I saw a special on Barbra Streisand the other night. She had an exhibit opening at the California Hall of Fame or something like that. As she looked around at the collected memories she commented that it was like looking at another person’s life, unfamiliar. When asked what her proudest moment was she said, “Giving birth to my son.”
What is my proudest moment? Let me think. I have some very proud secret moments. I have some very public failures too. In fact, I’m more aware of my failures than my proudest moments. Surely the list for successes is longer, but the failures weigh more. Weigh me down. It’s the power of suggestion. It’s the power of the mind. When I get stressed I get really bad headaches. That’s a trip. A mystery.
I am forever amazed at our capacities to deal with change in our lives. I used to like cartoons. I didn’t have a father for a long time, but now I do. My paw paw and I would eat at a buffet at least twice a week, but now I never do, and he’s dead. For six years I was in a different place just about every day, and now I sleep in my own bed each night. I used to have a ton of people wanting something from me all the time, now not so much. And on I could go, some serious and not so serious things.
I miss a lot of things that used to be in my life but aren’t anymore. Certain people. Certain places. Certain feelings. But life is survival of the fittest. And if we don’t accept the changes that come our way then we start to become most unpleasant. We drain the joy out of ourselves and eventually out of those around us. The artist allows this for his perverted sense of what he thinks a necessary conduit for good art. The narcissist allows this because he wants to, he wants to, he wants to. The average person just because of laziness if nothing else.
Our fear of change, our fear of things ending are a sign of our desire for eternity. It burns in my chest and keeps me shifting at night. If something is good, I want it to last forever. If it’s bad, then of course I want it to end as soon as possible. (That would be our sense of justice.) But it seems like the good things are always ending before the bad ones. And that’s the confusing part. That’s the hard part.
People suffer. People die. People grow apart. People hurt each other. The cost of living goes up. The safe neighborhood gets shady. This world and all therein are in a process of decay…or is it and are they?
I used to think people could change the world for the better in a massive way. I’ve never been a humanist but I thought man had enough good in him to do right by everyone and everything around him. From his mother, to strangers, to the redwoods, and dolphins in the sea. But I’ve lived and studied enough now to know better. I’ve done poorly enough to my neighbor and beyond enough times to know we are all going to hell in a handbasket if left up to our own efforts…but are we?
This is where eternity steps in. This is where all these suffering and endings, failures and endings, beginnings and endings, are put into their proper perspective. Survival of the fittest is not the most physical but the most patient, the most aware. A romantic image: a farmer, swollen hands, wrinkled face, plants, waits, harvests, turns up the soil, repeat, repeat. He’s been through drought, freeze, flood, and knows enough to know that eventually, at some point, at some time, a crop will be this year or next, or next, or next.
In the form of a baby, hope was born. Salvation for this cycle of suffering, boredom, and endings. Eternity came to us wet and naked and bloody and crying. He pierced our sense of time, our births and deaths. Our beginnings and our endings. Our pasts and our futures, in that ever present moment of his promises: that the maker of the heavens and earth loves us: that he desires to be known by us: that in our failures against others we are failing against him, but he forgives us: that through this little baby’s death the failures of all will not be held against them: that death is no master of the one who makes life: that we are invited to join in his plan of redemption for humanity and the things created: that we will fail him, but he will redeem our failures somehow all the same.
Through this baby, the one called Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph and Mary, who would be born, killed, and raised from death, life makes sense to me. I make more sense to me. You make more sense to me. These proud moments and failures, these beginning and endings, these yearnings for eternity, all are put into their proper place. That is not to say that some things are not still mysteries. In fact, more things than not are probably more perplexing, confusing, and mysterious. In all that perplexity I soon find myself anxious. But it’s then that I hear the crying of a newborn baby, and my heart rests.
Merry Christmas.
