National Bible Sunday is the last Sunday in January. This day was first announced by James Madison in 1815. Other presidents have revised it to other days, but is now back to January. I am lucky to have a lot of our family bibles in my collection, given by several relatives. Some are in German, from my dad’s side, and some others are in Swedish, from my Mom’s side, along with many in English. An example is my grandfather was confirmed Albert Trulson in Sweden (have that bible with info written in front, 1904), and changed his name to Albert Nelson when came to United States (have the bible given to him with that name inside, when joined army to then become citizen-WWI.)
The few bibles I want to highlight today are My Mom’s bible given when confirmed in Lutheran faith (1950); Dad’s bible given by our Aunt Esther when he graduated 8th grade (also 1950); My bible given in 3rd grade (1966), and my Grandma Nelson’s mother’s family bible (Maude Shawalla Blanche Brown) handed down to her. It was published in 1819. It was also probably the most used of all them, filled with comments and notes throughout the book. This was a real working bible.
Today is also National Pop Art day. This day was conceived in 2004 by artist Bob Rizzo to honor this art movement. Pop Art definition is art based on modern popular culture and mass media.
I have two books on this subject. First is “The Way, the Living Bible” 1972. I have this bible under Pop Art because it is a paraphrased bible written in more modern verbage, with illustrated pictures, that was meant to attract younger readers to the word of the Bible. The Way came out while I was in high school, and it took the interest of lots of students. It felt like it was written just for us, and we believed we could understand the bible now better than our adults. Was it a gimmick? Or was it truly a way to get out “the Word” to another group of people? Pop art is often seen as gimmicky. Pop art is often geared to certain demographics. Either way, I think that this book could be construed to be pop art.
The other book is an unusual one called “Shopping Bags” from 1991. It is a collection of shopping bag art from around the world. Perfect Pop Art. Here are a few pages:
From bibles to shopping bags, pop art is all around us. Enjoy reading ‘the Good Book’ or any good book today.
Librarytomes 