Finishing Biblically Thinking…

I finished A.J. Jacobs soon to be released book, The Year of Living Biblically. It wasn’t a bad read, it was easy and Jacob’s prose flows quite nicely. You can pick up the book read a quick 10 pages and set it back down, without ever losing the flow of the narrative. Most importantly I think for the book, considering it’s topic how Jacob’s approaches religion both with respect and skepticism, and a little humor. This keeps the whole text from getting bogged down in some of the bizarre religious beliefs he shares.

A little about the book, is in order. Jacob’s writes for Esquire magazine. His previous book was The Know-It-All, about reading the entire encyclopedia Britannica in a year. This book is about him following every law in the bible, both old and new testaments. The book is his attempt to live them all and how it effects his and his family’s lives. He also makes a number of trips to meet religious figures, who are mostly, off the map. People like snake handlers, his crazy orthodox Jewish, former uncle in Israel, etc…

I enjoyed reading the book, my problem with it though is its lack of any conclusion. After A year of living the bible as faithfully as possible, interacting with devout people of various faiths. He gives the literary equivalent of a shoulder shrug. It was good and I feel good about myself, and I feel but nothing really has changed. I have a feeling he is being disingenuous here. He has to stay light, funny, and somewhat edgy, lest he loses his cred and job at Esquire magazine. Nor can he come down and say religion is hogwash, for fear of insulting the people who helped him throughout the year, and the majority of his readers. So he gives a non-committal answer and quickly wraps the book up.

Unsatisfying.

Eugene, OR Adventure! Part 1





Last weekend (8/10-8/13) Diana and I went up to Oregon to visit her mother who lives in Eugene. It was a quick trip, the days were fairly busy, and the both of us wished we could have stayed a little longer and had a more relaxed visit. Despite this I believe we had a great time. I know I did. I’m going to put some pictures up here, don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with inane pictures. Every picture I put up is going to be great. I promise.

So let me break it down for you. Friday evening one of Diana’s friends drove us to the Sac airport, where we flew through security and then waited for the plane. The flight was uneventful. We arrived in Portland 10 minutes lates, Patty, Diana’s mom, picked us up and then there was the 2 hour drive to Eugene. We all went to bed. The next morning I got up late and was served a lovely batch of scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies and sausage, it was delicious. Then we went to Smith’s Family Bookstore, a wonderful lovely place that I could spend an eternity in. it makes the Davis equivalent look like a dung hill, though I will admit that I’ve found one or two things there. At Smith’s though I found what I was looking for and I kept finding! Oh, how I wish for unlimited funds. Let me see if I can paint a picture for you, since I don’t have any pictures of the bookstore. It’s two stories, looks like it’s an old fire station or something. The shelves go up to the ceiling, you need stools to reach the top. There are stacks of books next to these shelves, some go as high as my hip. We spend a few hours in the bookstore, but not nearly enough, could there ever be enough time? Used bookstores and libraries are amazing because it’s an adventure, a trip of discovery.

After the bookstore we walked around downtown, we looked into a a Oriental art gallery, which had nice traditional furniture. I thought the art on display was nothing to get excited over, certainly nothing to pay thousands of dollars for. I made the comment to Diana as we left that I should have kept up on my art. I wasn’t anything special either, but apparently you don’t have to be, you just need someone willing to put your work on their walls. Next was the farmer’s market where we bought a jar of organic honey that I was very excited to try out. A hunger that will forever go satiated now, the brown shirts with the TSA didn’t allow it on the plane, they just threw it away, fascists. Afterwards we went to a lingerie boutique that Diana had a gift certificate to (birthday present from her mom). I was mostly useless here, Diana did find a great bathing suit that was just her size though so that was good! We visited other stores as well, the day was spent wandering around downtown and chatting about inconsequentials. As the sun begin to set we returned to the house. That night we had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken, salad , vegetables and pie. We shared the meal with a good friend of Patty’s named Nancy, who was a good conversationalist and a dog person. Card games followed.

