Does anyone else remember the bookmobile coming to their neighborhood on a steamy summer day? Even though the vehicle reminded me of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, I loved the idea of a library-on-wheels, parking two blocks from my house. How did they know that this 8 year-old reading addict needed a regular fix throughout the long summer months? Most kids wanted to play in the street until late at night. I wanted to mainline biographies of Helen Keller and Mark Twain. W-A-T-E-R, indeed.
No bookmobile in stops by the neighborhood where I live these days. But yesterday, the mailman brought me two books on my newly-created amazon wish list: Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and Angry Conversations With God by Susan Isaacs. Though they’re not free like the ones from the Weiner-With-Books, my reading crack is here, waiting to be inhaled.
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One other way I guarantee myself a regular supply of books is by writing reviews of occasional new releases from Thomas Nelson. Here’s a review of Andy Stanley’s The Principle Of The Path:
I’m facing 50. The impending Big Day has had me wondering if this is my one last chance to change direction in my life. Though I tend to avoid both self-help books and titles promising a magic formula of some kind, I picked up Andy Stanley’s newest book wondering if I might find a nugget of wisdom for the next leg of the journey.
Stanley, the son of a well-known Baptist tele-preacher, writes with a disarming and decidedly non-churchy voice. It doesn’t feel like he’s trying too hard to be earnest or relevant. He’s simply sharing some practical wisdom about how to change one’s life direction in the book’s ten easy-to-read chapters. The book also includes a study/discussion guide with some helpful reflection questions.
The book is basically a motivational speech. Though that statement sounds like a criticism, I actually mean it in a favorable way. Sometimes, we all need a coach to come alongside of us and remind us of where we’re going, how to get there, and to stop eating cold corn dogs for breakfast. Andy Stanley is that coach, and I appreciated his kind, firm good-natured technique in The Principle Of The Path. I did indeed find a giant nugget of wisdom (Chapter 4, about regrets), and a gentle course correction in its pages.
I do remember the bookmobile! Wow, that's a memory from long ago … I remember the smell of the books and the treasure of it all.
Also, libraries — what a concept! Free books to take home and read! One of the greatest uses of public funds ever, because it makes reading available without cost.
Marcia
I am an equal-opportunity employer: enjoy both libraries and bookstores. But I'd have to give the nod to the bookstore. My off-and-on four years at a bookstore spoiled me with a steady flow of new books. 🙂
But a library is a shrine to a bigger conversation than a bookstore could ever be!
Yay for books!