here are the book that i have gone through in the last couple of weeks
- i finished phyllis tickle’s “the great emergence: how CHRISTianity is changing and why” last week and i found it to be a very enjoyable and enlightening book. i went into the book expecting it to be focused primarily on what is presently happening within the church. instead the first 2/3’s of the book dealt with the history that has lead to to this point in history. it was an excellent reminder of some of the primary events within the history of the church. i particularly enjoyed tickel’s theory of the church going through a “garage sale” every 500 years.
- next came don delillo’s “end zone.” i really enjoy delillo’s writing. “white noise” is an excellent example of postmodern literature and a book that i enjoyed greatly. “end zone” is about a football player and i was looking forward to a pomo approach to the grid iron. sadly “end zone” is not as good as “white noise.” it was an ok read and one that i’m not disappointed that i finished. it just wasn’t great and that is what i was hoping for. again it’s worth reading but if i had to chose i would read “white noise” instead.
- yesterday i finished the book that our small group has been working through, tim keller’s "counterfeit gods: the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters." technically we don’t finish the study until next week but i went ahead and finished the book yesterday. i like keller’s writing and i think he made some excellent points in this book. keller’s discussion concerning success, power and politics being being false gods within the modern church is something that is very much needed. pretty good stuff for an easy read.
- i wouldn’t normally discuss a book that i decided to stop reading but i will make an exception for mark danielewski’s "only revolutions." i quite reading it because it i simply couldn’t get into the story. it is a very difficult book to read. i am still very impressed with the effort danielewski put into the book. “only revolutions” is two stories in one book – one going in one direction and then you flip the book over and read the other story. there are 90 words from each story on each page. this means that each page has 180 words on it and every two pages has 360 words on it – a revolution of 360 words. danielewski placed a lot of constraints on the writing of this book and the end product was interesting for awhile. though i didn’t finish it i am still impressed with what he tried. sometimes it is worth trying something difficult even if it fails. sometimes experimentation just for the sake of trying new things is a really good thing regardless of the results.
so those are the books i’ve read recently.
you should read danielewski’s other book ‘house of leaves’ which is actually readable. i love that book and was really excited about ‘only revolutions’ but couldn’t finish it either.
brad – i loved “house of leaves.” i loved the story and the way he played around with the type and format. it was genius.
If your looking for a new good read i would suggest “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” by Christopher McDougall he does a good job of combining a great story with some history of running
jesse – you are the third person to recommend that book. i’m going to have to look into it.