank you, men! I was reminded at many times that this book would not be possible without two pastors in my life, Patrick Abendroth and Rick Gamache. I love these men and will be forever indebted to them for how they helped me develop as a reader, through their words and through their example. So many other people support me.

Of course my friend C.J. played a major role. He made it possible for me to enjoy three writing retreats in beautiful locations (Orlando, Annapolis, and Cape Cod). Since the book was researched was written in my free time (mornings, evenings, days off, vacations), having the freedom to get away and to lock myself in a room and write for 14 hours each day was a great gift and those retreats proved to be critical in the development of this project.

But of course when I talk about my editors and my support, no one surpasses my wife. Karalee first became my editor, then my friend, and now my wife, and she remains my best friend and my most loyal editor. Not only is she quite a lot smarter than I am, but God has given her a tenacious capacity for large workloads. The Lord knew I would need a lot of help ed!t!ng, and he blessed me with a woman I love and a woman who can handle a red pen in the free moments between kids, laundry, and cooking. I don’t know how she does it, I really don’t.

So thanks to all of you: those named, those pseudo-named, and those left unnamed. I could not have written this book without you. Yes, that includes you. Your loyal blog readership is an encouragement to me and—quite truthfully—is probably one of the important factors that landed me a book contract in the first place. I am humbled and honored that you read, and thankful for your partnership. I pray that the labors of this past year will prove effective in encouraging Christians to read great books. And thanks for putting up with this blog, which has become predictably random, sometimes brusque, and always disordered. I plan to return to writing more essays, posting more book reviews, and snapping more photographs again soon.

Tony

Writing, Books, and C.S. Lewis

Tony Reinke Reading, Writing

Sounds like a good time to me.

Three extraordinarily gifted writes—Alan Jacobs, Douglas Wilson, and N.D. Wilson—met at New Saint Andrews College not long ago to talk about writing, books, and C. S. Lewis. Three videos are currently online.

This first video is of their discussion about writing, getting published, and becoming a mature writer. It’s good. Here’s the video [71-minutes long]:

Jacobs and the Wilsons took a little time to chat about C. S. Lewis [13-minutes long]:

And during the same trip (I presume), the indefatigable Alan Jacobs delivered an interesting lecture on how Jesus understood the Scriptural transition from scroll to codex. It’s titled, “Christianity and the Future of the Book” (note: Jacobs is writing a book about books). Here’s the lecture [80-minutes long]:

Readers-in-Training

Tony Reinke Parenting, Reading, Writing

The current stage of book editing is all about trimming excess. In the next two weeks I hope to whittle off 1,500 words to keep the manuscript around the 55,000-word target. Sadly, this meant cutting out a nice quote that I discovered in my early research and had planned to include in the front matter of the book. The quote has been pruned, but it’s bloggable. Enjoy!

Gene Veith, Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books), 224:

Christians to one extent or another have to read. They are ‘people of the Book,’ whose spirituality and conceptual framework is centered upon the linguistic revelation of the Word of God. As the culture moves farther and farther away from the printed word, Christians will still read. As their neighbors plug themselves in to their video images, Christians may find themselves making up a greater proportion of the reading public. Their tastes and values may matter again. Because readers exert the most influence in a society, however the masses amuse themselves, Christians may find themselves once again the thinkers and leaders of society.

Something similar happened 1500 years ago in the first Dark Age when the Vandals trashed a civilization based on law and learning. Amidst the moral anarchy, staggering ignorance, and image-centered paganism that prevailed for centuries, the tradition of literacy was preserved in the church. Behind the protective walls of the monasteries, books were cherished. They were copied out by hand, carefully stored, and eagerly read. The church was concerned for all kinds of books—Bibles, of course, but also books of medicine and science, works of pagan philosophers such as Aristotle, the poetry of Virgil and the comedies of Plautus. The Vandal aesthetic may be coming back in the anti-intellectualism of the mass culture and in the Postmodern nihilism of the high culture. Christians may be the last readers. If so, they need to be in training.

Book Update

Tony Reinke Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books, Writing

A few notes on the book:

I’m now 18 days away from submitting my manuscript to the greatest publisher in the world. That leaves one day to finalize each of the chapters and two days to dust off The Chicago Manual of Style and edit footnotes.

The publisher and I settled on a final title: Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. I hope to explain more about the meaning behind the title in the near future.

By this point in the writing process I predicted that I would be sick of this project: sick of reading, sick of late night writing, sick of early morning editing, and tired of feedback and edits and changes, basically ready to kill the monster and throw its carcass to the public (Churchill). But as the book process winds down, I’m actually a bit bummed that it’s nearly over. This book has been a delight.

