The Innocents Abroad

The Innocents Abroad – by Mark Twain

I bought the “Entire Works of Mark Twain” for my Kindle for some ridiculous price like 99 cents.  This thing will probably take me my entire life to complete.  I decided to start from the beginning of the compilation, and not go through and try to cherry pick something I might like.    This, the very first piece, was a non-fiction account of a “cruise” he took along with several other passengers.  I kind of wish I had started with something else.

Now, I must state that when I look back on reading this with not many great memories, it must be said that I am in the minority.  Most people consider this book a classic, and most love it for what it is – an extensive travel log highlighting many locations in Europe and Asia with emphasis on the Holy Land.  I just thought it was too overwhelming – especially by 21^st century standards.

Imagine that you have a friend that comes back home after a one month vacation.  You would probably be polite and ask them something like “How was your vacation?”  If you’re like me, you wouldn’t mind if the person spent a few minutes giving you the highlights of their trip.  Nor would you mind if they took out their smart phone and shared a dozen or so pictures of some of their favorite moments.  If you’re like me, what you probably would not like, is to have your friend spend several hours detailing every nuance of every activity that they partook.  Nor would you want to have to sit still while they showed you every one of their 2,000 to 3,000 pictures that they took of everything and anything.  I would get bored very quickly.

Sadly, this is what this book came across as.  There was simply too much.  I imagine, however, that if you love to write as Mr. Twain did, and there was nothing else to do at night after the sun went down except to put a pen to paper by candlelight and journal, that such meticulous account should be expected, and probably even welcome by someone on the receiving end of all of these details.  So this book was probably enjoyed better by a reader in 1870 than in 2015.

It might have helped if I took my time while reading it as well.  Because I read so much, and seem to have an ever multiplying list of works that I wish to peruse, I tend to try to move through the pages at a faster pace than most.  This, I confess, probably hindered my enjoyment somewhat.  Again, a reader in 1870 didn’t have distractions such as Netflix, Facebook, or PlayStation 4 to compete for their limited spare time.

I also felt I would have enjoyed the book more had I been a contemporary of the particular period.  It’s much easier to relate to people and places when one can imagine them existing how they are today and not over 150 years ago.  When Twain would start to describe the streets of Paris, I would subconsciously think of a place with automobiles, modern street goers, and even the Eiffel Tower in the background.  I would then suddenly shake my imagination after remembering that no such things existed, and I would then try to place myself on the same streets before electricity was even in use.  That was hard for me to do.  All of this to say that if a contemporary writer was to partake in the same journey as Twain did today, I would probably enjoy the reflections and the tales much better.

Still, Mark Twain is Mark Twain, and his many observations are very humorous.  Whether he’s detailing the idiosyncrasies of his fellow travel companions, or visiting the many cathedrals in Rome, his wit is amazingly humorous.  My favorite episode was when he finally (his words) gets to visit and experience the joys of a Turkish bath.

So my advice to you if you want to try this one is to read it slow, respect the day and age, and maybe (as I did) just skim some sections and allow yourself the enjoyment of selected episodes throughout this very lengthy journey.

Perhaps if I live to 110, I’ll somehow have time to read this one again.  If I do, I’ll go a bit slower the next time.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in Tongues – by Jeffery Deaver

In most instances, when I’m reading a book that I am not particularly enjoying, I don’t give up on it.  I plow on ahead.  This drives my wife crazy.  Probably it drives her crazy because she has to hear my frustration.  “If you don’t like it, stop reading it!”  There’s some very good logic there.  In this instance, though, I’m definitely glad that I did not give up on this book.  This book was about 333 pages long, and I did not like it until I got to about page 250.  I actually ended up with a very high appreciation for this work, which was very surprising considering how much grumbling I did during the first 75% of my adventure.

