A Wrinkle in Time

Every once in a while my daughter will hand me a book she has read and say something like, "Dad, you'll really like this one." The latest one that she handed to me was 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle. This book was originally published in the early sixties as a story that was intended to contrast state mandated uniformity (Communism) and individual rights (Democracy), and to bring to light the tyranny of conformity. I, however, felt that the story could be applied in much broader terms (as if my choice of picture didn't give that away). In the story you see unity, diversity, love, and relationship in the Murray family that is contrasted against the uniform cold efficiency of a planet called Camazots where "individuals have been done away with. Camazotz is ONE mind. It's IT." IT is the mind that thinks for everyone on Camazotz. In the story one of the children, Charles Wallace, falls under the control of IT, and shows the others how they deal with trouble on Camazotz:

"Now see this," he said. He raised his hand and suddenly they could see through one of the walls into a small room. In the room a little boy was bouncing a ball. He was bouncing it in rhythm, and the walls of his little cell seemed to pulse with the rhythm of the ball. And each time the ball bounced he screamed as though he were in pain.
"That's the little boy we saw this afternoon," Calvin said sharply, "the little boy who wasn't bouncing the ball like the others."
Charles Wallace giggled again. "Yes. Every once in a while there's a little trouble with cooperation, but it's easily taken care of. After today he'll never desire to deviate again."

In the end, Meg was able to save her brother who fell under the control of IT by using the one thing that IT didn't have. This is a children s book, but it is an excellent one none the less. If you haven't read it before, I would highly recommend it.

If you liked the image, you can find more like it at the blog: The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus -- Image 388 was a close second for this post, oh and 317 too! check em out!

Adam

My 9 of Spades is a book called Adam by Ted Tekker. This book is a particulary dark story of a FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer known as 'Eve' and while I enjoyed the book, I don't think I would go see it in a theater -- I'm not into scary movies.

A few of the interesting subjects in the books that Dekker addresses are Near Death Experiences, the nature of evil, and demon possession (This book is refrenced in Adam).

Eyes to See

Eyes To See which is a collection of short stories is my eight of spades for the year. In the introduction the book made a steep promise that these are the kind of stories that will leave you changed; I would have to say it fell short in that regard. However, I still enjoyed reading most of the short stories in this book.

My favorite short story in the book is called 'What men live by', by Leo Tolstory. I feel that if I say very much about the story, I may end up giving it away and ruin the experience for anyone else who may want to read it. I will say that reading both Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky in this book left me with the impression that life in Russia was very difficult for the average family during the 19th century.

My least favorite story in the book was called 'A Good man is hard to find', by Flannery O'Connor. Somehow this story is supposed to show that grace is available to all -- but I didn't get that at all from the story. The feeling that the story left me with was that life was random and meaningless. I suppose that one thing I am thankful for in the story is that she doesn't create any really likeable characters. That may sound odd but if you read the story, you will understand what I mean when you get to the end.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and was happy to get exposure to a wide variety of authors.

Escaping the Matrix

Well, I expected to fly through the next couple of books because they are all fairly small, but my 4 of spade's isn't the kind of book you can go through in a day or two; it's called Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ by Greg Boyd and Al Larson.

I picked this up at the local bookstore's bargain table for a whopping $2.50 mainly because I'm intriuged by the idea of the 'Matrix' as a metaphor for how we are often trapped in systems without recognizing that we are trapped. From the title, I didn't know where the authors were going with this, but having read about half of the book so far, the are limiting the scope of the book to what you might call a psychological matrix. The book helps you to understand how your mind processes the information it recieves, how to explore the nature of thought, and the patterns that are impressed upon you from others. There are also some exercises that can help you to become a 'detective of your mind' if you wish; this is the big reason why the reading is going slower than expected. I decided to give thier little experiments a try, otherwise I wouldn't know if they were really talking about something useful.

One of the things that I never thought about before is how we 'do thought', and for this alone the book has been insightful to me. Here's a quote:

Most of us haven't paid attention to Aristotle's insight that 'the soul never thinks without images.' Most people assume that they think with conceptual information -- which perhaps explains why we tend to trust conceptual information so much to transform us, despite our uniform experience that this trust doesn't usually pay off. We just haven't known there was anything else to go on. Why have we missed this?

Escaping the Matrix, p. 58-59

They go on to explain how we re-present or re-experience the things we thinking of in our minds, but this usually happens so fast that we don't realize what's going on. The goal of this book is to find out, which re-presentations, or re-experiences are based on lies, and work to remove those faulty 'neurochip' as they authors call them. I'll probably write a few more times on this, and let anyone know if it's worth the read or just some more psycho-babble :-).

Chosen

My 2 of spades for this year is 'Chosen' by Ted Dekker. Oh what a tangled web Ted is weaving. If you haven't read any of Ted's previous books, then this probably isn't the best book to start with. The story intersects with several other of his books including 'The Circle' trilogy, 'Showdown', and 'Skin'.

Chosen takes place on another world, during the equivalent of our 'Old Testament' period, that is fairly important to be aware of as you read this book. The book is the first in a planned series of seven, two of which are already out. I not sure what I think about this series right now. In 'Chosen' the main character, Johnis, is chosen by God to go on a mission to recover seven lost 'Books of History'. At one point I was quite upset and about ready to put the book down, because he does take up the mission, does what he was asked to do and is promptly tortured and nearly killed. I finished the book and was OK with how it ended, but now I'm onto the next book in the series and, by chapter 4, I'm already wanting to quit reading the series again. This time the main Character is planning something counter to his mission, and I just can't get on his side. If I can't identify with the main character, it won't be an enjoyable read. I am intrigued by Ted's theme regarding 'The Books of History' and that is the only reason I may continue reading; but as of now, I'm leaning towards aborting my plans to read this series. Sorry Ted....

Blink of an Eye

I'm going to borrow an idea from a friend and use a deck of cards as bookmarks to keep track of the books I read throughout the year. The goal is to read one book a week or 52 in a year. I won't have any angst about not making it, but it will be interesting to see how many I've read by the year's end.

My first several books are already lined up. I had asked for a book by Ted Dekker for Christmas and ended up with 3. So my first 3 books will be fiction books, the first of which I have already completed. So the Ace of Spades for me was 'Blink of an Eye'.

Ted Dekker holds a special place in my life because it was through his writings (the Circle Trilogy) initially that I started to see that I was a bit like the Pharisees -- following a set of religious rules and calling that a 'relationship'. Ted also tends to have his main characters overcome antagonists by unconventional means. The main characters may initially combat evil with the same weapons or skill, and may even be skilled at doing so. However in the end they usually learn that the only way to defeat their opponent is by Love or Truth.

'Blink of an Eye' does not disappointed in the regard. I was going to quote part of the book to give you a taste, but alas I loaned the book out just a few hours ago. At any rate, blink is a story about a man, Seth, who finds out that he can see possible futures. These futures depend in part on his choices and in part on the choices of others. He ends up using this gift to help a Saudi Princess flee an arranged marriage. Seth initially believes that his gift proves that there is no God, since there is not a single set future that he sees. There is something that happens that ends up changing his mind about that, but I will not spoil that for you should you decide to read it. I definitely found it stimulating to think about what 'determines' the future, and what does God know about it. It is also worth mentioning that the subtitle to the book is "Love Changes Everything". That thought is covered well in the book. At one point the Princess tells Seth that he has relied upon his intellect, but in the end he needs to rely on Love. I'm not sure that blink will really rank as high as the Ace of Spades for the year -- only time will tell, but it certainly wasn't a bad book. If you like action, suspense, and thinking about the impact our choices have in history then this is a good book for you.

Oh as a side note, I have to share my bus story. I ride a commuter bus to and from work every day. It's a 45 minute ride, and it is where I get most of my reading done. Anyway, on my way home Friday I was reading a particularly suspenseful part of this book on the bus, and I kept hearing someone saying "Sir!". The book was so good however, that I was able to effectively tune them out. The next thing I knew someone was waving their hand in front of my face. "The nerve of some people!", I thought, "Can't they tell I'm reading!" I looked up and the bus was completely empty -- the hand and voice belonged to the bus driver that was trying to get my attention. She asked, "Are you really wanting to go back downtown?" I was surprised that I hadn't noticed everyone getting off the bus. Embarrassed, I thanked the bus driver for checking on me and quickly got off the bus; she could have just closed the bus door and headed back down town. That was the first (and hopefully last) time that has ever happened to me. Oy Vey!