A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
One of my favorite books of 2010 is now available on paperback. Don Miller has a written some great books over the years, but for me this was the piece that set him apart. You can get it from Amazon here or from Powell's here. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Are you living a great story with your life? from Donald Miller on Vimeo.
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
On Saturday I finished reading Andrew Peterson's first (and I'm sure not last) book called On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Being his first book, there was naturally a little skepticism about how good it would be, just because the guy can write and perform great songs doesn't mean he'll be a good novelist. Well, I have to say, this one is a winner.
The story is an epic tail, very reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, but has it's own special flavor that makes it unique. When reading through the first several chapters what made me fall in love with the book was the way Peterson has worked his humor into the story in a way that is not intrusive or out of place in an epic tale, and is still absolutely hilarious (see the "Addendum to the Permission to Hoe Garden Form" in the Appendices). The story itself is filled with exciting tails of exploration, battle, and the hunt for precious lost jewels. As the mystery begins to unfold you won't want to put the book down until you have turned that next page, and then the next page, and then the next... While I certainly don't want to leave any spoilers in this post, I will say that I think the ending was very well executed; the book is clearly meant to be Part I of a series, so while there are plenty of open doors for Part II, the book still closes with a satisfactory feeling of resolution... at least for now!
Some Things Never Change
This month I have, somewhat by chance, stumbled into a renewed interest in American history. I posted a few weeks ago about how I came across the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Shortly after that Laura started receiving discs through Netflix from the HBO series about John Adams. I watched the first four episodes while flying to and from Sacramento this past weekend and had to come home and finish the last episodes on Sunday evening. If you have not seen this series I would highly recommend it. Aside from the production being remarkably well done, I appreciate how they wend about portraying the story of the American Revolution: as a very real and human tale.
History books have a way of categorizing our predecessors into neat categories: heroes & villains, patriots & cowards, but the reality is that they were people just like us. At times they were strong, and at times they were weak, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, they were flawed, imperfect people, who were struggling just to hold it all together. I think the greatest misconception about the whole ordeal is the notion that everyone was in agreement about how to handle our separation from England. The issue was bitterly contested by the representatives of the various colonies and was ultimately resolved through political negotiations not completely unlike those we have today. With our current political climate I think it is interesting to take the occasional look back at our history and note that there are somethings that just don't change.
Some new reading…
The other day I was perusing my book shelf, trying to decide which of the many unread books I should undertake (I seem to have developed a poor habit of buying books faster than I can read them). The one that jumped out at me was a left-over from a college course, (one of the many books I purchased, read for 15 minutes, and put on the book shelf), but on that day it had a special significance. Just the day before I had been listening to an audio book on a plane ride back to Nashville and in the book the author mentioned his opinion that The Autobiography on Benjamin Franklin is one of the best literature sources on success in existence. I remember thinking at the time that it would be great if I had time to read it, but that I probably would never get around to it. Well, as I surveyed my non-fiction shelf, I discovered that I actually already own a copy of it, and as it didn't appear to be too intimidating, I decided to give it a shot. I can honestly say that is has captured my attention unlike any other biography has been able to (not that I read a lot in that genre).
The theme of Franklin's early life is what he terms industry, or more simply, hard work. He was consumed with reading, writing, learning, and working to improve his situation. I'm about half way through the book at this point, so I'll try to come back and wrap this up after I've finished it, but already I can see there are a lot of great things to be learned from his life.
Some good quotes:
"I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity, and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life."
"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do."
"[My father] convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest."
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