Number 4

     It is really hard to believe that this list is only four away from the top spot....I know the anticipation is almost as strong as it is when one waits for the ketchup to come out of the glass bottle. So here we go with

Number 4!

   I am so sorry that I have to do this to you, but making this list has been so hard on me and the books I claim to like so much. It makes me feel like I am constantly doing this:

or this:

with a number of my so called favorite books. The bookcases sit right across from my bed and every night it seems that I can't look some of them in the eye. So, to heal some wounds and straighten some spines (caution = library joke!). The book (s) that make it into my Number 4 spot in this Top Ten List are:

And:

   Both of these books come from men who were considered or are considered "great writers". They both wrote a large amount of material and left behind even more that wasn't published during their lifetimes. Most of you probably know more about these authors than I do. I read both of these books when I was in high school, but reread them once I graduated from college and have read both of them in the last 5 years again; one of them again last month.
    To me, both of these books are the same in one important way. I love to write, but have much to learn and am in no way an authority on writing or writers, but to me these books say all that both of these authors tried to say in all they ever wrote, but in them, they said it the best that they were ever able to say it (write it). Both of these books are short in comparison to the other works of the specific authors. They are both a little over a hundred pages long. Both of them do not waste words. They are both very simplistic stories on the surface. Both of them are taught in high school, which sadly turns both of these books off for a lot students. (Much more of this later courtesy of Harold Bloom)

   I do not need to retell for you the story that is found in, The Old Man and the Sea, because you have read the book or watched the movie, but will help you remember it. In short, it is the story of an old man and a young boy who are both fisherman by trade; one of them at the beginning of his vocation and one at the end. The old man goes out to fish and catches the largest fish ever caught by any fisherman that has ever been in the village he is from. He struggles to bring in this fish till his hands are bleeding. He spends days and days fighting to bring this fish in and then making it back to land with this fish. Sharks eat most of the fish before he can get back to land because it is bigger than his boat and he doesn't have the strength to bring it into his boat. He comes back and is no longer a joke to everyone, but goes away to die in sadness and alone. I have cried numerous times because of this story because it is such a good and wonderfully written story. I am not a big fan of Ernest Hemingway. His macho-driven male characters are too much for me, but this story is not that. It is simple. It is honest. It is brutal. It is beauty. It is to me about life's struggles. I could read this book once a year and still get something from it. The number one reason why I love this book is because of that. To me, there are not too many books that deserve a second, sometimes a first, reading, but this is not one of them. I learn something new about myself every time I read it.

   To me, the Old Man and the Sea, is a sad picture of life. We spend our how lives killing the most important and most beautiful thing about life and that is Life itself, but we do not realize it until we at last reel it in and struggle to bring it home and end up having nothing left except the bare bones and scales of it and it is too late to go back. It is a story about time and how quickly it fades and how we will miss the beauty by trying to live, but there is no escape from it. Yes, it would have been great if Santiago found in hope in Christ, but I have done my best not to Christianize any of the purely fictional books, but feel that even Hemingway would mind us seeing this as long as we let him drink and fish.
 
   The other book that ties for 4th in my list is, Of Mine and Men. I like the book immensely and like it more and more after each reading. In short, it is the story of George and Lennie, two harvest tramps, that travel around together and work on farms until the work is through and then move to the next. George is small and smart and Lennie is very large, but is handicapped mentally. They have hatched a plan where they will earn enough money to buy a small farm and work their own piece of land and be their own bosses (a little bit of the American Dream). Lennie loves to hear this plan as often as he can and George pretends to hate telling him about it, but in all actuality, it is the Hope that gets them both through their slavish existence. Part of this plan includes Lennie being allowed to take care of some rabbits. Lennie is forever doing something very bad without realizing it due to his mentally incapacities and George is always having to rescue him and them. He hates Lennie for this, but is scared (he doesn't admit this) to be truly alone in this world. The story begins with them fleeing the scene of something terrible Lennie has done and George plans one last job for them to work in order to get the necessary funds to buy this dream place. Everyone knows the rest. You had to read it in the 9th-11th grade probably. You probably hated it. I am so sorry. While they are on this new place to work, Lennie accidentally tells their dream plan to a couple other guys who are hopeless and it ends up becoming a story that they too begin dreaming and hoping in. A long story short, Lennie ends up killing the ranches' owner's son's wife by mistake. They want Lennie's blood, but George instead has to run him down and protect him from them. I won't tell you exactly how it ends because you already know, but it ends wonderfully and tragically all at the same time. It is really to sad almost to write about.