If you know anything about Jeffery Deaver, you know that he is the master of the plot twist.  Nothing is ever as it seems, and even if you know that a twist is coming, you never can quite guess how he’s going to rearrange things.  Usually it’s a very nice, believable surprise – which is really why many enjoy his books so much.  This book is no different.  I would say that the abrupt twists in this story actually save it, and they turn it from a “pretty bad” book into a “very good” book.

That’s not to say the book is perfect.  There are some obvious flaws here.  Without giving much of the story away, there’s a “bad” guy who does “bad” things.  Essentially, he kidnaps a troubled teenager from a messed up home.  For the kidnapper’s plans to work, every step that he plans must occur with meticulous accuracy.  I would say that there’s about a 1 in 100,000 chance for everything to fall in exactly with the guy’s plans.  Of course, everything he plans works perfectly.  It’s a bit too much to swallow.

Once you get to the “twist” though, you’re so overwhelmed by the directional changes, you can easily forgive the events leading up to the moment.  At least this worked for me.   Many times when I read people’s reviews of books, they review the book before they finish it.  They give it a very low rating and say something like “I couldn’t even finish this book….”.  If you’re reading my review and you decide to invest in this story, I would ask you to stick it out until the end.  Fortunately, it’s not a very long book, so hanging on an extra 100 pages or so isn’t too much to ask.

The Early Church from Ignatius to Augustine

The Early Church from Ignatius to Augustine – by George Hodges

For lovers of history, it’s always a bit sad when one realizes that the further back in time we go, the less information we have to give us a full picture of what, why, and how things happened.  I think about how easy it will be 200 years in the future for people to look back on our present day since we have smart phones that take videos of everything that get quickly uploaded to YouTube.  I bring this up because as much as I enjoyed this book, I really wanted more.  I’m sure there are other books out there that go into more detail, but this book is basically meant to be a primer of early church history.

By the time the New Testament ends, we’re about 90 years after the birth of Christ.  How does Christianity grow and flourish?  I’ve always been puzzled by those who dismiss the gospels as fable and make believe.  When you consider that most of the disciples were martyred (in very cruel ways in some cases) for their faith, it seems as though it would make the smart person think that these guys were truly onto something.

It also seems to be a bit perplexing that Christianity would grow the way that it did during its first 400 years of existence had it all been a hoax or a conspiracy.  Unlike modern times, this new faith had to overcome obstacles of existing faiths and philosophies.  Yet those who claimed to be Christians quietly clung to their faith – some being devoured by wild beasts in coliseums, others living a life of ascetic means – distancing themselves from the civilized world while living on nuts and berries and devoting their entire life to prayer and meditation.  It was all worth it.

Not surprisingly, there were many divisions and schisms, just as they are today.  When Constantine became the first emperor of Rome to declare himself a Christian, much good is done, but we also see firsthand why church and state should probably, in fact, be separate.  One should come to faith based on their heart – not because the leaders decree it upon the population.

Although this book really isn’t linear in its presentation – it really can’t be – 400 years in only about 300 pages, it does do a good job giving the reader a good enough background of the major players, the different ways of worship – both Christian and Pagan, and the effects of why certain key players believed the way that they did.

I really wanted more, but to give such a history the attention it deserves, it would have needed to be about 3,000 pages instead of 300 pages.  I also really wish I could go back in time and witness many of these events firsthand.

Note: I read this on a Kindle, and the transfer from printed word to e-book format doesn’t work very well in this instance.  Most of the infractions are minor, but it can be very distracting seeing many misspelled words throughout the pages.  There was one part where the author was telling about some key dates of the fourth century, and the transfer of dates accidentally shows an “8” where it should show a “3”.  So I would come across a passage that talked about events that happened “in the year “872”, and I would think, “Wait.  What?  We’re now in the ninth century?  What happened during the missing 500 years?”  When one reads a book in 2016, it’s hard to know the difference between major events that happened in the year 300 as opposed to the year 800.  So some cleanup is definitely needed here, and one needs to be astute as they peruse.