The Bookworm

It's time again! Out with the old and in with the new!

I just finished my latest gaggle of books and now it's time to start reading some new ones. Most people I know read their books serially. You know, start one, finish one, and then start another one.... like normal people. I, on the other hand, just because I'm a wierdo, tend to read several books in parallel. I'll start a book that looks interesting. Then, while I'm reading that, I'll find another one that is also interesting, and so on and so forth. What happens is I'll end up with books scattered around my house in different stages of being read. The downside of this is that it takes forever to read a book. The good part though, is that I never have to go find a book when I want to read. There is usually one right where I happen to be.

This time the main books I was working through were: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

I picked up When You Are Engulfed In Flames when I went to see David Sedaris a the Landmark Theater in Richmond. As I reported earlier, the show was amazing. I got the book in hopes of getting it signed, but my sister convinced me a warm plate of nachos at Mojo's was much better than standing in a long, slow line, waiting to have David scratch the inside of my book with a Sharpie. She was right.

The book was great. It a collection of essays, mostly biographical, very funny. If you like David Sedaris, you'll love this book. If you've never read his stuff and are looking for something that is an easy read but will make you think a little, you should give him a try.

The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team was given to me by my friend Sammy. We are getting ready to have the big annual meeting of our church's Small Group Leadership Team (that awesome team I'm on that I was telling you about) and it is required reading. To be honest, I was planning on reading it anyway. Several people I know have read it and told me how good it was. They were right. It's quick and I read the whole thing in two days (normal people could probably get through it in an afternoon). If you are on a team or lead a team, any team, you should read this. It's told as a fable, but you can identify with everyone in the story and anyone would get something out of it. I've already started thinking about how to apply what I've learned to team I am on both in and out of work. It will make your team stronger and more productive, I promise.

The Year Of Living Biblically was a book I borrowed from my friend Johnathan. It is a memoir of a year spent trying to live out, quite literally, all the rules and laws found in the Bible. A.J. Jacobs spends the first nine months in the Old Testament and the last three in the New. In the beginning he states that he is indeed of Jewish heritage, but that "he's Jewish like the Olive Garden is Italian." He's basically an athiest. But he truly dives right in and gives it his best shot. He does some crazy stuff in his pursuit, learns a lot, and you can watch him change throughout the pages. It's a very interesting book and I liked it very much. The funniest parts were all the times when his wife started to get fed-up with his whole project and would try and thwart his efforts. For example, it says in the OT that when a woman is having her...ahem.. "special time of the month", a man is not supposed to sit where she has sat down because she is ritually unclean. After Jacobs mentions this to his wife, the next time she is having her.... well, you know... she goes around and sits on every stick of furniture of the house. The Year Of Living Biblically is a lively, fun book. It has dancing, indoor tent building, old guys coming by to check for mixed fibers in clothing, and lots of crazy beard growth. You'd love it even if you're not religious, or a Christian, or Jewish, or anything else.

The final book I recently finished up was 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. It was on the discount rack at Barnes and Noble and I thought, "Why not?" I figured it was a classic and should be a good read. It was an interesting book, but I wouldn't call it fast paced adventure like I was expecting. Most of the book is devoted to explaining the oceans and waters around the globe and sea creatures inhabiting them. In our modern age of information, the facts and technology Verne describes can seem sort of dull to us. Although I can understand how, in France in the 1870's where most folks hadn't really gone anywhere and there were no cars or large scale electrical production, a story about an electrically driven submarine travelling into strange foreign waters would be of real interest. Verne apparently patched together things he had heard and read about these foreign places into one book. I did find it interesting to note that Capt. Nemo's name comes from the word nemo which, in the Latin translation of the Odyssey by Homer, is the answer Odysseus gives to the cyclops Polyphemus when asked his name. In this instance it is translated as "no-man" or "no-body".

So, what's next on my reading list? A bunch of Christian/church books. I just started The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry by Bill Hybels and Russ Robinson. Also, I have two books called It and Pop Goes The Church. However, you can bet that by the time I get though those, I'll have read a few others as well. Of course there are all the other magazines, news websites, and work material I need to read too. Something really fun I am starting to read at work is VIISta Product Line Advanced Ion Beam Optimization Techniques. Yeah, if you can't sleep at night, I'll loan it to you. It's more powerful than a whole box of Lunesta.....