Now there's a word you can use everyday, right?  It simply is a literary way of saying hodgepodge or jumble, which is what this post of miscellany is all about:

• Great Books:  if you want to read some classic great books, and then would like someone to help you understand what you just read, you may be interested in the Great Books program sponsored by Breakpoint, a ministry of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship.  Every month you'll read a different classic book, beginning with C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, and then on to The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (which has already licked me once), and Augustine's Confessions.  You get a CD each month by Ken Boa which contains a summary of the important themes, key quotes, and applications.  I'm giving it a shot.  Care to join me?  Sign up here.

• Bible Study:  I'm a Bible Study Fellowship flunkie.  I just couldn't keep up with the work and chafed under the rules.  I need more grace.  I think Finding Purpose, a ministry to men here in Raleigh, may be just the thing to get me back into regular Bible study (as opposed to its devotional use, or simply reading it, which comes easier).  A friend of mine, Russ Andrews, directs this ministry, founding it after leaving his job as a Broker for Triangle Securities and getting an M.Div from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  It meets for 22 weeks, on Tuesday nights, at Edenton Street United Methodist Church.  There's a short lecture and then a small group study.  And homework.  We'll be studying John.  If you want to get on board, be quick about it.  Email Robert Boone here if interested.

• A Literary Bible:  I'm intrigued by a new study Bible being released on September 25th.  Entitled The Literary Bible, this ESV edition focuses on the literary style of the Bible.  According to the short description the publisher posts, "The ESV Literary Study Bible approaches the Bible as literature and shows how the application of literary tools of analysis helps tremendously in reading and understanding the Bible. Readers are introduced to the literary features of each book of the Bible and to each section within each book. While traditional Bibles are reference books, this is truly a reader’s Bible. The format and commentary make it ideal for private devotional reading, for preachers and Bible teachers, and for use in group Bible studies."  You can read a 16-page brochure on it here, and pre-order it here.  I plan on getting one, as I would appreciate this not new but needed perspective on the text.

• Amaze Friends With Word Power.  I've enjoyed the RSS feed from this web site, which sends you a word each day.  Where do you think gallimaufry came from?  Some are useful, some funny, and some completely and totally useless because you can't use them in conversation or you'll sound like a nerd.

• A Literary Weekend.  I have to get to this conference next April and I want to go to this one too when it rolls around again.  Oh what will I do?  I'm not  a conference kind of person but I'd really like to attend these.  I want to to meet that talented wierdo Sufjan Stevens and speak to author Mischa Berlinski.  Care to go?

• Ramson Upgrade:   Ransom Fellowship's website has had a major upgrade.  I enjoy Denis Haack's discerning mind (and taste in music) and wife Margie's humor.  A Francis Schaeffer protege, Haack covers films, books, and controversial issues and knows how to ask the right questions even though he doesn't have all the answers.

And that's quite enough gallimaufry for one evening.