Bradley Hathaway
December 18, 2010
3:13 AM
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
There Were Never Two People Happier Than You and I
yo.
i'll be posting an update in the coming days of recent books. apologies.
in the meantime if you find yourself still literary i've released a new ep "a thousand angry panthers" and think you will find the lyrics to suit your scholarly itch. it's on itunes and other digitial providers at the moment.
cheers.
bradley
i'll be posting an update in the coming days of recent books. apologies.
in the meantime if you find yourself still literary i've released a new ep "a thousand angry panthers" and think you will find the lyrics to suit your scholarly itch. it's on itunes and other digitial providers at the moment.
cheers.
bradley
Monday, April 19, 2010
Prerequisite: Last Name Starts With McC
Book: Carson McCullers: A Life by Josyane Savigneau
In my brief foray into literature I’ve discovered two things: Firstly, I find most interesting and enjoyable classic American literature, particularly of the South. Secondly, Carson McCullers is my favorite of this type of writer. Of her few novels that she’s written and of the fewer that I’ve read, she touches me in a deep, dark way that no other writer has been able to do so. She writes underwater, underneath my skin. Speaks to places few know even exist. She was very much aware and very much good at portraying the isolation and loneliness that some of us as human beings feel. Her weird, fascinating, and morbid characters continually revealed this isolation, this loneliness. If you’ve not yet read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter please do so. If you’ve not read more than a couple of her books I wouldn’t really recommend this biography of her to you just yet. I know biographies are about the most popular kind of book and that is good fine I guess but one will get much more out this biography after having developed a love for her writings. What I find most intriguing about McCullers was her being just past twenty years old she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. By literary standards, this is ridiculous. Unlike music, which is obsessed with youth, writers are usually much, much older before they are capable of writing a successful novel. One usually has to have much more life and much more time at their craft in this particular art form, which made McCullers a literary phenomenon. She was considered genius for being able to do this, and one can’t help but respect that at the least. Her life, though, was what could be considered typical of the prevelant idea of the troubled artist. The woman definitely had issues, and this book goes into them, revealing that her characters were not to far from her own home. For me one of the most intriguing things to me about her was her struggle to write despite her being crippled most of her life from around age 30 to her early death at just 50. She was bedridden and unable to care for herself during most of that time. She said she had to write and that it was writing that had kept her alive, even writing on the day of her death. I could go more in depth but like I say, if you like McCullers you will dig this look into her life and ways otherwise I don’t know that outside of that why anyone would read this. It’s not really going to inspire you like a Helen Keller biography or anything.
Sidenote: I do feel much more cultured after reading this biography because the author was a French woman and I’ve never read a book by anyone French before.
Book: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is apparently a big deal in the modern American literary world and to be honest I had no idea. I knew him as the writer of the novel No Country For Old Men but I had only seen the movie (and loved and was disturbed by it for a full three days afterwards). On tour my drummer and guitar player at the time were crazy about The Road written by McCarthy so I read that but didn’t find it all that special. But I like cowboys. And I knew he had written a few books with cowboys in them, and I’ve wanted to read them for some time. I’d go to the library and look at them, always wanting to read them, but never doing so because the time was not right. I believe there is a time for everything, a season, and books are no different. One could read any book at anytime but that doesn’t mean that he was meant to. Books are powerful, and if not handled carefully I think they can be a big waste of time so I am very particular about what books I expose myself to at certain times. So until a few weeks ago it wasn’t yet time for me to read McCarthy, and then it was. Now it is. It’s springtime. The weather is warmer. The wind is blowing. I can sit outside by a stream. Perfect for reading of happenings in the southwest. So I read All the Pretty Horses, the first book of a trilogy known as the Border Trilogy. Now this is less a review of All the Pretty Horses as much as an introduction to me diving into the writer and his works himself. I dug All the Pretty Horses, I really did. I found it a good story that gave me a bit of wanderlust and further cemeted my dream of riding a horse everywhere I go, making love to beautiful Mexican women, and eating beans and tortillas for every meal. But I don’t personally find it anymore than that: a good story. Unlike much of the classic literature I’m getting into, which has the power to change one’s view of the world, it’s people, it’s workings, and one’s own self, my experience with McCarthy is that he is just a good storyteller but beyond that little else. If a Steinbeck novel weighed a ton then you could carry a McCarthy novel in your back pocket. I don’t mean this to be an insult, hardly. For example, I appreciate music that changes my life but not every song is meant to. Sometimes I just want to hear something nice and easy. Sometimes I read to find pearls in the ocean, other times I just wanna sit on the beach. Same with books. So my interest in McCarthy is why there is such an interest in his writings to begin with. He’s won some hefty literary awards, has a society and journal named after him, and has around ten books written just about the books he’s written even though he has only written about ten novels himself…but why? As far as I can tell his stories just don’t have the depth that I would expect them to have for people to pay $30 something a year to join the Cormac McCarthy Society where they are exposed to news about his art and writings other people are publishing about his art. So I’m intrigued. I wonder to myself if I’m just missing something. And I wonder what it is about this writer that makes him so successful. And given the content of his novels, cowboys of the southwest and the extreme violence contained therein, I wonder what it says about the culture that follows his work. So, this begins my exploration into the work of Cormac McCarthy and the reasons for his success. I invite you on the journey as well if you’d like. And should you already have an opinion of him I’d like to know your thoughts as well.
