#8

I guess setting monthly reading goals really was the kick in the pants my little brain needed. As you may remember in June, a goal of 50 pages led to actual reading of 66.  Well in July, and we are not quite halfway in, a goal of 50 pages led to actual reading of the rest of the book.  Woo hoo!
In case you haven't referenced my 30 Before 30 list, the particular book I am referring to is called "Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller.  I think his most famous book is called "Blue Like Jazz" in case you have heard of him. Basically, this book is about a road trip that he and a friend take from his home state of Texas, through the dessert, and up into Oregon, which is the home state of his traveling companion.  I don't know why I'm so drawn to non-fiction over fiction, because often times I feel like I have a hard time really getting into non-fiction, but for some reason, it's where I go.  This book, however, didn't take long for me to get into.  Honestly, building my reading habit again is what made the book take so long - the book itself moved quite quickly for me.
I don't want to spill too much of what goes on, in case anyone wants to read it (which I would recommend), but I do want to share one excerpt that I found particularly interesting.  It comes toward the beginning of the book.

"Recently I have come to believe there are more important questions than how questions:  How do I get money, how do I get laid, how do I become happy, how do I have fun?  On one of our trips to central Texas, I stood at the top of a desert hill and looked up into the endlessness of the heavens, deep into the inky blackness of the cosmos, those billion stars seeming to fall through the void from  nowhere to nowhere.  I stood there for twenty minutes, and as it had a few times that year, my mind fell across the question why?"

If I'm going to recommend this book, I should probably warn you that there are definite spiritual undertones as you can probably see from the excerpt above, although I didn't feel like this book was a religious lecture.  The how vs. why question was an interesting one for me to think about, mostly since I do tend to be one of the "why" people.  In the end, the message of this book did challenge me to rethink the way I see God in my life.
So have any of you read this or any other Donald Miller books?  Any other books you would recommend to me?  I do have one other book to read on my 30 before 30 list that I'll probably try to knock out next, but I did really enjoy having another option to spend my time on, other than getting lost in the TV or internet.  Maybe this will become a new habit for me!