Several bibliobloggers are making all different sorts of top-ten lists of books. I think Scot McKnight started the trend, and I think Stephen C. Carlson has had the best general statement to date. I won't link to others here; they're easy enough to find right now. Just go to the NT Gateway Weblog and do the clickie-clickie dance in the sidebar blogroll, and you'll find some lists.

I wanted to make a truly useful list, not some list attempting to reflect the form of platonic perfection in a particular area of theology or Biblical studies. And I've started a lot of books I need to finish, so what list could be better?

That said, here's my list. These are in no particular order.

• Arthur Vööbus, Early Versions of the New Testament: Manuscript Studies. Status: over halfway.
• Bruce M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission and Limitations. Status: not started.
• C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia.* Status: 3/7 of the way done.
• Stanley Porter, Studies in the Greek New Testament. Status: nearly complete.
• N.T. Wright, The Resurrection and the Son of God. Status: not started.
• George W. Knight III, The Faithful Sayings in the Pastoral Letters. Status: over halfway.
• J.M. Holmes, Text in a Whirlwind: A Critique of Four Exegetical Devices at 1 Timothy 2.9-15. Status: over halfway.
• Ray Van Neste, Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles. Status: over halfway.
• Perry L. Stepp, Leadership Succession in the World of the Pauline Circle. Status: over halfway.
• Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion (Battles translation). Status: halfway.

Pretty sad, huh? Looks like I can only get halfway through a book before I get interested in a new one. The sad part? I have two books I really want to put on this list, but don't for fear that then I'll think that means I really can start them (and I've actually started one of them ... shhhh! don't tell anyone!)

I'm close to finishing Vööbus and then I can put early versions to rest for a bit before I start Meztger. I'm not worried about Calvin; that's been on the back burner for the past two years; a guy can only chew on so much. N.T Wright -- well, I don't think I like where he's going in his magnum opus, so I'm not too encouraged to get back into it. That one can sit. Narnia will happen, it is good in-between reading.

Van Neste, Stepp and Holmes are the ones I'm worried about. I burned through the first half of each of them easily, but they've since moved off of my radar. I need to get back into them before I start the mystery book mentioned above (that I've already started, but remember, don't tell anyone). But the mystery book is so cool! I'll blog about that one for sure once I get through it!

Note: Aquinas is nowhere on my list.

Update (2005-08-10): Thanks to all the folks who have commented. A few notes:

Jim -- Thanks for the OK to pass on Wright for now. But that book is just staring at me, and I'm through two of the three published volumes, and feel like I should dig in and wrap it up. Still, I think I'll pass for now.

Brandon -- You speak much wisdom.

Murray -- Narina is before Aquinas because I want to read Narnia. Aquinas is something I should read, but am not motivated to. Hence, it is lower on the list. Plain and simple.

Loren -- The part I enjoy from Wright is his use of Pseudepigrapha and Dead Sea Scroll material to fill in some holes, though it largely has the effect of displaying my own gaps of knowledge in these areas. I typically have to read books like Wright's a few times before I really "get" what is being said, and I've only read the first two books once. And the series is a projected five books (right?) so I'm not even halfway into it. Which is why I want to withold judgement, for now. That said -- and I don't have any examples to hand -- there have been times when I've read a section and "done the math" predicting what certain statements might mean (either in the area of eschatology, or in the deity of Christ, or some other something) and not really liked the extrapolation. To be fair, though, such things are extrapolations and very well may not be the view Wright is promoting. Which means I need to read it and understand it. Which is why it is on my list. But it still gives me the heebie-jeebies sometimes.

* Yes, I'm counting the Chronicles of Narnia as one book, not seven. I'm just about to start the fourth book (in order of release), The Silver Chair.

The Bryn Mawr Classical Review has posted a review of:

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Translated into Ancient Greek by Andrew Wilson.   London:  Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004.  Pp. 250.  ISBN 0-7475-6897-9.

Yes, that's right, the first Potter book translated into Ancient Greek. And it's been reviewed, so we know there is at least one person who has actually read it!

Now, I need to state for the record (and I'll probably get flamed for it): I haven't read any Harry Potter, nor do I plan to. I have nothing against the storyline or the books or the author, they just don't really interest me. No, I haven't seen the movies either.

The best way I can explain this is to relate/paraphrase a story I heard from a first-hand witness. Most names have been omitted to protect the innocent:

A friend of mine relates a story from his seminary days, when the Left Behind novels were really hot. One student asked the professor (whose name you'd recognize if I passed it along): "Professor [...] — have you read Tim LaHaye?" The professor responded, "Why would I do that when I haven't made it through Aquinas yet?!"

I'm about the same way with Potter, I think. If I ever make it through Aquinas (which I have to admit is low on the list) then perhaps I'll get to Potter. I'll certainly get to it before I get to the Left Behind books. But I've got too much other cool stuff to read in the meantime.

I just noticed that the NETS project has uploaded some new stuff, notably:

• Introduction to the Reader
• 1 Maccabees (their spelling is "1 Makkabees")
• 4 Maccabees (their spelling is "4 Makkabees")
• Jeremiah

I've no idea how long these have been posted, but there's a lot of stuff there. If you use the LXX at all in your studies (and if not, why not?) then you want to grab these while they're available.