  This story is our story. Humanity's story without Christ. No, I am sure Steinbeck did not want us to get this out of the text and it is not really there, but that is what I get out of it. Without Christ, we have so many things to hope in, but in the end, we are Lennie, and ruin that hope and remain once again, hopeless. This book is well-written. It is simple. It is complex. It is about Hope. It is about friendship. It is about humanity. Read this book.

Sorry for the longer post,
David

Number 5

Let's do a Rain Dance this times!!!

This:

Or this:

Or even this will do if you are not in Africa or with some friends who are American Indians:

The book that takes the Number 5 Position of my Top Ten List is.....

  
  This book was written by this man:

    His name is Brennan Manning. He was once a Catholic priest. He is a sinner. He was once an alcoholic. He makes no excuses. He has only one claim to fame. He was once sitting in a rocking chair and God spoke to him and told him how much He loved him. He has written 14 books trying to tell other about how much God loves them. He is greatly hated on the internet. A lot of people are vary skeptical about him. What is his real agenda? Why does he write so much about grace and God's deep love for us? Is he pushing Catholic ideals on us Protestants? Does he not read about the justice of God? I love this book because the answer to all of these questions are easy. I love this man/writer/Believer for all of those same reasons.

  This man is a sinner. The biggest sinner he knows is himself. Mr. Manning has a giant view of sin. He knows how just God is. He knows the price of sin; both now and in the future. And because he has such a giant view of sin, he knows that this sin needs an even Bigger Savior. This Savior was sent by God to atone all of humanity's sin. This man, Brennan Manning, knows that this Savior died on the cross for his sins: past, present, and future. He knows that that death was final in everyway except the person who died did not stay dead. He talks to him everyday. This Savior tells him how much he loves him because this love with which the Savior loves depends on nothing he does. He, Brennan, can do nothing to deserve this love or to not deserve this love. So, Brennan, is happy to crawl up into the lap of his Abba and accept His love.

    Many people hate all of this. God is just. Sin has consequences. Sin has to be paid for, atoned for. Christians have to work very hard to earn this Savior's love and respect. Christians need to earn their place within the Kingdom. The Bible says so, doesn't it. Isn't the saying goes that God loves those that help themselves? Isn't the verse in Romans clear: Sin = Death. Aren't some sins worse than others. Most think so. Brennan doesn't.

    Brennan writes to us because he knows that his sin has separated him from all that is good and all that is God. Brennan knows that John 3:16 isn't a joke. Brennan knows that when God looks upon him and all he has done in this world He (God) sees His son, Jesus, of whom He is well-pleased. That is the jist of this book. God loves you. You don't want to believe it because it doesn't seem right. It doesn't make sense. You know how truly sinful you are. Why would a perfect and good God send his perfect and good Son to die for someone like you, like me? It just isn't fair. Brennan knows these things. This Savior told him how much He loved him. He shocked his system so much that he is still writing about it. It is a message we can't hear enough. What would really happen if we all truly believed the Gospel? I am pretty sure I know. Look at the work of the lowly, twelve disciples. We are still seeing the effects and feeling the afterschocks. God loves us. God loves the biggest sinner I know: Me. I will never understand why. Read this book.

   Knowing my sin is very big and in great need of an even Greater Savior,
                                  David

Number 6

Drum Roll Please!!

And the book that makes the Number 6 place on my Top Ten List is:

Into the Wild, is the book that makes it to the Number 6 position of my Top Ten List.

   This book makes my list for a multitude of reasons, but I will only name a few:

1. This book is the true story of Christopher McCandless. He is a young man from a well-to-do family who graduates from Emory University. He leaves everything behind, even his name, and tries to find the true meaning of life. He changes his name to Alexander Supertramp. He leaves his car behind and burns his money. He does his very best to leave life as we know it in the 20th Century behind. He wants to and does his best to get to what Thoreau called the "marrow of life". Jon Krakauer is the writer and he weaves one of the best adventure/searching/biographical accounts that I have ever read. I read this book in one day on a rainy Saturday while I lived in Mentone, Alabama. The main reason that I like this book is that within its pages is the great yearning to explore that most all boys have. The feeling deep inside that we don't have many outlets for in the 21st Century. This feeling drove past generations to push the boundaries of civilization far past that of safety. It drove men to get on ships and sail to where conventional wisdom said that you would fall off the horizon and cease to exist. It is the feeling that makes me not want to live in a subdivision and spend all of their life playing it safe. This book is about getting to that point and actually taking the greatest risk of life: To strip life down bare and examine it for what it is really all about. Chris McCandless does this and does not blink. And through many wonderful and tragic adventures and relationships, he finds out what life is all about: human relationships. This is what all the men and women who have attempted to do this have found out. It is what drove Muir back to civilization. It is what made Thoreau walk to town often. McCandless finds out that the truest wilderness of the world that surrounds us is a real, deep, meaningful relationship with another human.

