Shadowplay: More from The Shadow Library

 

I begin with a rare example of a DVD in the Shadow Library. Usually when I buy a DVD I'm very sure I want to see it again; usually when I part with a DVD it is to give it to a friend or a family member, like when I gave my 8 Harry Potter movies to Kaitlyn. Tin Man was a mini-series that ran on the Sci-Fi Channel, and because it was Oz-related and not immediately horrible, I thought it might bear re-watching. Alas, it did not, growing ever more tedious the more I tried. I don't think I ever watched it to the end of the story again. I finally decided to let it go, trading it in to Half-Price.

This book's existence has been teasing my mind ever since I was examining that old photo of one of my book shelves. It wasn't in the picture, but looking at it reminded me of the general atmosphere of my library at the time. I'd forgotten the title but remembering it was a Zondervan volume helped me track it down. I picked up Halley's Bible Handbook: New Revised Edition during my college years, determined, I think, to bolster my religiosity, if not my religion, which was fairly nebulous at the time, just starting to reform after the JW debacle. The Handbook was a volume that was fairly handy, if of a slight Protestant bias, that has been reprinted and updated many times (I recognized my edition by its distinctive color scheme). I knew I didn't want to follow in the over-emotional, prosperity-gospel approach that seemed to be sucking Mom back into the pharisaical clutches of religious opportunists. A more measured, intellectual method, something that could be defended against the shallow taunts of a secular intelligentsia, was more my road to God. That way took me years, of course, when I could have found my way home far sooner, but the long road home is still one of the right roads home.

 

The first copy of The Once and Future King by T. H. White that I ever owned; the cover highly emphasized that it was the source material for the movie version of the play CAMELOT. I was relieved when I could finally replace it with a cover that stressed the Fantastic over the Romantic. That movie poster picture! Embarrassing to lug around.