rant and rave
i've been on this rant for the last year and a half. ashamedly, it began with the tween sensation of the twilight saga books. let me explain. my then eleven-year-old daughter asked if I'd approve of her reading Twilight, New Moon, etc... I was skeptically cautious. It sounded scandalous. Christians don't read about werewolves and vampires. it was like the next step toward hell, the first step being harry potter. so i deliberated. i wondered. i don't think i prayed. and then, something really weird happened. I picked up the books and began to ready. voraciously. i couldn't put it down. I became bella. I didn't eat. literally. i lost about twenty pounds as i balanced work, home, and reading. i rediscovered the joy, the ectstacy of reading. (as a child, i'd stay up late, reading every word, every paragraph)
so I am consumed by this story, competing with my daughter for the books as we checked them out. we'd discuss the story line. relate it to realism. talk about the adventure, the thrill.
this marked a turning point. i discovered the love story. again. anew.
i read the classics, the jane austin stuff, the victorian age, the contemporary stuff. i learned about trash-literature, the fast food graphic porn-like stuff. i quickly discarded that. i learned about the christian writers-those romantic men and women who wrote about the struggle, the joy, and the passion of love. i was hooked.
book after book was toted from the library, i read hundreds of books. absorbing them, studying them, analyzing them. it was a rant like no other.
and so i would travel to the library, like i normally do, when i visited the used books that were for sale. and for fifty cents, i bought blue like jazz.
in 12 hours, i've read through much of it (between sleep, a state science fair exhibition, lunch with grandma and a sick child) and i am raving the candid thoughts, the gutsy monologue. donald miller has some stuff to say and i am listening.
