I've gotten so terrible about writing on this blog. But that's about to change. Ladies and gentlemen, if anyone is actually interested, I present Matt's Nerdy Book Blog. The site is still pretty basic, but I am already posting on it and plan to continue doing so on a much more regular basis. My goal is to write at least one post on every book I read, which means there should be one or two posts a week. See ya there!
M
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Some Recent Books
I now blog when I am not bike riding, watching my daughter, cleaning, or spending my blessed one hour per night with my wife when Eleanor is asleep. Which means, hardly ever. But here goes...
Lately I've managed to read a few good one:
1. I'm almost done with Thomas Pynchon's Slow Learner. It's obvious from the intro that he doesn't think much of the work, but it's an easier introduction to one of the most difficult writers alive today. I hadn't read a book of short stories for a while, so that's nice as well.
2. Last week I finished Sarah Vowell's Assasination Vacation. Great book, especially if you feel a little pathetic when it comes to knowing your U.S. history. Interestingly, Vowell spends the last few pages talking about faith, which has nothing to do with the rest of the book. I found this in Omnivores Dilemma as well; these strange endings having to do with God even thought the rest of the book is on a subject that is seemingly unrelated. I would love to blog about this, but probably won't have the time. Anyways, it was a fun, good book.
3. David Sedaris' new one, When You are Engulfed in Flames is fun, but definitely not his best book.
4. Falling Man by Don Delillo is brilliant. I'd been meaning to start reading his work, and happened upon this one as an intro. He is a genius, and it is a painful look into one family in the wake of 9/11.
5. I read Starlight and Storm by Gaston Rebuffat. It was fun, even though I am definitely not a mountain climber.
6. I am nearly done with Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire. What a wonderful book! I don't know why I'd never heard of it sooner...
7. Oh yeah, I also read Silences by Tillie Olson, and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. They were both important books for their time, but not so fascinating to me to read now. But still, I don't regret looking into them.
Okay, I think that's it. Talk to you sometime in the far-off or near future.
Peace,
Matt
Lately I've managed to read a few good one:
1. I'm almost done with Thomas Pynchon's Slow Learner. It's obvious from the intro that he doesn't think much of the work, but it's an easier introduction to one of the most difficult writers alive today. I hadn't read a book of short stories for a while, so that's nice as well.
2. Last week I finished Sarah Vowell's Assasination Vacation. Great book, especially if you feel a little pathetic when it comes to knowing your U.S. history. Interestingly, Vowell spends the last few pages talking about faith, which has nothing to do with the rest of the book. I found this in Omnivores Dilemma as well; these strange endings having to do with God even thought the rest of the book is on a subject that is seemingly unrelated. I would love to blog about this, but probably won't have the time. Anyways, it was a fun, good book.
3. David Sedaris' new one, When You are Engulfed in Flames is fun, but definitely not his best book.
4. Falling Man by Don Delillo is brilliant. I'd been meaning to start reading his work, and happened upon this one as an intro. He is a genius, and it is a painful look into one family in the wake of 9/11.
5. I read Starlight and Storm by Gaston Rebuffat. It was fun, even though I am definitely not a mountain climber.
6. I am nearly done with Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire. What a wonderful book! I don't know why I'd never heard of it sooner...
7. Oh yeah, I also read Silences by Tillie Olson, and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. They were both important books for their time, but not so fascinating to me to read now. But still, I don't regret looking into them.
Okay, I think that's it. Talk to you sometime in the far-off or near future.
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Oh yeah...
...I forgot to blog for a few weeks. Oops.
The truth is that I am beginning to rethink how and why I blog. I was thinking of erasing it all together, but instead I might start to transform it. Okay, the reality is that it has slowly been changing for over a year anyways. I guess it just changes as I change.
Anywho, the content of this blog was originally 90% theology/church and 10% on life and books. Basically, I think I will be flipping these statistics around starting now. It's funny, but now that I am done working in a church I just don't care about a lot of the things I cared about at the time. I don't want to argue or gripe or feel let down about any of that any more. I want to focus on what is good and beautiful and true, so I'm going to spend a lot less time talking about the church (yes, that statement was meant to be provocative) and more time talking about life and books.
LIFE: I just finished week three of landscaping. It is hard work. Some days it's a lot of fun. Other days it makes me grumpy. But every day I go home feeling like I have accomplished something. And, to sound archaic, I feel like a man. It is refreshing to do manual labor rather than sit in an office all day staring at a computer. Nobody at work knows I have a masters degree either, which is especially fun to keep under my hat. I spend my days thinking about a variety of things, though two recurring themes are stewardship (I wonder if well manicured lawns are what Genesis was referring to...) and Karl Marx and the absurdity of class distinctions (working hard to take care of rich people's stuff, while they lay out in the sun and look at the ocean...I shouldn't have read Nickle and Dimed right before I started this job).