By the way, though some of his books have cowboys in them, it’s not really John Wayne type stuff so don’t be put off by that idea. It’s much more modern.
In my brief foray into literature I’ve discovered two things: Firstly, I find most interesting and enjoyable classic American literature, particularly of the South. Secondly, Carson McCullers is my favorite of this type of writer. Of her few novels that she’s written and of the fewer that I’ve read, she touches me in a deep, dark way that no other writer has been able to do so. She writes underwater, underneath my skin. Speaks to places few know even exist. She was very much aware and very much good at portraying the isolation and loneliness that some of us as human beings feel. Her weird, fascinating, and morbid characters continually revealed this isolation, this loneliness. If you’ve not yet read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter please do so. If you’ve not read more than a couple of her books I wouldn’t really recommend this biography of her to you just yet. I know biographies are about the most popular kind of book and that is good fine I guess but one will get much more out this biography after having developed a love for her writings. What I find most intriguing about McCullers was her being just past twenty years old she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. By literary standards, this is ridiculous. Unlike music, which is obsessed with youth, writers are usually much, much older before they are capable of writing a successful novel. One usually has to have much more life and much more time at their craft in this particular art form, which made McCullers a literary phenomenon. She was considered genius for being able to do this, and one can’t help but respect that at the least. Her life, though, was what could be considered typical of the prevelant idea of the troubled artist. The woman definitely had issues, and this book goes into them, revealing that her characters were not to far from her own home. For me one of the most intriguing things to me about her was her struggle to write despite her being crippled most of her life from around age 30 to her early death at just 50. She was bedridden and unable to care for herself during most of that time. She said she had to write and that it was writing that had kept her alive, even writing on the day of her death. I could go more in depth but like I say, if you like McCullers you will dig this look into her life and ways otherwise I don’t know that outside of that why anyone would read this. It’s not really going to inspire you like a Helen Keller biography or anything.
Sidenote: I do feel much more cultured after reading this biography because the author was a French woman and I’ve never read a book by anyone French before.
Book: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is apparently a big deal in the modern American literary world and to be honest I had no idea. I knew him as the writer of the novel No Country For Old Men but I had only seen the movie (and loved and was disturbed by it for a full three days afterwards). On tour my drummer and guitar player at the time were crazy about The Road written by McCarthy so I read that but didn’t find it all that special. But I like cowboys. And I knew he had written a few books with cowboys in them, and I’ve wanted to read them for some time. I’d go to the library and look at them, always wanting to read them, but never doing so because the time was not right. I believe there is a time for everything, a season, and books are no different. One could read any book at anytime but that doesn’t mean that he was meant to. Books are powerful, and if not handled carefully I think they can be a big waste of time so I am very particular about what books I expose myself to at certain times. So until a few weeks ago it wasn’t yet time for me to read McCarthy, and then it was. Now it is. It’s springtime. The weather is warmer. The wind is blowing. I can sit outside by a stream. Perfect for reading of happenings in the southwest. So I read All the Pretty Horses, the first book of a trilogy known as the Border Trilogy. Now this is less a review of All the Pretty Horses as much as an introduction to me diving into the writer and his works himself. I dug All the Pretty Horses, I really did. I found it a good story that gave me a bit of wanderlust and further cemeted my dream of riding a horse everywhere I go, making love to beautiful Mexican women, and eating beans and tortillas for every meal. But I don’t personally find it anymore than that: a good story. Unlike much of the classic literature I’m getting into, which has the power to change one’s view of the world, it’s people, it’s workings, and one’s own self, my experience with McCarthy is that he is just a good storyteller but beyond that little else. If a Steinbeck novel weighed a ton then you could carry a McCarthy novel in your back pocket. I don’t mean this to be an insult, hardly. For example, I appreciate music that changes my life but not every song is meant to. Sometimes I just want to hear something nice and easy. Sometimes I read to find pearls in the ocean, other times I just wanna sit on the beach. Same with books. So my interest in McCarthy is why there is such an interest in his writings to begin with. He’s won some hefty literary awards, has a society and journal named after him, and has around ten books written just about the books he’s written even though he has only written about ten novels himself…but why? As far as I can tell his stories just don’t have the depth that I would expect them to have for people to pay $30 something a year to join the Cormac McCarthy Society where they are exposed to news about his art and writings other people are publishing about his art. So I’m intrigued. I wonder to myself if I’m just missing something. And I wonder what it is about this writer that makes him so successful. And given the content of his novels, cowboys of the southwest and the extreme violence contained therein, I wonder what it says about the culture that follows his work. So, this begins my exploration into the work of Cormac McCarthy and the reasons for his success. I invite you on the journey as well if you’d like. And should you already have an opinion of him I’d like to know your thoughts as well.
