Tag Archives: Donald Miller

Booked

Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller)

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Rating: [rate 5]
Click here to buy Blue Like Jazz from Amazon.com

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

For anyone wondering if the Christian faith is still relevant in a post-modern culture,

For anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real,

For anyone yearning for a renewed sense of passion in life…

Blue Like Jazz is a fresh and original perspective on life, love and redemption.

“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself…I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.

I’ve heard of Blue Like Jazz ever since Happy borrowed this book from her friend. I read some excerpts of it, but then what I really wanted was Searching for God Knows What by the same author because another friend recommended me that. I got that book, liked it, and planned to get this one as soon as I can…or ask for it as a birthday gift or something. But no one ever gave it to me, so I got it last Book Fair.

One of the things I really love about Donald Miller is how his books doesn’t feel like books; it feels like you’re listening to a story of a friend. Blue Like Jazz contains different stories on Miller’s life, about how his dad left them and how he sees God the Father, how he first sinned, his friends Penny and Laura and their conversions, studying in an “atheist” university in the US, being a recluse, church, tithing, love and of course, Jesus. How he tells it is very casual, never preachy. He makes things sound so simple, like when he says that what God really wants us to do is to love people, and let Him do the rest.

The book obviously makes one think, but not in a guilty way but in a way that he makes you realize that the things we think are so difficult to understand are actually quite easy. Did I make sense there? Ultimately, the book also made me feel like Jesus not only loved me, but He genuinely liked me too. :)

It’s a good book. It’s not too heavy, but not too light and fluffy to be dismissed. :) If you’re not much into church or Christianity but want to discover a bit more, then I’d recommend this book for you. :)

Some of my favorite lines in the book:

Continue reading Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller) →

Booked, Dear Diary, In His Steps, Quotable Quote

And together, we will learn to love

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One of the purchases I made in the Book Fair last month was the long overdue and should-have-been-bought-book-since-last-year Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I have been planning to buy this since last year but I never got around to it, and it has been mentioned to me quite a few times by friends like Chris. Anyway, I finally got around to buying it, and I set aside some of the other books I was currently reading for this. I’ve read Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What and I loved it (though I might have to re-read it again :D).

I’m 3/4 through Blue Like Jazz and I’m loving every page. This particular chapter, Romance, is especially cool. I never thought I’d read something about romantic love in a book like this since it’s not really about it, but I like how Donald Miller explains how he learns about that kind of love. At the end of the chapter, he shared a part of this play Polaroids, which is about a man’s life from birth to death. This monologue is written after the man’s fight with his wife. He planned to have these characters divorce, but he changed his mind. Instead, his character kneels beside his sleeping wife’s figure and delivers the most beautiful monologue about love I have ever read. And here I will share my favorite part (emphasis mine):

I will give you this, my love, and I will not bargain or barter any longer. I will love you, as sure as He has loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God’s own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my death and to death it may bring me.

I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love demanding your love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again.

God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.

It’s such a beautiful expression of how a romantic relationship is made to glorify God even more. :) Hay. I shall print this and put this up in my journal for sure.

Book review will come when I finish it. This will definitely be in my favorites list. :) But for now I will continue reading and take a nap in my room (not in the living room sofa, for a change, woot! My bed may not be one of those modern platform beds, but it’s mighty comfortable :p) to recover from the little sleep I got last night. Have a nice rainy day y’all. :)

Booked, Dear Diary

The Fruits of Book Fair 2007

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So today I went to the Manila International Book Fair at the World Trade Center for some book loving. Some people I was supposed to go with backed out, but all’s good since nothing is going to stop me from going there. :P

Now come to think of it…it felt weird that I actually made it there on my own, without riding a cab. Wohoo!

Anyway, the moment I stepped inside the World Trade Center, I started to panic. Haha, book sales do that to me, seriously. I immediately headed to OMF Literature to get the Bible I’ve been wanting to have (it’s a purple pocket Bible from Zondervan), as well as some books I’ve been planning to buy and then after making my purchase (thank you Citibank), I went around again.

The only sad point of the day was when I got to this other booth selling Bibles. I saw the Bible I bought there which was P300 cheaper. I know that amount could not get me a portable oxygen concentrator but still, it’s P300. Three hundred Pesos. That’s already ONE book. Argh. And that’s still less 30%, so it would’ve been a steal for me! But I already bought the Bible, and it’s not like I could return it. Hay. I wish I could’ve looked around before buying the one from OMF.

LET IT GOOOOOO TINA! What’s done is done. Or in this case, what’s paid for is paid for.

After some more rounds, I bought some comics for my brother and another book, met up with Yam and finally went home. As much fun as it was for me buying books, it’s definitely more fun if I was with some close friends, like Tuesday or Happy or Bea. We’d all end up ogling at all the Bibles over there. Haha.

Admittedly, it feels like there are a lot of new stores in this year’s Book Fair. And I didn’t see Fully Booked or A Different Bookstore there. I wonder why?

Anyway, here’s today’s stash (not including my brother’s comics):

Book Fair 2007 Stash

  1. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
  2. Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment by Erwin Raphael McManus
  3. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
  4. TNIV Pocket Bible: Today’s New International Version
    .

See. This year’s stash is definitely fewer than last year’s. I didn’t have a list when I got in, and I think that’s influenced it. Plus the fact that I’m more mindful of the things I’m spending for. Last year I think I went home with 10? Or maybe it’s just because I know I still have about 10 books I have yet to read, plus my dad’s bringing home two more by next week. So I’m still a happy little bookworm.

What about you? Have you been to this year’s Book Fair? (It ends tomorrow, by the way!) What did you get? :)