Blue Like Jazz

This blog has been sadly lacking in real content in the last while, but I blame my absurdly busy life, with its exams, Discovery week (details in another post), camping, and transition to job all closely associated. But once upon a time, I read this book. This book was "required reading" in order to date Sue. So... a tall order. It would seem that not only did I have to read the book, there seemed to also be an implied requirement to like the book. Fortunately, it turned out to be one of the best Christian books I think I've ever read.

In some ways, it's unfortunate I didn't get to write this when the book was fresh in my mind, but I'll do my best to put down some of the thoughts that the book generated for me. The full title of the book is "Blue Like Jazz: Nonchristian thoughts about Christian spirituality." And that's kind of a nice way to sum the whole thing up.

It's made up of little snippets of storytelling from the life of the author, Donald Miller. Many of the stories are funny or even silly, but they all center around Miller's spiritual life and how it grew, changed, and often failed through these events.

First of all, this book is pretty funny. Miller is brutally honest, and often says what you might be thinking, but would never say out loud. And there are hand drawn comics in this book (need I say more?).

Lots of times he takes things and turns them around in a way you haven't thought of, but perhaps the best example of that is a chapter called "Confession". In it, he and his friends set up a confession booth during a giant party at the university he attends. But when people come in, the confessing is done by members of the Christian group that organized the booth, talking about all the things in their own lives that they felt were shortcomings; ways in which they didn't live up to the Christian ideal. The people who came into the booth were touched, and Miller says he felt himself change a great deal. It's a neat idea, and one that would certainly take guts to pull off.

This is just one example, but this book made me think about so many things in new ways. All while being readable enough that I had to force myself to read it slowly and take it in.

Now that I have a copy of the book, and am looking through it after being a couple months removed from reading it, I realize I could write a little blurb on every chapter. But that'd be a heck of a long post. So in the end, my advice is to read it. It's hard to tell you what to expect, since I think in the end, it won't be what you expect, but hopefully it's good enough that I know I'll read it again. I think that's the best review I've got.