Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow

6/10

I read this about a decade ago. Counting Crows fans will recognize the song "Rain King" which has a lyric which states "Henderson is waiting for the sun." And it was this song which prompted me to read this book.

It was ok I suppose. Not quite my style. It is about a middle-aged guy in a mid-life crisis if you will. He goes searching for himself by going on a random, spontaneous trip to tribal regions in Africa and unwittingly becomes the tribe's Rain King by moving a large statue or something. It's a pretty weird book with a few humorous moments here and there. I could see Adam Duritz completely connecting with this character. Henderson was a pretty interesting dude. It was a pretty long read for me though. Not sure if I'll read any other Saul Bellow books in my life. But at least I read the Counting Crows one.

One quote:

"[S]lavery has never really been abolished. More people are enslaved to different things than you can shake a stick at."

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

7/10

It's been a while since I read this book, but it was nice to thumb through it and read many of the good principles and quotes contained in this book. It is loaded with good advice and I enjoyed recognizing several gospel-oriented teachings sprinkled throughout the book. In fact, David O. McKay, Ezra Taft Benson, N. Eldon Tanner, and probably other church figures are quoted in this book.

Lots of times when I haven't read a book in a while I will have forgotten most of what it was about but will usually remember at least one thing throughout the years. When I picked up this book to post on this blog the one thing that has remained with me through the years was this: "One person's mission is another person's minutia. To make a deposit, what is important to another person must be as important to you as the other person is to you." I immediately thought of people like my Dad who would listen with seeming interest to my endless rants about the Bluejays' ups and mostly downs. As I post this now I think of my wife who endures the same rants. They have always made me feel that they are genuinely interested in my passionate discourses. It is not that they are interested in baseball or the Bluejays but they live the quote mentioned above. I have always hoped that I can do the same for others in my life and I hope to be able to do that for my kids as they grow and develop interests and hobbies.

There's also this funny part where he mentions "a person who runs three or four hours a day, bragging about the extra ten years of life it creates, unaware he's spending them running." It reminds me of a missionary I lived with who would only drink room temperature water because it is supposed to be better for you and he will live a year or two longer because of it. I always thought how that wouldn't be worth it especially since he would have to drink room temperature water for two extra years. I'd rather die two years earlier drinking refreshing cold water than live two extra years drinking warm water my entire life.

I was going to share a few quotes but there's just too many to share. So I will just share this longish one:

"[I]f you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathetic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character."

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

6/10

Look at that book cover. Just amazing. This is book 5 in the Narnia series which I read several years ago. It is the only book that doesn't have any kids from England going to Narnia. Instead, the main characters are all Narnians and the entire book only takes place in Narnia. I don't remember too many details about this book, but have always considered this one to be my least favorite of them all.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball

8/10

This was the 2006 Priesthood/Relief Society manual. I finished reading it shortly after the end of that year I believe. Solid as always. The Church does a great job with these manuals.

There is a lot of good stuff in here, including his fairly famous "Tragedy or Destiny?" pamphlet  which I read while on my mission, the cover of such pamphlet pictured below:

There is also of course a chapter on The Miracle of Forgiveness, a book I own and still have not read, the cover of the book pictured below:

There are tons of good quotes. I had so many things underlined in my book that I actually didn't have time to read over all of them. Here are a few that I will share:

"When each child prays all his life for the missionary cause, he will be a good missionary."

"[I]f there is a chink in our integrity, that is where the devil concentrates his attack."

"It is not blind obedience, even without total understanding, to follow a Father who has proved himself."

"The observance of the Sabbath is an indication of the measure of our love for our Heavenly Father."