my life » Literature

Back from vacation

Devon — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:04:44 +0000

I intended to post during my trip down the West Coast, but I hardly had any coverage between Portland and San Francisco, as we kept mainly to the coastal highway. I blame it on the redwood trees and the sea lions.

On the flight to Portland, I started and finished The Alchemist byPaulo Coelho. It was alright, nothing spectacular, but I do highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a good novel that can be completed in one sitting. Frankly, I don’t know why it’s been translated to as many languages as it has been — it’s good, but it’s not that amazing. I suppose the fact that it’s so short has aided it in that regard. I doubt we’ll be seeing El Amor en los Tiempos de Cólera in 50+ languages anytime in the near future, even though it’s a much better piece of literature.

We drove from Portland on up to Mt. St. Helens, and then drove down to the Bay Area over the course of the next four days, following highway 101 and later highway 1. I was impressed by the scenery in Washington and Oregon, but not so much by that of California. I apologize to the state of Oregon for calling Northern California “South Oregon” — that’s an insult to Oregon. Northern California more closely approaches something along the lines of “if Mexico was a state, this is what it would look like a century from now.” And by Northern California, I refer to the area north of Santa Rosa / Sacramento. Nothing against the people, I have lots of friends from that region, but that’s just the impression it left.

On the flight back to Salt Lake City from Oakland, I started reading The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright, which I finished last night. It, too, was a decent novel, but not as endearing as I had hoped it would be. I know it’s strange, but I feel that fictional literature should provoke emotion if it isn’t going to educate me. That said, I do recommend it.

I’ll be posting photos and a more detailed report soon.

Best part of the trip: eating a ton of amazing seafood.

Worst part of the trip: being crammed into a minivan for hours each day.

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

Devon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:43:59 +0000

By Reza Aslan, this book is a wonderful in-depth introduction into a history of Islam. I think I learned at least as much about the Muslim faith from this book as I did about American Christianity last semester from Brother Fluhman, and that was a fantastic class. So I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Islam. … continue reading: No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

The Quran

Devon — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:53:00 +0000

Right now I’m reading No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan, and I think that one of my goals for this coming summer will be to read the entire Quran. No, I’m not apostatizing from the Church, and yes, this will be in addition to my regular study of the scriptures. I just think it will be beneficial to have a better understanding of Muhammad’s teaching and how they differ from some of the practices of fundamentalist Islamic sects. So, if anyone can suggest a good English translation of the Quran, please let me know — my Arabic is horrible.

What I’ve been reading

Devon — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:57:40 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the books I’ve been reading, and I’ve actually managed to finish three books in the last month or so.

How Soccer Explains the World: an unlikely theory of globalization by Franklin Foer

Read more like a travelogue from the viewpoint of a soccer fan rather than a theory of globalization. If you’re huge into the European and Brazilian leagues, this book may appeal to you. Otherwise, don’t bother with it and stick with Freidman’s books instead if you want to learn about globalization.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

A fascinating novel narrated by three individuals: a young boy who lost his father on 9/11 and his two grandparents. Once you get over the somewhat odd writing style, it’s an extremely enjoyable piece of literature.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Told from the point of view of the son of two Indian immigrants who resents his parents’ traditions and culture. Well written, but the subject matter didn’t seem to reach me on any significant level.

Discrepencies and Oscar Wilde

Devon — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:14:43 +0000

I was typing up some notes for a presentation I have to give on Thursday and I misspelled discrepancies, so I decided to start a list of words that I commonly mistype. Fortunately, it’s a pretty short list at the moment, but that may just be due to the fact that I rarely use words that I don’t know how to spell, simply for that very reason.

A client gave me an iTunes gift card for a bit of consulting that I did for him — since I own a Zune and have a Zune Pass (you can’t beat unlimited download + 10 free songs/month), I decided to use the gift credit to purchase Stephen Fry Presents a Selection of Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories. My favorites of the collection are The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant, both of which I remember reading as a child. I think my appreciation for Oscar Wilde’s writings is comparable to that which many within Christendom have for the works of C.S. Lewis, who I recognize as a wonderful writer but find to come off as a bit too preachy and far too often quoted.

Book Club and other things

Devon — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:29:02 +0000

Well, the first meeting of the Book Club was a relative success, given that it was, after all, the very first meeting. A couple of people showed up, and we chatted for half an hour, settling on How Soccer Explains the World: an unlikely theory of globalization by Franklin Foer as the book for the month. We plan on meeting twice monthly, on the first and third Wednesdays, but that may be adjusted as more people start attending.