By the way, though some of his books have cowboys in them, it’s not really John Wayne type stuff so don’t be put off by that idea. It’s much more modern.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Egg Explosion
At the request of one of you I’ve started reading Moby Dick. You see, up to a month ago or so I had been thinking long and hard about going sailing for an extended period of time, selling my home and just going for it. But real life and money have hindered that dream, so instead I thought I’d just start reading about others that have gone to sea. Hence, I’m a hundred pages into Moby Dick and thus far I’m into it. The writing style is nothing that I expected but it’s in nice little short chapters so it makes me feel like I can stop and not lose the flow or that I’m briskly moving the book (though in reality I’m not but the mind is interesting and I like to play it’s games).
…
I’ve also started a study of Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs. I never really understood Ecclesiastes and I can already see clearer with just a bit of effort. If you are maybe happy go lucky at the moment then I don’t know that the first of the two books will speak to you as much as those that are a bit in the trenches, or a bit more in despair, or a bit more confused. You’ll love Song of Songs I’m sure but those in despair will love it too after spending time with The Teacher and Job. My study has started with one of my favorite teachers, Peter Kreeft. He’s written a mad number of books and is a philosopher teaching at Boston College. He has written Three Philosophies of Life which see Ecc. as life as vanity, Job as life as suffering, and Song of Songs as life as love. This book along with other commentaries and the books themselves are opening up the ways of life, the ways of man, and the ways of God to me more at the moment.
…
Speaking of Peter Kreeft I also recommend his podcast to you. Just look up Peter Kreeft in podcasts and you should see it. Each episode is a lecture him giving somewhere, usually a university, followed by a question and answer time. He’s a Tolkien and C.S. Lewis fanatic and is always teaching about their ideas and such, along with ideas on God and philosophy. He is a hard out Catholic no doubt, so if you are squirmish around hearing this or that that you don’t agree with then this might not be for you, but I’d not turn away an excellent teacher just because you disagree with a few things. I do disagree with him on some things but since discovering Kreeft I am a more rounded Christian for it and I know the Lord more richly than I did before.
…
Another podcast worth checking out if you are into Tolkien is “The Tolkien Professor”. If you love Lord of the Rings and Tolkien especially, this rules. Something about hearing academic lectures on Tolkien just makes me happy. I feel full on dorkish and love every minute of it.
…
Things I’ve recently read or watched…
Book: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
After being engulfed in the Lord of the Rings for the past few years it was very nice to return to where it all began. I love The Hobbit most of all and reading it again I realized how fun and childish it is. I could go on but it’s The Hobbit, you are either down or not.
