to highlight or not to highlight, that is the question.

For nearly two years now, I’ve really wanted this book:

It’s The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. One giant book containing Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, A Grief Observed, plus The Abolition of Man. The collection features a detailed index covering all 7 works, as well as “an elegant ribbon marker and beautiful line art in-text and between each volume.” oooo. ahhh.

But it’s been priced at $49.99 and I’ve been too cheap pragmatic to buy it.

But.

PinkGirl came home from play rehearsal with a coupon/fundraiser deal from Borders, making it just over $30! It came in the mail on Thursday. And then I had a decision to make.

Do I mark it up? Do I highlight it? Make it MINE? Or do I leave the $50, coffee table sized book in pristine condition? And why would I leave it unmarked? Am I going to resell it someday? Seriously. It’s a giant C.S. Lewis book, ya know I’m not gonna sell it. But still. I couldn’t decide. I opened it up, perused the table of contents for Mere Christianity, turned to chapter 11, entitled “Faith.”

“That is why daily prayer and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?”

In case you haven’t figured it out. The above text is currently highlighted in MY new, giant book.

Not for resale.