My plans for this weekend are fairly uncertain at the moment. There was a death in the extended family, so my mother is flying in today for the services tomorrow morning. I was planning on getting some raquetball in that afternoon, but obviously that may not be possible given the circumstances. One thing that is certain? New episodes of Monk and Psych tonight.

Inauguration

Devon — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:52:36 +0000

For those of you who get flustered when speaking in public, you’re not alone — even Chief Justice Roberts managed to mess up the Oath of Office of the President during the inauguration yesterday. And the oath is only 35 words long.

I have to admit that I actually skipped my morning class to watch the Inauguration (relax — the PowerPoint slides are available online anyway.) A couple of my friends who are in the DC area were able to watch it from the Mall, which was pretty brave of them considering how bitter cold it was and the fact that most of the roads were closed to the public, forcing them to walk a considerable distance.

Tonight will be the first meeting of the newly founded 207th Ward Book Club. As of this morning, no one has called to volunteer to bring a dessert, which isn’t really an issue, but it does mean that I have no idea how many people from the ward are going to show up. Since this is the first-ever meeting, we won’t be discussing a specific title, which should give us plenty of time to just chat and eat.

A meeting, a book, and an announcement

Devon — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:14:37 +0000

Wow, what a busy day. Not really, but it sure felt that way. After my class this morning, I was able to attend a meeting with some students visiting from Biola University. The nature of the visit was to improve interfaith relations (for those unaware, Biola University, like BYU, is also a religiously-centered school.) Obviously, those who had come to visit from Biola and the students from our campus who attended the meetings already had fairly positive interfaith relations, so the conversation dealt more with interfaith relations in general. One of the more interesting conclusions that was reached was that, often, when an Evangelical says that a Mormon (a member of the LDS Church) is not a Christian, he or she is commenting more on the nature of the Church’s theology rather than the faith, belief, worthiness, etc. of said Mormon. In other words, it’s nothing personal.

When I got home for lunch, I quickly finished the last few pages of Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mendelson. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I will read the sequel Love, Work, Children when I have the opportunity. I was mildly surprised when, perusing my Goodreads account, I discovered that I’ve had No God But God: the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam on my to-read list for 14 months, so I will read that before any of the other books on my list. As a side project, I’m trying to get a ward book club organized, and our first meeting is set to be this coming Wednesday, which means that I might as well wait until then to decide which book to read next.

Midway through the afternoon, my boss dropped a bombshell on the office by announcing that he would be transitioning to working half-time so that he could devote more time to outside ventures. While I doubt that his decision indicates in any way the current status of the company, it’s weird to think that over the summer I might be putting in more hours than him. And as an intern, it does little to inspire me to take a full-time position with the company should one be offered me. (I mean, seriously, when your boss thinks there are more interesting projects elsewhere, what is that expected to do for morale?)

Lastly, I’ve stopped syndicating this blog to my Facebook profile. It seemed somewhat pointless to have the content duplicated there. Oh, and I’ll post the handouts from tonights’s Institute lesson sometime tomorrow.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Devon — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:42:46 +0000

Written by the author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells of the lives of two Afghani women whose lives intertwine during the chaotic power struggle that has occupied that country during the recent decades. While I didn’t feel that A Thousand Splendid Suns was as moving nor as powerful as The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is definitely geared toward a different audience, so my take on the novel might be a bit biased. I think it’s safe to say that females will relate much better to the characters in Hosseini’s latest book than to those in The Kite Runner. As an older brother, I thought some parts of A Thousand Splendid Suns to be more disturbing than the graphic nature of The Kite Runner, but that stems more from my revulsion of misogyny rather than any overly graphic content.

Library Folding@Home team takes lead

Devon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:45:52 +0000

The Harold B. Lee Library’s Folding@Home took this lead this morning as the top-scoring team at BYU. Congratulations, and thanks to those who have donated their CPU cycles to such a worthy cause. Now that the HBLL team leads at BYU, their next goal is to overtake the teams at Yale, U Minn, and the University of Oklahoma.

Also of note, the author of The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, passed away today after his extended battle with pancreatic cancer. If you want to show your support for his widow and children, the easiest (and most meaningful) way is to purchase a copy of his book.