Film: The War by Ken Burns
For those of you that are PBS watchers this will sound familiar. For a good while it showed parts of this documentary every night. It’s a beast at 15 hours long. And while I don’t doubt that some people could watch 15 hours of Lost straight I’d find it hard to believe that one could watch this in single setting. This is about the most brutal documentary I’ve ever watched. It focuses on four towns in four different states and how each of them and their citizens were during World War II. Many of us already know the facts of WWII as we are taught this stuff all throughout school, but I didn’t care much for a lot of what I learned during school because I don’t think I cared to learn much until the day I graduated. And facts (like soldiers going into battles expecting themselves or 8 of their 10 comrades to die) only go so far but to hear and see the stories of these soldiers as they cry some 60 years later bring home the reality of all the death, all the tragedy, all the questions. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and has actually given me nightmares during and since watching it. I say watch it because one won’t view veterans the same, the idea of free will quite the same, good versus evil, God, America, etc. I’m a big proponent of thinking about things and such a film will produce many thoughts, good, bad, and confusing.
Film: The Horse Whisperer
I didn’t expect this to be so girly, but I should have known better. I did dig the Montana scenery though.
TV: Lost
After years of being adamantly against watching such a grown up soap opera where the writers didn’t even know what was going on, I caved. I’m hooked. The writing is killer and the characters fascinating. It’s doing a genius job of showing how everyone is a walking storybook, full of joy and pain and secrets. I didn’t expect to find such grace and forgiveness here. I am nearly halfway through season two. Yesterday I dreamed that Hurley worked at Wal Mart and was selling me two televisions. “Uh, dude, we don’t have that one in stock I have to special order it for you.”
…
So I was I was typing this I forgot I had eggs boiling. The water evaporated and they just exploded.
Sincerely,
Bradley
…
I’ve also started a study of Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs. I never really understood Ecclesiastes and I can already see clearer with just a bit of effort. If you are maybe happy go lucky at the moment then I don’t know that the first of the two books will speak to you as much as those that are a bit in the trenches, or a bit more in despair, or a bit more confused. You’ll love Song of Songs I’m sure but those in despair will love it too after spending time with The Teacher and Job. My study has started with one of my favorite teachers, Peter Kreeft. He’s written a mad number of books and is a philosopher teaching at Boston College. He has written Three Philosophies of Life which see Ecc. as life as vanity, Job as life as suffering, and Song of Songs as life as love. This book along with other commentaries and the books themselves are opening up the ways of life, the ways of man, and the ways of God to me more at the moment.
…
Speaking of Peter Kreeft I also recommend his podcast to you. Just look up Peter Kreeft in podcasts and you should see it. Each episode is a lecture him giving somewhere, usually a university, followed by a question and answer time. He’s a Tolkien and C.S. Lewis fanatic and is always teaching about their ideas and such, along with ideas on God and philosophy. He is a hard out Catholic no doubt, so if you are squirmish around hearing this or that that you don’t agree with then this might not be for you, but I’d not turn away an excellent teacher just because you disagree with a few things. I do disagree with him on some things but since discovering Kreeft I am a more rounded Christian for it and I know the Lord more richly than I did before.
…
Another podcast worth checking out if you are into Tolkien is “The Tolkien Professor”. If you love Lord of the Rings and Tolkien especially, this rules. Something about hearing academic lectures on Tolkien just makes me happy. I feel full on dorkish and love every minute of it.
…
Things I’ve recently read or watched…
Book: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
After being engulfed in the Lord of the Rings for the past few years it was very nice to return to where it all began. I love The Hobbit most of all and reading it again I realized how fun and childish it is. I could go on but it’s The Hobbit, you are either down or not.
Film: The War by Ken Burns
For those of you that are PBS watchers this will sound familiar. For a good while it showed parts of this documentary every night. It’s a beast at 15 hours long. And while I don’t doubt that some people could watch 15 hours of Lost straight I’d find it hard to believe that one could watch this in single setting. This is about the most brutal documentary I’ve ever watched. It focuses on four towns in four different states and how each of them and their citizens were during World War II. Many of us already know the facts of WWII as we are taught this stuff all throughout school, but I didn’t care much for a lot of what I learned during school because I don’t think I cared to learn much until the day I graduated. And facts (like soldiers going into battles expecting themselves or 8 of their 10 comrades to die) only go so far but to hear and see the stories of these soldiers as they cry some 60 years later bring home the reality of all the death, all the tragedy, all the questions. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and has actually given me nightmares during and since watching it. I say watch it because one won’t view veterans the same, the idea of free will quite the same, good versus evil, God, America, etc. I’m a big proponent of thinking about things and such a film will produce many thoughts, good, bad, and confusing.
