When you walk (by Adrian Plass)

(Amazon UK link)

I have thoroughly enjoyed, and much appreciated every book I've read by Adrian Plass. So when I realised that he'd written a year-long series of devotional Bible readings with commentaries, helpfully subtitled, 'for ordinary followers of Jesus who sometimes find the going a bit tough', it was the work of a moment to order it.

I've been reading 'When you Walk' for about a year. It should have been exactly a year, I suppose, since there it consists of 365 daily Bible readings with commentary, but some days I didn't read any, and some days I read more than one. I was not consistent, but it seemed to balance out.

Adrian Plass covers a wide variety of topics in this book, with passages from most books of the Bible appearing. Sometimes he looks at a particular book - or part of it - and sometimes he focuses on a theme.

I gather that each of the different sections originally appeared, separately, as a shorter series of readings; each one is prefaced by some insights or family background into why it was written. The order in the book seems somewhat random, but that wasn't a problem at all.

I don't suppose I've learned anything new, from the Christian life perspective, but I've enjoyed Adrian Plass's insights, peppered with personal anecdotes and his pithy, ironic and sometimes amusing one-liners. There's also a depth of insight which I found revealing and often helpful - just seeing things in a different way can sometimes be very constructive.

Recommended to anyone who wants something of this sort. I don't know that I can remember anything specific from the book now I've finished it, but at the time I always felt it was well worth reading.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 23rd July 2009