For the past few weeks the feedback from readers/editors has been positive, and at times overwhelmingly encouraging. I am more convinced that the book will benefit young Christians who don’t read books, especially male college students. So that’s exciting. Added to the excitement I received my first endorsement. I won’t post all the endorsements on the blog, but the first one is exciting:

I read many books, but seldom do I enjoy one more than I did Tony Reinke’s Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Many of my greatest childhood adventures, and much of my growth after I was converted as a teenager, came through reading imagination-expanding and life-changing books. Tony’s writing is thoughtful, perceptive, concise, and God-honoring. He upholds biblical authority, and offers helpful guidance, while allowing for a range of tastes. Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books rings true to my own lifetime of reading experience. As a reader and writer of both nonfiction and fiction, I appreciate the breadth of Tony’s treatment, which includes a variety of genres. For book lovers, this is a treasure and delight. For those who aren’t book lovers, it makes a great case for becoming one.

—Randy Alcorn

I am humbled, Randy. Thank you!

And thanks to everyone for your prayers as I finish up.

Tony

Writing Retreat 2

Tony Reinke Writing

For the next four days I will have the joy of spending some time with my wife and kids in Cape Cod, the place where New England flexes its arm to the heavens, or salutes England. Whatever it represents, we are balanced on the top of the shoulder. For all my years of being a Boston Red Sox fan (over 15), this is the first time stepping foot in the wonderful state of Massachusetts, just in time for their elimination from the playoffs, which makes this trip something like a surprise homecoming that bursts triumphantly into an empty house. But it was still quite a lot of fun throwing a ball of leather and yarn along the seaweed-strewn shoreline with my son and shagging poor tosses from the saltwater bath. We closed the evening by filling ourselves with lobster. Not a bad start to our trip.

This trip will double as an educational trip for the kids (the greatly anticipated Great Awakening trip being postponed until at least November—greatly anticipated by me, mostly). But this trip to the cape will focus on the Pilgrims, Plymouth plantation, etc. While driving up today we listened to the first 5 hours of the audio book version of my favorite Pilgrim book, and one of my top-10 favorite historical books, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick. It’s a brilliant book and a fair and honest treatment of the Pilgrim’s story, their motives, aspirations, and the means they used to survive.

But this trip is not all games, lobster, and history. This time away will triple as my second writing/editing retreat and it will afford me the time to read carefully through my entire book manuscript. The due date is fast approaching and much work is undone. However, the project is progressing nicely and recent feedback on the manuscript has been encouraging. Yet it sits there on the table next to me, a 218-page manuscript and 3 red pens. I do hope I brought enough ink.

Retreat

Tony Reinke .Reading Digest, Writing

Starting today I’ll be enjoying a three-day writing/reading retreat. During the retreat I hope to edit a number of the chapters in my forthcoming book and enjoy reading a few favorite authors. Here’s what I’ll be working on over these days (from the bottom-up):

My manuscript. That stack of pages on the bottom is a version of my manuscript. I hope to edit the final nine chapters (6–15) this weekend. The manuscript is due in 50 days and at this stage, more than anything else, I am sharpening the prose style, smoothing out any lumpy-flow-issues, and taking time to address notes and questions from editors.

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear in The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pgs 2004–2073. Last week I received this newly edited version of Shakespeare’s works (1623 First Folio ed.) and I’m impressed with the clear and abundant footnotes and the penetrating introductions. I find this edition is far more helpful than other collections I own (ie Riverside). I was delighted to read portions of The Tempest last week. This weekend I’ll skip over to KL.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition (University Of Chicago, 2010). I will flip through the new manual to learn things I should have learned in English class but didn’t because I wasn’t paying attention. At this stage in my book writing I’ll need to invest time formatting all the knotty ends that have been largely neglected (footnotes).

John Newton, The Works of the Rev. John Newton: Vol. 1 (London, 1820). Apart from the letters in the New Testament, no other personal letters more consistently edify my soul than those from Newton’s hand. This weekend I plan to read and study three of his letters more closely, each from the first volume in his six-volume works. I plan to share these letters on the blog early next week.

Frans Bengtsson, The Long Ships (NYRB Classics, 2010). A recent re-release of two Viking tales originally published in Sweedish in 1941 and 1945, translated into English in 1954, combined into one novel, and then fell out of print and was forgotten for a while. The book is now back in print. TLS is an absorbing read and provides a sobering look into the savagery of the 10th century Viking world. I’ve rowed for 75 pages. 400 to go.

Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (Counterpoint, 2000). Just arrived. The book opens with a line from King Lear: “Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.” Berry is profound, although the reader knows what to expect: “…under various suasions of profession and personality, this legitimate faith in scientific methodology seems to veer off into a kind of religious faith in the power of science to know all things and solve all problems, whereupon the scientists may become an evangelist and go forth to save the world” (p. 19). Berry always makes the true Savior more beautiful in my eyes, and he tightens my clinch on the grace of God that I need to survive this mystery called life, although I don’t recall him ever mentioning Christ in a meaningful way. Often the great authors are marked by their influence that can slowly and subtly and permanently change your outlook on the world (eg Marilynne Robinson).

So that’s a bit about my weekend which has now officially begun at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning.

But first, personal devo’s.