Film: The Horse Whisperer
I didn’t expect this to be so girly, but I should have known better. I did dig the Montana scenery though.
TV: Lost
After years of being adamantly against watching such a grown up soap opera where the writers didn’t even know what was going on, I caved. I’m hooked. The writing is killer and the characters fascinating. It’s doing a genius job of showing how everyone is a walking storybook, full of joy and pain and secrets. I didn’t expect to find such grace and forgiveness here. I am nearly halfway through season two. Yesterday I dreamed that Hurley worked at Wal Mart and was selling me two televisions. “Uh, dude, we don’t have that one in stock I have to special order it for you.”
…
So I was I was typing this I forgot I had eggs boiling. The water evaporated and they just exploded.
Sincerely,
Bradley
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
You?
Greetings from a truckstop outside of Nashville.
My reading the past couple weeks has been lessened to practically nothing as I've been focusing on recording my newest record. Soooooo...tell me what you guys have been reading. Let's share.
Sincerely,
Bradley
My reading the past couple weeks has been lessened to practically nothing as I've been focusing on recording my newest record. Soooooo...tell me what you guys have been reading. Let's share.
Sincerely,
Bradley
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I don't read, I ride horses
Hey you guys! (say it like the goonies)
So I didn't read nearly what I expected to while in New Zealand. Instead I took up the practice of wine and cheese in the late afternoon, cups of tea whenever just because, learned to read music, rode horses across a sheep farm, watched it rain, talked jesus and politics, and wrote stuff. It was lovely though not at all what I expected but that's the way life goes.
I am home now and reading like a rabid man only my reading has taken another drastic turn. You see, while in the land of the long white cloud I got inspired to write a book, and I'm in full on research mode at this moment and for months to come. I'll post more about it very shortly as I will be needing your help in more ways than one to complete this task of words and ideas on paper!
...
In the meantime, try to find the children's book Frederick about the little four mice, in particular the one mouse Frederick. While all the other mice are working and storing up for winter, Frederick is seen as the lazy mouse but in fact he has a very important purpose that will come to light once the hardships of winter sit in. It has inspired me in many ways and I hope it does you as well.
Until then,
Bradley
So I didn't read nearly what I expected to while in New Zealand. Instead I took up the practice of wine and cheese in the late afternoon, cups of tea whenever just because, learned to read music, rode horses across a sheep farm, watched it rain, talked jesus and politics, and wrote stuff. It was lovely though not at all what I expected but that's the way life goes.
I am home now and reading like a rabid man only my reading has taken another drastic turn. You see, while in the land of the long white cloud I got inspired to write a book, and I'm in full on research mode at this moment and for months to come. I'll post more about it very shortly as I will be needing your help in more ways than one to complete this task of words and ideas on paper!
...
In the meantime, try to find the children's book Frederick about the little four mice, in particular the one mouse Frederick. While all the other mice are working and storing up for winter, Frederick is seen as the lazy mouse but in fact he has a very important purpose that will come to light once the hardships of winter sit in. It has inspired me in many ways and I hope it does you as well.
Until then,
Bradley
Friday, January 15, 2010
New Zealand reading list/ January selections
Greetings.
So i'm in new zealand on tour now and I've brought a stack of books to read through hopefully at some point or another and they are as follows:
Fiction:
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Clock Without Hands: A Novel by Carson McCullers
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Nonfiction:
Mother Theresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis Collins
Jesus: Made in America: A Cultural History From the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ by Stephen J. Nichols
The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost and Found by Frederich Buechner
The Genesee Diary: Report From a Trappist Monastery by Henri Nouwen
Driving and reading in New Zealand is about impossible as the roads are quite curvy and bumpy as well, so I've not been able to read and drive. I've actually been carsick the entire week but not enough to be "sick" but just enough to be "this sucks".
...
