Non Christian Reviewer Says Thumbs Down

I really have no words to express my contempt for this tepid excuse of a book, but I will try.

I approached Blue Like Jazz with trepidation and a little hope. I thought it might be a good book, I'd read a lot of nice reviews, so when I was given it by a well-meaning neighbor I didn't have an excuse not to read it. Of course, I fell asleep at the end of every chapter (it's that boring) so I suppose it's a good sleep aid, if nothing else.

The man behind the words I found to be petulant, self-absorbed, affected, and selfish. He spends the entire book talking about his "journey" through faith. He seems to try very hard to make a point about how liberal and hip he is, but as he himself states, there is very little that is "hip" about Christianity. It's a book that bites itself in the butt by never coming to a conclusion. He makes his references to grace and conviction as vauge as possible, and then never says what he means by either. Or if he does, it is buried in a pile of love-me-do hippie rhetoric.

His treatment of other religions is appalling. Another reviewer mentioned how offensive the "fat guy buddha belly" references were, and I agree. If this person was supposed to have challenged his faith by inspecting and exploring other religions, he is about as resolved in this as a wet noodle is stiff. It seems to me the only time he ever questioned his faith is when he was small, and under a huge load of guilt (that could only have come from God, of course) because he spent his Christmas money on himself.

His writing meandered everywhere, and was irritating. "Look at my adorable lack of contractions!" it seems to say. "Notice my obscure simile and allegory!" The penguin sex story was possibly the most obnoxious, affected thing ever.

All in all, Don Miller spends a long amount of time saying absolutely nothing, and in the end winds up being exactly what he says he does not want to be.

As close to earth as it gets

On occasion, one stumbles across a great book. It was hard for me to put down, I laughed, I smiled, and I had some pain. I feel like we walked down the path together.

wonderful book

John foreman of Switchfoot gave this book to everyone and so do i. I highly reccomend this book. Even my non-christian dad loved it so much that i can now say he is a christian. Obviously it wasn't just the book but i can say this helped to change his outlook.