Just finished Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. Might as well start at the beginning, right?
I had read a great deal about the book before buying it...certainly saw and heard the hype surrounding it when it blew up awhile back.
Having finished it, my feelings are mixed. There were some parts that I found really inspiring or "neat." These were parts that seemed important - definitely things that blessed/challenged me.
But there were a lot of parts I just didn't get into. I kinda' got tired of the "I have a lot questions about God" stuff or the political side. Believe me - I have no problem with questions of God or politics. I like them both.
I just felt like Miller spent a lot of time talking about himself and, to me, it seemed like he really wanted me to think he's a cool/intellectual/seeker. He is, no doubt, but after finishing it, I can't say I liked the book.
Anybody esle read this and have the same sort of ambivalence about it?
6 comments:
I like Jazz, I like the color Blue...
However, I'm not drawn to this book. Seems too "I have a new never-heard of way of seeing religion".
Maybe this summer. I'll add it to my "To Read" list as #234.
I have also heard a lot about this book. I have never read it. It is good to hear your take on it.
I think this book is best enjoyed by people who have never heard of it. Christian culture has a way of making idols out of books and people and phrases and even verses to a point where nobody can really enjoy them anymore.
Remove the hype (after all it wasn't written amidst the hype) and it's a refreshing take on christianity and spirituality.
I, too, think you are suffering from hyper-hype (I just coined that... maybe it will stick.) If you had discovered the book in an airport bookstore and read it on your flight back from indonesia... you would have loved it.
However, I think we all would be better served reading books by ADGs
(Ancient Dead Guys). After all, that's what's being read by all these hipsters like Miller, McManus, Bell etc.
So... what is the best really old book to dust off and be blown away by?
The Bible... (had to say it).
I'm reading Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress currently and I have to say those guys back then were not much different from us today. They were always looking for ways to expand the gospel message out the "ordinary way".
So be it Eldridge, McDonald, Lewis or Hybels the goal I think is creating a desire to want to read their work, upon which after reading you are challenged to change for the better.
Gosh, I feel so ashamed.
I didn't even know I succumbed to the hype.
Wish I had been cool enough to read this book before anybody knew about it.
Then my review would be more valid.
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