Through Painted Deserts

Remember how in one of my previous blog posts I talked about how I was reading Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts and wasn't really feeling it? And I was already halfway through the book and kind of wanted to stop reading but at the same time still wanted to finish the book just to finish it?

So, I just finished Through Painted Deserts and I actually ended up liking it. Donald Miller wasn't as scatterbrained as I thought he was. I just skimmed through the more long-winded descriptions of things, but stopped to absorb more of the little nuggets of good reminders and insights that Pam had already underlined (haha, thanks Pam!).

What's interesting is that I chuckled a lot while reading the book. You know those moments when you're reading something or someone else is reading something and then whatever you read just made you literally laugh out loud? I had a bunch of those moments from this book. Donald Miller's dialogue is just so witty and the things they say were pretty funny. I truly believe it was the dialogue that was pulling through the rest of the book.

So in contrast to that, while I was reading Through Painted Deserts I was simultaneously reading Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages: For Singles as I believe I might have also mentioned in a previous blog. Now, by "reading simultaneously" I mean on a different occasion I'm reading a different book. On my commutes to and/or from (sometimes if I'm too sleepy I'll sleep, but only if I really can't keep my eyes open to read) my internship I'll carry one book with me, and then at home when I read right before I sleep (which I have to do almost every night), I'll read a different book.

Anyway, so I'm reading that book now, and I'm sorely disappointed. Maybe it's not meant to, but it doesn't have any deep insight or, "Ohhhhh, that's a good way of putting that" kind of moments. And besides that, I feel as though if I wasn't sure about rooting my relationships in God's truths first, this book would be feeding more off of my emotional needs rather than the security in my relationship with God first....do you know what I mean? The book is good, but I have a bunch of criticisms about it, and maybe it's just his writing style.

I know he tries to make a point that he's talking about how we express and receive love on an emotional level, but the true life story examples he uses and the way he explains how you find out what your or someone else's primary love language just makes it seem way too simple or black and white, and I really believe it's a little more complex than that. I did pull out some major ideas/concepts that are helpful to figure out my own primary love language, which was really hard to do. I'll tell you about how I figured that out in my next post :P

By the way, my reading goal for this summer was to read 6 books: 3 more "fun" books, and 3 spiritual formation/Christian kind of books. After Through Painted Deserts, I just need to finish one more book to reach my goal. And I'm halfway through reading the Love Languages book and simultaneously a book about learning how to have a plan your personal finances (yeah, that's right, I'm learning on my own how to plan financially), so I'm going to reach my goal! I've been making a summer reading goal for myself every year since I was...maybe in the 6th grade (some time in middle school)? But I've actually been falling way under my goal since...I think the 9th or 10th grade in high school. So this is exciting!

Okay, so all you people who don't like to read and think making summer reading goals is nerdy may not find it all that exciting. But I do, and that's all that matters :]