There has been a major shift in my reading since starting this blog, and that is a new found love of fiction. I love it now and cannot wait to study the classics and such. While reading Graham Greene's novel above my stomach literally hurt from the beauty I was taking in. I couldn't understand why my friend recommended it to me and why William Faulkner would call it "the most moving novel of my time in any language" until the halfway point at which I was assaulted with all I can describe as beauty. As a writer myself it's what I hope to give to others but man, the way some of the writers write all I can do is set a book down and thank God for creativity and beauty. I couldn't read anything the day after as I was still reeling from what I had just read then i quickly finished The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, who is now my favorite writer, and again have yet been able to start another fiction book until I recover from the story I was just living inside. All this to say I am like a child at an amusement park, looking forward to every book, every story, that will come well recommended.
...
To be honest I've yet to read December's selection of The Catcher in the Rye as my library never had it in stock and I don't want to buy it. So forgive me but I will read it when I return. For January, I recommend two books to you, one fiction and one nonfiction.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Yes, it's about an affair and at first like I said I was bummed and then something in the story happened that blew my mind. And it went from one thing to another, one place to another. To sum up the ideas it's about the relationship between love and hate, love and jealousy, and the searching for the love of god (or rejection of the love of god). So it gives you ideas of romantic love and then explores the relationship of hating and loving god, bitterness, rejection, etc. This book has cemented the idea for me that classic fiction writers were just as consumed with the idea of God than any other idea. Many books I am encountering are exploring Him in one way or another, and this has really surprised me.
Mother Theresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C
If this book were to be weighed on content it would outweigh easily all of the above books mentioned. This book is still so powerful, moving, confusing, inspiring, enlightening, that I can't yet express anything of it to you. For now suffice it to say that these are Mother Theresa's private writings to her superiors, and what they reveal is nothing that anyone thought her to think and feel. A woman convinced of the love of Jesus and a life dedicated to Him, tormented by what she sees as her separation from His company.
Until then,
Bradley
So i'm in new zealand on tour now and I've brought a stack of books to read through hopefully at some point or another and they are as follows:
Fiction:
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Clock Without Hands: A Novel by Carson McCullers
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Nonfiction:
Mother Theresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief by Francis Collins
Jesus: Made in America: A Cultural History From the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ by Stephen J. Nichols
The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost and Found by Frederich Buechner
The Genesee Diary: Report From a Trappist Monastery by Henri Nouwen
Driving and reading in New Zealand is about impossible as the roads are quite curvy and bumpy as well, so I've not been able to read and drive. I've actually been carsick the entire week but not enough to be "sick" but just enough to be "this sucks".
...
There has been a major shift in my reading since starting this blog, and that is a new found love of fiction. I love it now and cannot wait to study the classics and such. While reading Graham Greene's novel above my stomach literally hurt from the beauty I was taking in. I couldn't understand why my friend recommended it to me and why William Faulkner would call it "the most moving novel of my time in any language" until the halfway point at which I was assaulted with all I can describe as beauty. As a writer myself it's what I hope to give to others but man, the way some of the writers write all I can do is set a book down and thank God for creativity and beauty. I couldn't read anything the day after as I was still reeling from what I had just read then i quickly finished The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, who is now my favorite writer, and again have yet been able to start another fiction book until I recover from the story I was just living inside. All this to say I am like a child at an amusement park, looking forward to every book, every story, that will come well recommended.
...
To be honest I've yet to read December's selection of The Catcher in the Rye as my library never had it in stock and I don't want to buy it. So forgive me but I will read it when I return. For January, I recommend two books to you, one fiction and one nonfiction.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Yes, it's about an affair and at first like I said I was bummed and then something in the story happened that blew my mind. And it went from one thing to another, one place to another. To sum up the ideas it's about the relationship between love and hate, love and jealousy, and the searching for the love of god (or rejection of the love of god). So it gives you ideas of romantic love and then explores the relationship of hating and loving god, bitterness, rejection, etc. This book has cemented the idea for me that classic fiction writers were just as consumed with the idea of God than any other idea. Many books I am encountering are exploring Him in one way or another, and this has really surprised me.
Mother Theresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C
If this book were to be weighed on content it would outweigh easily all of the above books mentioned. This book is still so powerful, moving, confusing, inspiring, enlightening, that I can't yet express anything of it to you. For now suffice it to say that these are Mother Theresa's private writings to her superiors, and what they reveal is nothing that anyone thought her to think and feel. A woman convinced of the love of Jesus and a life dedicated to Him, tormented by what she sees as her separation from His company.
Until then,
Bradley
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