Knowledge & Imagination

Via

"Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don't have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere."

-Ray Bradbury

Dominicans Saving Libraries in Iraq

From NPR:

"There have been Dominican monks in the city of Mosul since about 1750. They amassed a library of thousands of ancient manuscripts and say they brought the printing press to Iraq in the early 1800s...As an Islamist insurgency roiled Mosul in 2008, monks smuggled their library out, bit by bit...'The father or mother try to save the first thing--the children,' [Fr. Michaeel] says. 'So these books [are] my children."

Read the whole story here.

Pray for all Christians in the Middle East.

Worth A Thousand Words: The Calling of Samuel

"Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." (1 Sam 3:10)

From The Crusader Bible,  fol. 20v (13th c.), The Morgan Library & Museum

I had a chance to see this manuscript in person over Christmas vacation. It is stunning. Just imagine a graphic novel, then transport it to the Middle Ages. Check out the rest here. 

Where have I been the past few months? Well, mostly over here, chronicling my marathon training adventures. I'll be settling back into my normal bookish musings soon.