Today was a very good day, but a busy one. After church, Amy and I went to Oak Harbor. My Dad has been salmon fishing for the past week and had some luck, so he invited us down. On the way there, heading onto Whidbey Island through Deception Pass State Park, here's what Amy and I saw:

Pretty cool, huh? This is taken from the Fidalgo Island side. I stopped and took a few pictures. It was pretty bright, so I couldn't really see how things came out until I got home. Digital cameras are cool.

But that's not all. We took off from Oak Harbor around 3:30 and drove back to Bellingham the long way -- Chuckanut Drive. A few months back, I took some photos of some railroad tracks running along the coast. I'd thought since then that it would be really cool to have a photo of a train on those tracks.

Today, as we were driving up Chuckanut, Amy and I heard a train whistle. I immediately thought we might have a chance to catch the train on the coastline tracks. Amy saw the train and said it was heading north, so we just had to beat it to the photo spot.

And we did. More good timing!

That's the back end of the train. I have some other pictures too; this was the last one I took. Thankfully, the train was long and I was able to take a minute or so and get the telephoto lense on the camera for the final few pictures.

Oh, and by the way -- the salmon was excellent, and it's just the beginning of the sport fishing season for pink salmon. I'm looking forward to more!

After that, it was to Amy's house for evening dinner with her family, which was fun too. A nice, relaxing end to a runabout day.

Just came across this story: Kraft's Maxwell House Cuts Coffee Price.

Now, I could care less about Maxwell House coffee. Their old slogan used to be "good to the last drop" and on behalf of coffee snobs everywhere (such as myself), I think it's too bad that they haven't reached that "last drop" yet.

But cheap coffee seems to be in the business news. Here's another story about the "Mountain Grown" alternative: P&G Cuts Folgers Coffee Price as Beans Get Cheaper.

I can see the next headline already: "Yuban Prices Spike, Spokesman Says They Can Actually Afford Beans Now!"

Prices were apparently high in March, but they're lower now. The article on the mountain-grown mud that rhymes with "bolgers" notes:

Since peaking at $1.4425 per lb on March 11, NYBOT's benchmark arabica contract for September delivery fell to an 8-month low of 96.15 cents per lb on July 19. The contract is now trading around $1.0180 a lb.

This means that beans are about 30% cheaper now than they were. I wonder if this carries over to premium purveyors of caffienated goodness? I wonder if the local coffee shops will notice the difference?

Side note: I live in the Pacific Northwest (Bellingham, WA). It takes me anywhere from 5-10 minutes to drive from my house to the office, depending on the traffic lights. On my route, I pass at least seven (yes seven, just counted 'em in my head) coffee shops. That doesn't count gas stations or fast-food establishments. And there are far more just off that beaten path. Offhand, I'd guess there are at least 5 coffee shops within easy walking distance from the office. In short: coffee is huge here. Lower-priced premium coffee would be awesome. Hopefully the decrease in commodity price sticks and the competition (which is pretty tight here) drives the price down a bit.

I like to keep the biblioblogger blogroll on this site lean and mean, reflecting the biblioblogs that I read regularly.

I've rearranged a little. First, I've added Jim West's blog Biblical Theology. Jim is a posting machine -- I've no idea how he does it. But the posts are typically short (well ... shorter than my marathon blather sessions) and more often than not are quite informative. And Jim is a big fan of Zwingli, which immediately means he's gotta be a good guy. I mean ... Zwingli died on the field of battle, in armor, fighting for the reformation!

You may also note that I've removed the Better Bibles Blog. This was tough to do, but I was simply not reading it because there was too much stuff going on. I just couldn't keep track of it all and fell out of the habit of reading it. Because I only want to list the blogs I actually read on a regular basis (otherwise the list would be well out of hand) I thought it best to remove the link. Wayne, keep it up -- I just can't keep up with your posting prowess right now.

You'll also notice I've added the Logos Bible Software Blog to my "other blogs" blogroll. Hey, it's my employer, and I write articles for the blog. I've got to link to it, right?

This song is on an Pakaderm Records (remember the Elefante brothers?) sampler from 1991 called "Portrait of a spirit". Good luck finding it. The song is based on Rev 15.3-4:

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Here are the words to the song, as composed by Scott Sellen ((c) 1992 Always an Adventure Music ASCAP):

[Verses 1, 2, 4]
Oh God, Your works are marvelous
Your ways are just and true
Oh King of saints, who'll not fear you?
And glorify, come glorify
Jesus, glorify in you.

[Verses 3, 5]
You are the only Holy One
Nations come and worship You ...
You are the only Holy One
Nations come and worship You

The line "Oh King of saints, who'll not fear you?" has been playing in my head for the past few days. It's a good lyric.

Now, I understand you can't get the full sense without listening to the music. The tune is simple. Instrumentation is sparse with just an acoustic guitar, accordion and harmonica (played by Darrell Mansfield). The primary instrument is Furay's voice. And every time I hear it, I think, "whoa ... "

Hi folks.

I've recently posted an article on the Logos Bible Software Blog about using the Graphical Query Editor. If you have ever wondered, "Now what in the world would I ever use that for?" then maybe you should check it out.

If that article butters your bread, you might also be interested in this post: Thinking through 1Ti 3.7.

Until I figure out exactly what the relationship is between the new Logos blog and ricoblog, I'll probably post notes like this here when I post longer articles over on the Logos blog.