The Land of Stories

Ever feel this way?

Sometimes I wonder if there is anything worse than a bad book; one that doesn't have a happy ending (those are synonymous in my book).  The other day I decided "Yes".  And it's suffering through an "eh" book.

I was excited to get a new book called The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer.  The summary sounded like a lot of fun:  What would it be like if all the fairy tale lands were connected and went on living after "happily ever after"?  And even through the entire book, I kept saying that the premise of the book was great.  Unfortunately, the writing never made it up to the promise of the storyline.  As a reader, I was upset to be told how to feel, what to think, and what moral I should get from the story.

Not satisfying.  Not satisfying at all.

A good book presents the story, setting, plot and characters and lets you feel, think, and judge based on what you experience through the tale.  This has all the early elements of a great story but seems like the rough draft of an amateur.  So, I wonder, how did this get published?  Well, there were no advertising quotes on the book of publishers, reviewers, or other authors endorsing the author or the story.  That might say something.  And the rest I found on the back cover with the picture and author's bio.  He is a star from the show Glee. 

I sure wish that publishers and editors would stick to their own standards and would help the author succeed in finishing a great book instead of pushing through an incomplete project due to unrelated fame.  Instead, I inflicted the blandness of the book in its entirety upon myself because it's just too hard to put a book down and walk away.  Sigh, maybe the next book I read will be better.

Dipping a toe in the whirlpool of philosophy

At the school several of us have begun a book swapping circle, passing books of all genres. The most recent that has made the rounds between four of us is I Told Me So:  Self-Deception and the Christian Life by Gregg A. Ten Elshof.  Before even reading the book, I was fascinated by the "one degree of separation" as Mike Owen (PIU's Teacher of the Year and all around good-guy) had Mr. Ten Elshof as a professor at Talbot seminary.  First hand accounts of the teacher makes the subject of the book even more powerful.

Now, for those who are leery of the subject of philosophy this book offers a great introduction to the genre without overwhelming with existential round-robin discussion.  Beyond the philosophical framework, though, the content of I Told Me So is wonderful!  As we mature in our Christian lives, we are exhorted to be "imitators" of Christ.  We should always be actively moving toward a lifestyle that reflects our beliefs in the power and sanctity of Christ and his relationship to the Father.  The difficulty is that, even though we desire to be moving in this direction, we are still hampered by the effects of sin in our lives.  And the devil is a crafty one, he can manipulate circumstances to influence our perspective if we don't take notice. 

This book suggests ways that this is done, both with the devil's help and by our own sinful nature.  Ten Elshof makes a case that self-deception is part of our created make-up that can be used for positive things.  It's when this self-deception becomes out of hand and self-serving that it becomes a weakness to be addressed.  While it sounds simple, diagnose the symptom and treat the problem, it becomes much more complex when you can't or won't see your own trap of self-deception or when a trusted group of people participate in the attitude with you.

Whew, wait a minute... that sounds awful and like we are all in a conspiracy to fool ourselves and each other into doing and thinking what we want, when we want.  Well, yes, that's what sinful nature is: self-deception is just another face of that sinful nature that we can identify and address with God's help.  Awareness is the first step.

The last thing that I really like about this book is not that it just presents the "problem" and leaves us to drown in conviction, Ten Elshof also hands us the life saver in the form of suggested ways to identify and combat the tendency toward self-deception.  And, even better, he offers up warnings of what can happen if we over-identify and over-correct in reaction to the problem.  This is a tidy package of presentation, exhortation, and caution in a book that is easy to read and (for those with a busy life) short.

To recap:  This is a very insightful book that will either open your eyes to a particular aspect of your sinful nature you were unaware of or reinforce the knowledge that you already have of it and offer tools to address it.  Irrespective of content this is also a great introduction into the subject of philosophy that will give you a feel for the type of thinking involved without pulling you down to the depths.

If you have read it, please leave comments.  If not, consider it for yourself or even a discussion group.

And, if you have any suggestions of books for me to read and review, please email me at: lightheartedlibrarianlisa@gmail.com.