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Books (98)

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- Henry VIII (61)
- (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- By Paul Werstine, William Shakespeare
- Not Started
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- The Salmon of Doubt (10)
- Hitchhiking the Galaxy
- By Douglas Adams
- Finished on May 17, 2013
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- Mother Night (141)
- By Kurt Vonnegut
- Finished on May 14, 2013
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- Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories (Barnes and Noble Classic Series) (3)
- By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Finished on May 13, 2013
  
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Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories (Barnes and Noble Classic Series)

Dostoevsky strikes again. From the gradual mental degeneration of Golyadkin in "The Double" (at parts reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde and Kafka's "Metamorphosis"), the ultimate heartbreak of the "White Nights" dreamer, the Underground Man's masochistic commitment to self-humiliation, to the dawn of t ... (continue)

Dostoevsky strikes again. From the gradual mental degeneration of Golyadkin in "The Double" (at parts reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde and Kafka's "Metamorphosis"), the ultimate heartbreak of the "White Nights" dreamer, the Underground Man's masochistic commitment to self-humiliation, to the dawn of the degenerate utopia in "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," the characters in the novels (all male) succeed in exacerbating their shame, misery and isolation, not so much because of external events, but due to their own internal resolve. Perhaps, that is what makes the novels so morbidly intriguing.
The dialogue that occurs in Part II of "Notes from Underground" may well be one of the most chilling passages I have ever read.

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— May 15, 2013 | Add your feedback
- Kisses from Katie (2)
- A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption
- By Katie Davis
- Finished on Apr 13, 2013
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- Les Miserables (524)
- (Barnes & Noble Classics)
- By Victor Hugo
- Finished on Mar 23, 2013
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- The Shack (271)
- (Special Hardcover Edition)
- By William P. Young
- Finished on Jan 5, 2013
  
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The Shack

A noble attempt that falls disgracefully short

A man, living in the wake of a tragedy, finds himself spending a few days alongside God (more specifically, the Trinity) through mysterious circumstances. Over the course of a few days, the doubting Thomas is transformed into a modern-day Job. It seems like a token story for Christians when scanning ... (continue)

A man, living in the wake of a tragedy, finds himself spending a few days alongside God (more specifically, the Trinity) through mysterious circumstances. Over the course of a few days, the doubting Thomas is transformed into a modern-day Job. It seems like a token story for Christians when scanning the summary on the back of the binding, but after reading the book, I think the story does more harm than good. The author's main goal is to show that there is a reason behind every trial in life and that God can show Himself to humans in different ways, by adapting to individual circumstances. In a noteworthy effort to explain the Trinity, the Godhead is split into three distinct persons. However, for reasons I won't delve too deeply, this man-construed split turns out to be artificial, awkward, and spiritually absent.
Faith, as given in the Bible, is different to a dictionary counterpart's definition of complete trust, based on spiritual belief rather than hard evidence. Biblical faith* is not what one coins as "blind faith"; it is belief, based upon evidence. [Let me take a moment to make a slight digression: Dawkins quotes faith as being "belief without evidence." However, a Christian must keep in mind that "belief without evidence" is not analogous to what Dawkins implies Christian faith to be. Aquinas would agree that faith, was not, cannot, and will not be the same as belief in evidence whose verity is up for debate.] Granted, most of God is beyond human comprehension. So we must either:
1. Completely buy into the fact that some things are beyond our ken, and thus place our trust in God.
2. Completely sell ourselves to the idea that we can attempt to explain the enormity of the supernatural and its minute workings by ourselves.
In my opinion, the author of the book opts for the latter, and by doing so, refutes the fundamental definition of what makes faith, faith, and not just another empty platitude. The author attempts to create a world in which his version of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit make sense to himself: a seemingly sentimental, feel-good story that leaves readers with the warm and fuzzies. If diluted, it would seem that the book encourages readers to take God as casually as one would take a shopping trip for new clothes, appraising items as you see them, and placing whatever seems flattering on you and appealing to you in the cart. Likewise, would it be biblical if we went perusing around the Bible and our lives, picking and choosing what we found our ideal model of God to be? Certainly not.
Do note, that I do not mean to criticise author in writing the book; surely, there are countless people who have been comforted by the words written within its pages. However, faith, God, and the supernatural leave questions for answering, and have enticed and baffled scholars for centuries. But can they be answered? Yes (in theory), but no (due to our limited understanding of the supernatural). And that is the author's tragic flaw; he attempts to solve a cosmic problem by inventing cosmetic answers. Instead of placing one's belief in a incomprehensible God, he puts on a pitiable human attempt to understand what makes God who he (or should I say: she) is. And when has that ever worked?
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*Whenever I write "faith" hereafter, I will write it meaning the Biblical interpretation of the word; departures from the intended use of the world will be noted.