The next day we set off early with our cameras to visit the local college, University of Oregon, and the river (the Willamette). We visited one of the galleries at the college, mostly the gift shop. Ok, we just wandered around taking pictures of whatever stroked our fancy. I haven’t developed my film yet, but the pictures posted are ones Diana’s mom took. The river was a lot of fun, even if we just poked around and got our feet wet. The night continued with more good food and conversations, though we might have stayed up too late.

Hence us not getting up early enough. Eugene is two hours from Portland and Diana’s mom doesn’t seem to believe in speeding… We arrived 30 minutes before our flight departed. Rushed through security, where we lost several items because they weren’t in the proper plastic bags. I’d rant about the ineffectual masturbatory efforts of our government to “protect” us, but this isn’t the blog. Besides, if you have half a brain you already know it. We did make it on the the plane, and safely back here. All in all a good trip, if a little rushed, next time we’ll take it a little slower and enjoy ourselves a little more.

A Return

So, I’ve been bad. I know the 3(?) of you who read this don’t really mind if I can’t update this thing daily, somehow you find a way to struggle on. Big things are coming though. I have a little report to do of my trip to Oregon (with pictures) which will include my experiences inside a great second hand book store in Eugene. I submitted my review of Mainspring to Steampunk Magazine but have not heard back from them… If I never do and it isn’t included in the third issue I’ll post it here. The short version is you can skip it, if you need details stay tuned. If you must have something to read pick up the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, its author won the Pulitzer for a good reason. Right now I’m in the middle of A.J. Jacobs’ Year of Living Biblically, which isn’t out yet and is somewhat humorous now. I’m hoping it picks up a little. Jacobs’ wrote The Know-It-All (I’m not linking that as I’m not reading it, you have all the information you need to find it yourself). I’ve also just begun Friar Diego de Landa’s Yucatan: Before and After the Conquest, one of the few contemporary resources we have on Mayan beliefs and practices before the Spanish tried to destroy their culture. I know that Proust and Pullman keep getting pushed down and I feel bad about it, but what can I do? I only have so much time with which to read and my varied interests keep me bouncing around.

One of the books I picked up from the used book store was a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. These are the unedited, pre-disneyified ones. I am sure I can mine that for a few good postings. Other things going on, and I have to come up with some sort of novel idea as NaNoWriMo is coming up soon, too soon. This year I really want to give it a try and put some effort into it. I also have a great idea for ScriptFrenzy, but it appears I missed it this year, that is good. It’ll give my idea some time to simmer. I’ll share the promotional voice-over from the movie preview with you though; “In the future, war will be fought, in the past”! So good I know. I amaze even myself, sometimes. That is enough rambling, real content to follow soon (fingers crossed)

You’re my brown (blue) eyed girl

On Reading…

I finished Chabon’s book, the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, it won him the Pulitzer prize. I don’t deny that the writing is good, his prose kept me reading through the book, no matter how surreal it gets in parts. I don’t know what about his writing though makes it Pulitzer prize worthy, what is the mission of the committee that decides who wins and who loses? What must a piece of literature possess in order for it to be considered? What does it have that sets it above its contemporaries? I don’t know, though I suspect I have read better pieces of fiction by authors who have never won the prestigious award. This says one of two things, either the award is not all it is presented to be, or my opinion is not very educated. I’d like to think that it’s the former though I suspect my friends and family would look to the latter. I took the book off of the list to the right and added in a new one, which through the mysterious alchemy of my decision making process jumped ahead of every other book to end up in my lap right now. It’s a small one though so I expect to be reading the Sixth Extinction very soon.

I finished the review I have for Steampunk Magazine and submitted it. I’m hoping when I check my e-mail tomorrow there’ll be something in there from the editors… Something good. I’ve also signed up for my GREs I’ll be taking the test on September 25…

Well, I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray
%d bloggers like this: