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A review by moonpie
What Is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything by Rob Bell
4.0
I took forever to finish What Is the Bible? because I read it during pick-ups at school. I think it might have benefited from a smoother, quicker read. But I also have issues with Bell's writing style so it seemed like a good way to stop from overdosing on overabundant line breaks and chummy parentheticals. The audiobook would have been a better bet, most likely. It's a conversational style that I don't think works as well in print; it made it hard for me to concentrate on the substance of the book because I kept getting distracted by Bell's style.
Ignoring style: I did like the substance of the book. I think the message that the Bible should be read within the context of the time(s) it was written, paying attention to the people doing the writing and the intended audience, is excellent and important, and I think Bell does a good job of supporting his assertions, though a few citations would have been nice (although they wouldn't really fit the conversational style). I wish some of the space used up by line breaks had been filled with more written material, to be honest, because I wanted more information about many points that were made.
The last section of the book was actually my favorite part, from the FAQ to the list of books Bell suggests for further reading. I liked most of What Is the Bible? but those pages would have made it worth the read even if I didn't.
(three-and-a-half stars)
Ignoring style: I did like the substance of the book. I think the message that the Bible should be read within the context of the time(s) it was written, paying attention to the people doing the writing and the intended audience, is excellent and important, and I think Bell does a good job of supporting his assertions, though a few citations would have been nice (although they wouldn't really fit the conversational style). I wish some of the space used up by line breaks had been filled with more written material, to be honest, because I wanted more information about many points that were made.
The last section of the book was actually my favorite part, from the FAQ to the list of books Bell suggests for further reading. I liked most of What Is the Bible? but those pages would have made it worth the read even if I didn't.
(three-and-a-half stars)