A Great Way to Get Into Literature

If you're looking to get into reading literature this year, then this might be a great way to go. Here's a good list of books that are under 200 pages. It's always a thrill to finish a book. It's almost like you're leveling up in a video game.

There's something to finishing a good book, somehow you're transported to the author's world, and you feel the same emotions and meanings the author creates. It's a great way to get outside of your own particular drama and see a bigger world.

 Here's the list of books under 200 pages: http://ebookfriendly.com/55-great-books-under-200-pages-infographic/

Here's the list:

1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
   
2. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
7. Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (not the Complete Guide)
9. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
10. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates
11. The Neon Bible by John Toole
12. Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher
13. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
14. Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garciá Márquez
15. The Stranger by Albert Camus
16. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
17. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
18. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
19. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
20. Being There by Jerzy Kosinki
21. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
22. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
23. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
24. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
25. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan
26. Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
27. Black Orchids by Rex Stout
28. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
29. Animal Farm by George Orwell
30. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
31. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
32. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
33. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
34. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
35. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garciá Márquez
36. Grendel by John Gardner
37. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
38. Flatland by Edwin Abbot
39. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
40. Shopgirl by Steve Martin
41. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
42. Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.
43. The Girl on the Fridge by Edgar Keret
44. Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky
45. I And Thou by Martin Buber
46. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
47. Pafko at the Wall by Don Delilo
48. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
49. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
50. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom by Amy Hempel
51. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
52. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
53. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
54. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
55. Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates.

Review of St. Augustine's Confessions

St. Augustine in 400 AD

"All things looked gloomy, even the very light itself"

St. Augustine was around 46 years old when he wrote his Confessions. Augustine was a professor of Rhetoric at a public school in Carthage in the Roman Empire. He ended up teaching in Rome and Milan until his conversion to Christianity and the Catholic Church later in his life.

If there was a blogger that wrote a letter to God and posted his thoughts and confessed his inner most feelings with each blog post, you'd basically have a bastardized modern version of what Augustine wrote in his Confessions. His confessions were just that, him confessing to his Creator.

It's so refreshing to read about Jesus. All the modern education I received banned the reality and impact Jesus had on history and culture, and with it, the philosophical and cultural past of our own Western heritage has been verboten.

What I liked about the book:
Augustine wrote some of the deepest and most honest questions I've ever read, and some of the most relative to my own life. He was concerned with which path to follow in life, and wanted to know if he was on the right one.

These were some of my favorite questions of his:

"Where do you go along these rugged paths? Where are you going?"

"I was sinking down to the very depths. And I said to my friends: "Do we love anything but the beautiful? What then is the beautiful? And what is beauty?" 

"I will set my feet upon that step where, as a child, my parents placed me, until the clear truth is discovered. But where and when shall it be sought? Ambrose has no leisure – we have no leisure to read. Where are we to find the books? How or where can I get a hold of them? From whom could I borrow them? Let me set a schedule for my days and set apart certain hours for the health of the soul."

That line really got to me, "we have no leisure to read,"  which is one of the struggles I deal with myself. But Augustine knew that in reading you can find health for the soul.

Part of me had given up on the idea that there was truth in life, and to a certain extent, I don't think there is any 'truth,' just perspectives. But I still look for wisdom. I still try to find the right answers to some of the same questions that Augustine he himself struggled with nearly 400 years after Christ was born.

I don't have very many answers.

But in reading literature, I have gained many different perspectives, which have given me a much broader understanding of my own place and time in this world. I appreciated his honesty. I appreciated his questioning and his openness. He was a very real human being that cared for these grand ideals, which is quite a refreshing contrast to the nihilism in modern books, i.e., On The Road by Jack Kerouac. 

It wasn't a fun read. Much of the book is about the nuances in christian doctrine and the nature of God. While I do, to an extent, find that interesting at times, it's really not my cup of tea. But I did enjoy Augustine's humanity. I would recommend you read it, too, at least some of of the parts where he was talking about his own personal experiences.

This was probably the most powerful quote from the book that I read:

"Men go forth to marvel at the heights of mountains and the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the orbit of the stars, and yet they neglect to marvel at themselves."

When Francesco Petrarch, the father of Humanism, climbed the famous Mt. Ventoux in France, he had this very book in his pocket. As he reached the summit, he read that quote.

I find it an amazing reality that I can read this same quote and experience a somewhat similar understanding and awe that Petrarch had at the top of that mountain in France. I think that's what reading can do for you, share a soulful insight about life with fellow travelers across distant land and times. In the word we are connected to each other. Right? Isn't that what you are doing now reading this blog post? Are we not sharing a mind?

Good night.

Almost done with st. Augustine.

I'm on page 214 of St. Augustine's Confessions. If the internet existed in 390   A. D., I think Augustine would be writings his confessions on his blog. More review to come as soon as I finish the book, which is about 300 pages.