A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

3/10

More like A Farewell to Legs. I read this in the year 2005. It was my first ever Hemingway. I have now read three Hemingway books and I don't know what to make of him. I really liked one of his books (The Old Man and the Sea), I thought one of his books was so-so (The Sun Also Rises), and I was very disappointed in A Farewell to Arms. I thought it was a boring story and, to be honest, I was not at all impressed with the writing. I hate it when authors refuse to keep us posted on who is speaking during several pages-long dialogue. Seemed like I had to trace my way back in the conversations several times to refresh myself on who was saying what.

I was excited to read this book too, it being my first Hemingway and all. Fortunately, the other two books of his that I have read have been significantly better so I am sure I will return again to the Hemingway well and get to the bottom of whether I like him or not. It's like a best of seven series and Hemingway is up two games to one (I would say that The Sun Also Rises was probably an Extra Innings victory for Hemingway). So stay tuned.

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis

7/10

So I haven't done a Narnia book post is quite some time. This one was read by me a while ago, probably 9 years. It's pretty decent. Not as good as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but better than Prince Caspian. At least for me. Although it's a bit sad to get over the fact that not all four Pevensie children are in this one as the older two do not take part in the adventure. It's got a good little Aslan/Christ symbolism at the end.

A quote:

"[O]ne of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to Facts."

Pygmalion and Three Other Plays by George Bernard Shaw

8/10

I just finished this book tonight. I again had my four-year-old daughter choose my book for me. I'm still in "time out" for my Ulysses selection. When she chose this book I asked her why and she said, "Because it's pink." Sounded like a good enough reason for me.

The four plays in the book are: (1) Major Barbara; (2) The Doctor's Dilemma; (3) Pygmalion; and (4) Heartbreak House. Usually I have a hard time ranking things, but not this time. Pygmalion is fantastic and the clear winner (which is why it is singled out apart from the "Three Other Plays"). It is the play that My Fair Lady is based on. My second favorite was The Doctor's Dilemma which was a comical satire of the medical profession. This one had some funny characters and some pretty sweet burns on doctors (pun!) and a very interesting plot. Major Barbara was pretty good and had some good moments and some good characters. Shaw's Socialism comes through in this one more than the others which put a bit of a damper on it as a whole. And lastly, the proverbial runt of the litter was Heartbreak House which had none of the humor found in the other three plays and had unenjoyable characters to go along with a boring story that seemed to be haphazardly constructed.

So three out of four a'int bad. I would definitely recommend reading this book for the plays. I would hesitate to recommend this book, however, due to the prefaces before each play. They were tedious and did nothing to illuminate the actual plays. They were just Shaw ranting. And while his plays were comical, his rants were too serious and off-putting. The preface to Major Barbara gives an insight into his extreme Socialist views which were "interesting" to say the least. The preface to Pygmalion was the only somewhat enjoyable one to read. Coincidentally this was the only short-winded preface coming in at five pages (Major Barbara: 43 pages, The Doctor's Dilemma: 83 pages!, and Heartbreak House: 43 pages).

But I liked it overall. The plays were good enough to overcome the prefaces. And there is another Barnes & Noble Classics collection of some of his other plays that I am sure I will acquire somewhere down the line.

Some quotes:

From Major Barbara:

"Genuine unselfishness is capable of anything"

"He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

From The Doctor's Dilemma:

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

From Pygmalion:

"Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon."

"There's always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well."

"The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another."

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

7/10

I read this a while back, some nine years ago or so. I remember liking it but not loving it. Any story about a guy stranded on an island is going to at least be somewhat interesting by default. There is enough adventure in here to make it a worthwhile read. Plus, it was written in the early 1700's which has always surprised me. It doesn't read like that old of a book. The book also has a lot of religious aspects to it as Robinson reads the Bible often and we get to read his thoughts about what he has read.

Well, here are a few quotes:

"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."

"[W]henever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction."

"[W]e never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries."

"[N]othing but Divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemption purchased for us, of a Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the soul; and that therefore the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, promised for the guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men, in the saving knowledge of God, and the means of salvation."

A Bit on the Side by William Trevor

3/10

I read this in 2008 I believe. And I read it before the birth of my first son which I named Trevor William. It's true. I did not name my son after William Trevor. In fact, I had forgotten all about this author's existence and did not make the connection until somewhat recently.

Anyway, this is a collection of 12 short stories that are pretty boring and uneventful for the most part, in my opinion. As I look over the stories, the only one that I remember really liking was "An Evening Out" which was fantastic. The others were mostly unmemorable. But, I must not have disliked these stories too much because somewhere down the line I acquired another William Trevor book that I have yet to read.

Conclusion: It was not great as demonstrated by my inability to recall 11 of the 12 stories. It was not terrible as demonstrated by the excellence of 1 of the 12 stories and by my future acquisition of another book from the same author.

One quick line from a story titled "Solitude":

"Dark nourishes light's triumphant blaze"

Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R. McConkie

9/10

I read this on the mission in 2003. This book is a classic. It really is great. It's very thorough, very comprehensive, and yet each topic is fairly concise for the most part. Except "Signs of the Times" which goes on for several pages. It's a good book to learn more about common topics like "Prayer" and "Faith" but also great for random topics that you've never heard of or thought about. And there are scripture references galore for everything. It's just a good book to be used for scripture and gospel study.

There are tons of quotes that could be shared and I even had several chosen, but I decided to only share this one which is found in the topic "Vicarious Ordinances":

"Salvation is based on the vicarious atoning sacrifice of Christ.... He acted on man's behalf, that is, vicariously, paying the penalty for our sins on condition of repentance, ransoming us from the effects of Adam's fall."

Already to Harvest by Hartman Rector, Jr.

3/10

Lets kick off this new year with a post about my least favorite church book that I have ever read. I didn't totally hate it, but it's fair to say that I didn't like it. I read this on my mission back in 2004. 

It was a good book in the sense that it encouraged you to be a good, hard-working missionary and had some good thoughts about how to make that happen. But I was mainly turned off by how over-the-top it went with the you should baptize infinity people each month lectures.  The stories of missionaries baptizing 25 people per month and writing down a long list of ridiculous goals like: "We conclude each day with the satisfaction that another person has been baptized!" made the book seem unrealistic and brought the book from a good missionary tool to parody territory. I guess I just got annoyed reading this book, while serving a mission in the Bible Belt, about how if only I was a good missionary then I should be baptizing a person every single day. I probably should have just ignored those parts and just tried to focus on the principles being taught. Maybe next time.