2. This book is a true story, but Krakauer does not infuse the book with subtle lines of his own judgement on the character and person of Chris McCandless. He just writes the story as it actually took place and played out. He leaves all judgments to the reader. Very few writers are able to do this. At times, I was tempted to do the same. I think all guys are, but you constantly say that you can't and shouldn't. Other times, through his very own actions, I was able to see Alex Supertramp for exactly who he really was: a young, often-times immature, hidden egoist. Yes, he had a good heart and did good things, but he was also selfish. He disappeared from life for four months and never let his parents know where he was. They had to come retrieve his body from Alaska and never got a chance to say good-bye. The reader is able to see the paradox of Chris McCandless and if one is honest, he/she will know that this paradox exist in us all. We have good inside us, but all of that good is very tainted.

3. The quotes in this book are incredible. Krakauer choose quotes from Thoreau and others to explain this longing and then writes about through the life examples of Chris McCandless/Alex Supertramp. They add much to this book. Without them, the account would seem lacking.

   Yes, they made a movie out of this book. It is an okay movie. They actually keep pretty close to the actual story. Many have now read this book or say they have because they have seen the movie. This comes to one of my many dislikes. Why must a movie be made out of every book like this and why do people, myself included, wait till the movie has been made and seen to read the book? I hate this, but play a part in it. Read this book. My wife advises no night reading. I advise reading with a headlamp on your porch. Read it quickly so you don't lose the ire urgency that is found within the pages.

Living within the Wilderness of Life and Marriage,

   David

My Favorite Books-An Infamous Top Ten List

   
       One of my favorite things to do is read. Which is strange because I had such a hard time learning to read. There is a very sad story that goes with that and it entails a Fourth grade boy crying to his mom over a stack of phonetic flash cards that his younger sister, by three full grades, had just completed. He just could not remember the sounds that "A" made. Flashforward 20+ years and I really like to read and still remember all the phonics flash cards and actually enjoy reading. I know what this makes me. My students let me know all the time. On a 1-10 scale of nerdiness I am an 11. I carry that rating around sort of like a restaurant puts up their Zagat rating in its front window. I teach science for a living and coach one of the nerdiest sports there is. The closest I get to be cool is when I have to break the news to my Physical Science students that there isn't such a thing a coldness. It is all about either absorbing heat, releasing heat, or having an absence of heat.

     Anyway, this post will be a post that goes on for ten days. We will be counting up from 10 to number 1. I will give a brief explanation for why I like the book or why it makes it into my Top Ten list when there are millions of books. Also, for you keeping track or worried about changes, this list is subject to change. So, here we go to the list. (If you would feel better doing a little drumroll, then that would be fine as long as the drumroll doesn't get too loud or earn any odd glances from the people that you are around. We are already talking about my favorite books. We don't need anything else "helping" us out.)

Number 10:

   I know what you are thinking. I love this because of the movie, but that couldn't be any farther from the truth. Now, to be honest, I did like the movie, but as the sayings goes: "The book is way better than the movie" or "The movie/books is so much different than movie/book". These both are true, but the movie is good, but to be honest ( a lot of honesty in this post!) the book ruined the great imagery in this book. I wish that I would have read the book and then watched the movie instead of the opposite. Here are the reasons why this book makes it into the bottom spot of my Top Ten list:

1. The writing is good writing. It took Charles Fraizer a multitude of years to write this book. He wrote it before he was famous. You can tell or at least it appears that he took great care with each paragraph. It is the retelling of an older story, The Odyssey, but it is here in America.

2. You can visualize what he is talking about. You see in you mind this story taking place in the locations in which he is describing. You can see the mountain. You can feel the coldness or warmth. You can feel the dirt.