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— May 15, 2013 | Add your feedback
- Henry VI Part 3 (25)
- (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- By Paul Werstine, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, William Shakespeare
- Finished on Dec 27, 2012
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- Henry VI, Part 2 (25)
- By William Shakespeare
- Finished on Dec 26, 2012
  
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Henry VI, Part 2

Devoid of any battlefield heroics found in Henry V or I Henry VI, 2 Henry VI focuses much of its rhetoric on the political strain and factional backstabbing that occur in England, with its final pages foreseeing the nation plunging into an inevitable civil war, the Wars of the Roses.
There are no ... (continue)

Devoid of any battlefield heroics found in Henry V or I Henry VI, 2 Henry VI focuses much of its rhetoric on the political strain and factional backstabbing that occur in England, with its final pages foreseeing the nation plunging into an inevitable civil war, the Wars of the Roses.
There are no protagonists that are set in stone, no Harry Monmouth that readers find themselves pulling for (save for the Duke of Gloucester), but an endless slew of bickering among two main factions: the Yorkists, sympathizers of the unceremoniously deposed Richard II, and the Plantagents, advocates of Henry IV's ascendancy to the English throne. Quite fascinating, in my opinion, to see how Shakespeare attempts to fit decades of weighty, dynastic events into a mere three hour performance reenacted on boards.

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— Dec 27, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Idiot (412)
- (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)
- By Joseph Frank, Elina, Constance Black/ Yuffa, …
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- Henry VI Part I (25)
- (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- By William Shakespeare
- Finished on Dec 24, 2012
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- John Keats (84)
- The Complete Poems
- By John Keats
- Reading since Dec 14, 2012
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- To a God Unknown (46)
- By John Steinbeck
- Finished on Dec 16, 2012
  
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To a God Unknown

Surprising

Its ambiguity, a novel written in ode to an unknown god, is what originally drew me to the book. Seeing that Steinbeck's latter works tended to be pretty biographical, I got the book, curious to see whether it gave any insight into how Steinbeck viewed religion or his faith. It was surprising to rea ... (continue)

Its ambiguity, a novel written in ode to an unknown god, is what originally drew me to the book. Seeing that Steinbeck's latter works tended to be pretty biographical, I got the book, curious to see whether it gave any insight into how Steinbeck viewed religion or his faith. It was surprising to realize that the book is not so much intended to be a coherent story that spawns reader admiration, but rather, as Steinbeck himself put it, a complex mesh of his ideas and musings about life, death, and destiny that doesn't quite get resolved or answered through the course of the story.
There is an inherent quest for a supreme being--a crutch to rely on when things fall through--and the divergent beliefs of the characters portrayed in the novel show this, from vapid and stolid Christianity to a webbing of pantheistic nature worship, tribal superstition and Catholicism. Unlike Steinbeck's later works, the story is heavily surrealistic and relies on the mystical; it attempts to fluidly coexist with reality but fails to do so, and thus, the dichotomy fails and leaves the whole story hanging in some sort of uncomfortable limbo. An interesting read nonetheless.
Without giving everything away, a cryptic anthropomorphism (in my opinion never explained or developed) was central to the plot, of man inhabiting the spirit of nature. In a somewhat puzzling but satisfying ending, the clock ticks backwards, and drawing from paganism (the symbolic rock) and ritual ceremony (blood), man proves that he is indeed nature itself. Or does he?
Here, I think, is up to the interpretation of the reader. One could view the final sacrifice as enough to undo all wrongs, but the finals words of the priest hint otherwise. While drawing admiration from the townsfolk for his wisdom, the text shows that he is still as confused and emotionally inexperienced as any child. I believe that Steinbeck hints at a more cynical and darker interpretation of man's destiny. As much as men wish, pray, and search, he ultimately has no control over the course of nature. The humans cry, but the sun laughs on. And when the gods of nature crumble into ashes and the leaves of wisdom fall, the unknown god that governs all still refuses to reveal itself.

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— Dec 16, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Escape from Camp 14 (43)
- One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
- By Blaine Harden
- Finished on Oct 15, 2012
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- Much Ado About Nothing (373)
- (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- By William Shakespeare
- Finished on Oct 15, 2012
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