Being a dad keeps my non-work hours especially busy. I come home from work and parent for most of the evening until Eleanor goes down. After she's asleep we clean up the house a bit, and on a good night I may get a full hour with Effie before bed. I don't read as much anymore, or watch as many movies, and rarely call people back, but it is a blast. Parenting is amazing. I regret not starting earlier.
I've been riding my bike to work at least four days a week (25 miles round trip). Plus, I go on long rides every Saturday morning. Last Saturday I did the three steepest hills I know in Bellingham. By the third, my legs were shaking so bad I couldn't go any further. But I need to keep pushing, because I only have two months until the Baker Hill Climb. I just found out they planned it to have 10,000 feet of elevation gain. Which translates into: much suckiness. I can't wait.
BOOKS: I recently read The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis De Bernieres. He also wrote Corelli's Mandolin and is one of the best storytellers alive today. I think I might even put him in my top five favorite all-time writers. This story is amazing and tells the truth about South America in a completely fictional narrative. If you want to know what that means, read the book and be blow away.
Currently I am almost half through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It is fabulous, especially for a former comic book enthusiast like myself (yes, I just admitted that I like to read comics). This is, quite frankly, a GOOD book. What more can I say?
Also, I am making my way through David Sedaris' new one, When You are Engulfed in Flames. Of course it's great; it's Sedaris! And lastly, I just started The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm only 10 pages in, and it's already been quite thought-provoking.
That's it for now. I'll try to put something up again a little quicker than my current blogging rate.
Peace,
Matt
The truth is that I am beginning to rethink how and why I blog. I was thinking of erasing it all together, but instead I might start to transform it. Okay, the reality is that it has slowly been changing for over a year anyways. I guess it just changes as I change.
Anywho, the content of this blog was originally 90% theology/church and 10% on life and books. Basically, I think I will be flipping these statistics around starting now. It's funny, but now that I am done working in a church I just don't care about a lot of the things I cared about at the time. I don't want to argue or gripe or feel let down about any of that any more. I want to focus on what is good and beautiful and true, so I'm going to spend a lot less time talking about the church (yes, that statement was meant to be provocative) and more time talking about life and books.
LIFE: I just finished week three of landscaping. It is hard work. Some days it's a lot of fun. Other days it makes me grumpy. But every day I go home feeling like I have accomplished something. And, to sound archaic, I feel like a man. It is refreshing to do manual labor rather than sit in an office all day staring at a computer. Nobody at work knows I have a masters degree either, which is especially fun to keep under my hat. I spend my days thinking about a variety of things, though two recurring themes are stewardship (I wonder if well manicured lawns are what Genesis was referring to...) and Karl Marx and the absurdity of class distinctions (working hard to take care of rich people's stuff, while they lay out in the sun and look at the ocean...I shouldn't have read Nickle and Dimed right before I started this job).
Being a dad keeps my non-work hours especially busy. I come home from work and parent for most of the evening until Eleanor goes down. After she's asleep we clean up the house a bit, and on a good night I may get a full hour with Effie before bed. I don't read as much anymore, or watch as many movies, and rarely call people back, but it is a blast. Parenting is amazing. I regret not starting earlier.
I've been riding my bike to work at least four days a week (25 miles round trip). Plus, I go on long rides every Saturday morning. Last Saturday I did the three steepest hills I know in Bellingham. By the third, my legs were shaking so bad I couldn't go any further. But I need to keep pushing, because I only have two months until the Baker Hill Climb. I just found out they planned it to have 10,000 feet of elevation gain. Which translates into: much suckiness. I can't wait.
BOOKS: I recently read The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis De Bernieres. He also wrote Corelli's Mandolin and is one of the best storytellers alive today. I think I might even put him in my top five favorite all-time writers. This story is amazing and tells the truth about South America in a completely fictional narrative. If you want to know what that means, read the book and be blow away.
Currently I am almost half through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It is fabulous, especially for a former comic book enthusiast like myself (yes, I just admitted that I like to read comics). This is, quite frankly, a GOOD book. What more can I say?
Also, I am making my way through David Sedaris' new one, When You are Engulfed in Flames. Of course it's great; it's Sedaris! And lastly, I just started The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm only 10 pages in, and it's already been quite thought-provoking.
That's it for now. I'll try to put something up again a little quicker than my current blogging rate.
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Matt News
Okay, so I haven't really been posting much lately. The truth is that I've been job hunting, fathering, and not really putting much thought into anything else. But tonight while I have a few minutes, I'll share what's new with me:
- I got a job. It starts next Tuesday. The only issue: it's landscaping and I have a back that likes to go out. This should be interesting.
- Sunday will be my first father's day. Cool.
- I wrote another article for the silhouette page, and it should be up by tomorrow.
- I signed-up for the Mt Baker Hill Climb (Ride 542). It is a brutal hundred mile bike ride and I am pumped! I'm going to climb some hills outside of Yakima on Saturday to help me train.
