Should I read them all this year or savor them over several years?

© 2010, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

© 2010, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

From the jacket:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’s youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for the weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

I think it has changed my world, too. I’ve always wondered and imagined what the encounter with God will be like.¹ I pray that mine will be as wondrous and transformative as Mack’s. In fact, I suspect that Mack’s encounter, as he describes it, is only remotely as wondrous as an actual encounter will be.

When you read this book, you will ask yourself, “Is this really true? Is it factual?” I don’t know if it’s factual², but I believe it’s true. It left me craving to be with God on a minute-to-minute basis. I want to be more gracious with those around me. And I yearn for the time when God will reveal himself to me more fully.

I agree with Wynonna Judd when she says, “Reading THE SHACK…has blown the door wide open to my soul.”

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

1. Yes, I believe we will all encounter God eventually
2. You’ll understand when you finish the book

Kindle Rocks

I just finished my third Kindle book. The Kindle is everything I thought it would be and more. I don’t miss having the actual book in my hand and I love being able to grab the same thing all the time to read during the day.

I still read actual books. At night before lights-out, I read and actual book. And devotional type books, at least so far, are actual books.

Love my kindle.

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Kindle

A Christmas gift from Mrs. Major and Sweet Dau Major and birthday gift from Old Dad, my Kindle finally shipped today.

In case you don’t know what a Kindle is, it’s an electronic book. Kindle users can download books from Amazon.com or upload files to be read from their own computers.

Sweet Dau gave me an appropriately decorated Visa debit gift card with “KINDLE FUND O’ DADNESS” emblazoned on it. I couldn’t figure out how to apply that card as a partial payment for the Kindle so I pre bought a bunch of books. Here’s the list:

• Rusty Nail — J.A. Konrath
• Night Fire — Catherine Coulter
• The Motive — John Lescroart
• Valdez Is Coming — Elmore Leonard
• The Millionaires — Brad Meltzer
• Farewell, My Lovely — Raymond Chandler
• The Big Sleep — Raymond Chandler
• Black and Blue — Ian Rankin
• The Prince of Beverly Hills — Stuart Woods
• Third Person Singular — Kj Erickson
• Death of a Charming Man — M. C. Beaton
• Thr3e — Ted Dekker
• Shakespeare’s Landlord — Charlaine Harris
• Killing Floor — Lee Child
• Total Recall — Sara Paretsky
• Tunnel Vision — Sara Paretsky
• Hard Time — Sara Paretsky

Thanks Mrs. Major, Sweet Dau, and Old Dad.

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

But why I enjoy reading Parker is his mastery of dialog. Here are some examples from High Profile, his latest book. These are conversations between Chief Jesse Stone and one of his policemen, Suitcase Simpson.

After an interview with Conrad Lutz, who would later become a suspect in a multiple homicide:

“It means Lutz lied to us,” he said.

“Or at least left stuff out,” Jesse said.

“We maybe should ask him about that?” Suit said.

“Sooner or later,” Jesse said.

“First, you want to get all your ducks in a row?”

“I’d settle for getting them herded into the same area,” Jesse said.

After a visit from the Governor:

“What I like,” Suit said, “is the guv comes up here to let the press look at him and blows a lot of smoke about how he wants the case solved, and the only thing he did helpful he doesn’t even know it.”

“He was annoyed that I asked about it,” Jesse said.

“Just another empty shirt and tie,” Suit said. “Why the hell are they all like that.”

Jesse shrugged and shook his head.

“It’s the kind of guy the job attracts.”

“No good guys?”

“Few,” Jesse said. “Would you want to be governor?”

“No.”

“President?”

“Christ, no,” Suit said.

“Why not?”

“Too much bullshit,” Suit said.

“So who would want that kind of a job?” Jesse said.

“A bullshitter,” Suit said.

Jesse smiled at him.

“If you’re good with a hammer, ” Jesse said, “You look for a nail.”

“Wow,” Suit said. “No wonder you made chief.”

While staking out Lorrie Weeks’ condo in New York:

“We couldn’t afford to live in there,” Suit said, looking up at the glass towers.

“No,” Jesse said.

“Fits nice into the neighborhood,” Suit said.

“Like a hooker at a picnic,” Jesse said.

“What are we hoping, exactly, to see?” Suit said.

“Lorrie Pilarcik Weeks,” Jesse said.

“And when we see her?”

“We watch her,” Jesse said.

“Because she’s all we’ve got?”

“Exactly,” Jesse said.

“And we don’t know what else to do?”

“Precisely,” Jesse said.

“It’s great to train under a master,” Suit said.

“I envy you the experience,” Jesse said.

© 2007 – 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

So far I’ve been successful at avoiding tags. I treat them as chain letters, mostly, mainly because I don’t have the patience to so the work to pass it along. I’m usually as squirrelly as a Jr. High School Boy.¹ Even if I love you, it will be a long time before I respond to another one of these tags. Only because I love Mark so much, and the work required to pass this tag along is relatively small, and I’m a tag virgin, will I respond…this time.

• One book that changed your life: The Bible (This may sound too easy, but it was my study of The Bible in college that led me to reject the church² and begin a search for truth. It was the same book where I found it in the person of Jesus 20 years later)
• One book that you’ve read more than once: The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories by William J. Bennett
• One book that made you laugh: And If You Play Golf, You’re My Friend: Further Reflections of a Grown Caddy by Harvey Penick
• One book that made you cry: The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer To The Heart Of God by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge
• One book that you wish had been written: A really good mystery novel by me (I’ve been too lazy and undisciplined to accomplish this feat)
• One book you wish had never been written: Â Prince of Peace by James Carroll (Completely base and sacreligions. No value whatsoever that I could see)
• One book you are currently reading: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• One book you’ve been meaning to read: The Man in the Mirror by Patrick Morley (And an extremely long list of mysteries, thrillers, and spy novels)

And, now this tagging thing means I’m supposed to tag 5 others to post the same information from their library of reading. You poor folks are now tagged: Stacey, Beth, Scoop, Bonnie, Kiki. Sorry.

© 2006 – 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

1. By the way diagnosing a Jr. High School boy with ADHD is like saying, “There is water in the ocean.”
2. In my naivety, I equated hypocricy in the church leadership with error in the Bible

“Busy,…but, same old question, ‘why are there so many more horses’ asses than there are horses?’”

© 2006 – 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.