BOOK BITES
PECULIAR TREASURES: a Biblical Who’s Who by Frederick Buechner. HarperCollins, 1979. 205 pp. (BS571.B84).
Everybody who knows what the Phixers do loves them and their boss, the Rev. Gail Carlsen. They save the church a lot of money through their talent for repairing whatever is out of whack. And, they have been in the library a number of times. But, Phixers are interested in more than hammers and screwdrivers. Again and again they talk about books. One title mentioned frequently is PECULIAR TREASURES. One of the Phixers suggested we add it to our collection.
The author, a Presbyterian minister with degrees from Princeton and Union Theological Seminary, is a creative fellow. One reviewer describes the book as: “short, witty, and slightly quirky mini-essays on 125 Biblical characters.” Muze Annotation. The author has selected the holiest and the most profane, and includes Jonah’s whale.
Biography interests us because we see ourselves in the chief character. So it is with PECULIAR TREASURES. The author says: “A few years ago I wrote a book called WISHFUL THINKING: a Theological ABC, in which I tried to shake a little of the dust off a lot of moth-eaten old religious words and put some color back in their cheeks.” P. xi. He tried to do the same with biblical characters in this book but feels, as it turned out, they were the ones who shook the dust off of him.
---The Library Committee