- I traded-in some books and got a stack of sweet used ones last week. I'll fill you in as I read them.
- Yesterday I almost had a fateful meeting with Bill Lincoln, who founded and runs CRI. It didn't work out and we are now rescheduling, but I tell you: Google search CRI and see for yourself how cool this guy is.
That's the news from me. I'll try to blog something worthwhile soon.
Peace,
Matt
Friday, May 30, 2008
Kim and Kipling
The other day I randomly picked up Rudyard's Kiplings somewhat famous book Kim. First of all, my copy happens to be an amazing hardback from 1901, with some beautiful artwork included within it and a very extraordinary cover. I bought it at a book sale for 25 cents a few years ago.
The story, at least 100 pages in, is about a young Indian boy named Kim who decides to join a Tibetan monk/yogi who is traveling through India on a pilgrimage of sorts. I am really, truly enjoying the story. Beyond the story itself, here are some of the things I have been thinking about as I read:
Peace,
Matt
The story, at least 100 pages in, is about a young Indian boy named Kim who decides to join a Tibetan monk/yogi who is traveling through India on a pilgrimage of sorts. I am really, truly enjoying the story. Beyond the story itself, here are some of the things I have been thinking about as I read:
- Kipling doesn't seem as racist as I had been told he was through the years. In fact, he seems far ahead of his time. There have hardly been any white characters at all!
- It's so cool to see somebody writing about Tibetans at a time when few had heard or likely even cared about Tibet. There were no Brad Pitt movies about it yet, or Free Tibet stickers on the backs of cars. I can't help but think somebody like Kipling did a lot to open the eyes of people in the West to how vast our world really is.
- There is an amazing sort of plurality in Kipling's India. Muslims and Hindus worship at the same shrines, and everybody is anxious to learn from a Tibetan holy man; especially the religious leaders! I'm fascinated by this, especially knowing how tensions have been high there for a number of years where divisions lie along religious grounds.
- Last night an old friend was telling me how they are planning to go to India on a religious pilgrimage of sorts and it made me think of The Brothers K and The Darjeeling Limited, both of which bring up a lot of questions about spiritual seeking in India. I wonder if this book will do the same? I wonder what my friend will discover? I wonder what the Beatles really discovered when they went there?
Peace,
Matt
Monday, May 19, 2008
Martinson Church Tour '08 (2)
Last Sunday I finally bit the bullet and went to a Mennonite church service. Why am I saying "bit the bullet," you ask? I say that because I was very nervous that I would get together with my fellow Mennonites and discover that although I agree with them theologically, I feel weird or awkward around them. In a word, I was afraid of being let down.
Effie, Eleanor and I somehow managed to make it on time to Birch Bay Bible Church on Sunday for their one service. There were a lot of elderly people, but here's the thing: it actually had a fairly impressive mixture of young and old! Aaaaaaaand, the first thing they did was recognize a member of their congregation who was moving. She was not a pastor, elder or whatever, just a member of the family who apparently was worthwhile enough to stop the all-important Sunday service and recognize for who she was... What that told me: this church truly cares more about the people than the show.
The music, powerpoint and message were not as well produced as what I am used to, and I was thankful. The pastor who shared hit it on the head in his sermon: their priority is on following Christ, not entertaining themselves. Amen.
I really don't know if we'll find ourselves back there again, but either way I'm glad we checked-out our first Mennonite church. Who knows what next Sunday may hold...
Peace,
Matt
Effie, Eleanor and I somehow managed to make it on time to Birch Bay Bible Church on Sunday for their one service. There were a lot of elderly people, but here's the thing: it actually had a fairly impressive mixture of young and old! Aaaaaaaand, the first thing they did was recognize a member of their congregation who was moving. She was not a pastor, elder or whatever, just a member of the family who apparently was worthwhile enough to stop the all-important Sunday service and recognize for who she was... What that told me: this church truly cares more about the people than the show.
The music, powerpoint and message were not as well produced as what I am used to, and I was thankful. The pastor who shared hit it on the head in his sermon: their priority is on following Christ, not entertaining themselves. Amen.
I really don't know if we'll find ourselves back there again, but either way I'm glad we checked-out our first Mennonite church. Who knows what next Sunday may hold...
Peace,
Matt
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Odd Jobs
Being unemployed for more than two weeks now, I have started actually doing some bits of random work for friends. Last weekend I hosted at The Little Cheerful, an awesome little breakfast place in downtown B'ham, for one day. Today I sanded wood floors for my friend Colin, and am helping finish up tomorrow. I gotta say, I really enjoy this kind of living. These bits of work are a blast, and dare I say it, actual fun work! Too bad it probably won't pay for a house payment/insurinance for an infant. Alas.
Still...I am unemployed and loving it!
Peace,
Matt
Still...I am unemployed and loving it!
Peace,
Matt
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