3.  He leaves just enough out for you to have room to imagine. This is the part that a lot of writers leave out. It is the most important part of a book in some cases. If a writer tells you everything, then there is nothing for you to do while you read. They have already told you the motives, feelings, colors, etc. Having a story that you can add to is one of the joys of reading. Much of this book is about hiking in the cold in the mountains of North Carolina. He does not fully tell me everything about the hike. He doesn't have to. I get to add my experiences of hiking in the cold in the mountains of N. Carolina. I know how the ground feels. I know how my lungs feel and how my face burns on summits. I get to become Inman walking. I have walked. I have journeyed to find a way home in a way. I have longed.

4. The emotions seem real. In a lot books, the emotions seem so fake. You think about how you would feel or act in a certain situation that is taking place in a book and a lot times, the characters act nothing like the people I know, see, interact with would act or even how I would act. They seem plastic. The characters in this book seem human. You can feel the joy, shyness, sadness, longing, pain, futility, etc.

5. The colors and characters seem vivid. As mentioned in the previous reasons, this book feels real.

6. The dialogue seems relevant and not contrived. This is one of my biggest beefs with most books. The dialogue is painful. I know writing dialogue is hard. As a writer, it feels very fake no matter if it is or isn't something you would actaully say. I know that the dialogue in the few things that I have written seems a little contrived, but the dialogue in this book does not. You can actually picture these characters saying these things and you can imagine them feeling these ways.

    I know I said I'd be brief, but don't always believe what you hear or read. Imagine if I said I would be very detailed. You can now say a small prayer for my wonderful wife. I have been told that when I was much, much younger that I used to tell my mom about movies by starting with the part about the lion growling. Sorry, mom and now Mel.

Be looking for Number 9 tomorrow,

   David

Facing Some Beasts

As of recently, I have been secretly scared of two things which are one in the same. I am running (hopefully) my first marathon on November 13th of this year. It is the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga. I signed up to run it last year, but after getting beat up by two, sixth-grade girls, I had to withdrawl and ended up only getting to run the half. (I wasn't really beat up, it was an Ultimate Frisbee game that had gotten way, way out of hand. And few people sacrifice for popsicles on a Friday afternoon like middle school kids.) It was sad and running the half was fun, but it was sort of like getting to go to Disney, but not allowed to ride the rides. I know some of you, if you are like my wife, would be just as happy, but I am only speaking for me. I am not truly happy till I am hearing about the Pirate's Life and how its for me and pretending to be scared in the dark while riding a roller coaster that feels faster than it really is going. (On a side note, in high school, I used to go to Disney all the time for a multitude of reasons. I once went to ride Space Mountain and they turned the lights on. It was so....so...so disappointing. I think I will post about some disappointments later.)
I know this post has been more about chasing rabbit trails instead of talking about being afraid, but rabbits are not scary. The two things I have been scared of are my marathon and doing my long runs. I have been telling myself that I really can't run that far and that doing my long runs would be miserable as well. The longer I am involved in running the more I fear any distance. I once read an interview about an elite runner and she said that at every start line she panics and wonders if she will be able to run the whole way. I laughed and thought it was one of the silliest things I had ever hear. How can someone who runs 120 miles a week worry about a 3 mile race? I didn't think it possible, but know it is me. I know that I can run a long, long way. I know I can run for at least 3 hours without stopping, but at the starting line of a recent 5K, I asked myself if I thought I could do it. I felt more no than yes. Too weird. I hope you are laughing at me like I laughed at her. No, I do not run 120 miles a week. No, I am not even close to an elite runner, but I have run more than 3 miles before, but I still thought about not being able to make the distance. It was a strange sensation.
Anyway, this weekend was about facing some of my fears. Yesterday after church, I changed my clothes and laced up my running shoes for the second time of the day. I walked down my stairs and stretched and then took off. I returned 2 hours and 24 minutes later. I had run 17 miles. I had stopped four times for less than a total of 5 minutes. Once to stretch, once to use the restroom, once to get a drink, and once because a guy that I started running with at mile 13 stopped to snag a drink from his wife. It was hard. It was long. It was 17 miles, but as I sat at the top of the concrete stairs that make their way up to my front yard from the road, I stood staring at one and both of my fears. I had run a long way. I had done it. I had run 21 miles in one day. I was tired, but not whipped out. My legs were sore, but not finished. I wanted water, but could have run another couple of miles without it. So...long story short. I am not too afraid of running a long way. And I am only a little nervous about my upcoming marathon. We will just see how Sunday goes when I need to run 20 miles without stopping. My tune will change I am sure and I know my pace will.

Running Against the Wind (like Bob Seger, but without the beard)
David