What I'm Reading Right Now and Other Thoughts

Greetings once again to all who read this!

It’s been 10 long days since my last post.  I hope my readers will forgive my delay.  I’ve been busy, and when I’m not busy I’m tired.  When I’m not busy or tired, I’m reading one of the several books I’m into right now.

I am about a third of the way through Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman.  If you are a rabid fan of the TV show LOST, as I am, than you will undoubtedly recognize this book, as it was shown briefly during an episode of that show, sitting among some other stuff in the notorious “hatch”.  Since then, some of the shows producers have been quoted saying that this book can help viewers “dissect Lost plotlines”.

Well, all I can say so far is that, like the TV show, the book is strange and enigmatic.  It ranges from disturbingly scary in a kind of Sixth Sense way, to just plain bizarre in a kind of Buckaroo Banzai way.  It mainly concerns a sad farmer who doesn’t like farming at all, and ends up killing a man for his money-box.  The farmer lets his inherited farmland go to waste, while he spends most of his time studying and talking about a little known Irish philosopher named de Selby.  This de Selby is thought to have been a genius by the protagonist, but judging from everything he ever said or thought (at least what’s described in the book), he seems to have been a lunatic.  

For example, de Selby didn’t believe at all in cosmology as we know it.  He didn’t even believe that the sequence of night and day was caused by the rotation of the earth, but by the “accumulations of ‘black air’ produced by certain volcanic activities”.  He was asked to view a film once, and reported that it was exceedingly repetitive and dull – but then it was discovered that he viewed the film by examining each frame as if it were a still photo, without knowing how a film projector was supposed to work.  De Selby thought that all construction was evil and we should all live outside.  He also thought that all motion was an illusion and the world was really static.

Anyway, the protagonist of the film murders a man for his money, but things don’t go as he expected and he ends up in some kind of bizarro-world looking for the black money-box.  It’s weird, but quite interesting.  He meets three policemen at a police station – or rather there are two policemen there, and there’s a third who’s out at the moment, but I’m sure he’ll come into the story as he’s the titular character.  

Another book I’m currently reading is Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.  It’s basically a fictionalized account of Jesus’ childhood.  At least that’s what it is so far.  The book begins with Jesus at age 7 living with his family in Egypt, where they had fled from Herod.  I’m no scholar of ancient times, but it definitely has the feel of something carefully researched (supposedly it’s “based on the gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship”), and yet at the same time it is quite fanciful.  In a way (and I know this will sound awful to many of my readers, but I don’t mean it that way) it’s kind of like Harry Potter set in ancient Egypt and Palestine.  Except that Jesus’ “powers” come from God and not from magic.  It’s kind of odd that the creator of The Vampire Chronicles would write such a book, but the woman certainly can write. Interview with the Vampire is the only other book of hers that I’ve read, and it was fantastic, but one of the scariest books I’ve ever read.  I picked this one up out of sheer curiosity, expecting something weird and possibly blasphemous, but I have so far been pleasantly surprised.  However, I’m pretty sure that many of the more orthodox Christians I know would disagree with me, possibly just because of who wrote it.  Like Harry Potter, many Christians are going to condemn this without reading page one.

Of course, I myself cannot confidently recommend it yet, as I’m not yet a quarter through it.

In addition to the above two books, I’m also still reading Polaris, by Jack McDevitt.  

Whew!  No wonder I seldom have time to blog!  

Hey, here’s something cool:  I played the drums at church last weekend!  Yes, I’m still occasionally playing the drums.  I played every Sunday for years in Texas, and then for a few years in Woodinville at our last church.  But Woodinville Alliance is a much bigger church, and I’m not the young guy anymore, so now I’m relegated to “backup drummer”.  I play whenever the main drummer is out of town.  Which is fine with me as I’d really rather go to Sunday school.

Well, lunch is almost over, and I’ve still got to eat, so I guess I’m gonna have to sign off for now.  

Until next time, keep lookin’ up!  Leave a comment if you feel so inclined!

-Tim