Book 2 - Night

This is a book written by Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor. Night outlines his experience as his life goes from the normal everyday life of a Jewish boy in his hometown of Sighet, Transylvania to the increasingly oppressive life of a Jew during WW2. This book is a devastating read. It didn't take long to read, however I had to continually stop reading in order to process what I was being told. Wiesel frankly and concisely brings the reader into his world as he tries to survive and help take care of his father in different concentration camps.

I think what made this book so difficult for me to read is that Wiesel was a normal guy. He wasn't brave or cowardly, he didn't save the lives of others or go to heroic measures to save his people. He was no one special. Every other book I've read on WW2, every movie I've seen, tells the story of a hero, who did extraordinary things in the face of the Nazi movement. Wiesel didn't and that's what makes his story so significant for me. He was an ordinary life, who became extraordinary through suffering. The truly extraordinary thing about Wiesel is that he survived the inhumanity and now tells others about it. The cold hard and horrific facts fill the pages of Night. There are no words to describe this book sufficiently. Nothing I say will do it justice. It needs to be read to be believed and even then you will hardly believe that people could treat other people like the Nazi's treated their prisoners. Yet we need to believe it, we need to know it and we need to remember it and we need to stop the evil that says it's okay to treat somebody as if they are worthless. This message is what makes Wiesel a hero.

Book 1 - Jane Eyre

So the first book of the year was Jane Eyre and I somewhat cheated with this one. It was started at the end of 2007. However I did read the bulk of it in the first week of 2008. It's a classic. It's great and I'm sure most people have read it so there's not much I can say that hasn't been said. I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the mix of romance, mystery, and theology. It was also fun because it's an older book the language can at times be a bit more challenging than a contemporary novel so it really gets the brain working. Good read, not life changing but still enjoyable.

New Year, New Challenge

It seems that every year January 1st rolls around and with it comes a sense of newness Every year we are encouraged to make a new years resolution and bring about change in our lives. This year I have decided to read more intentionally. I always have an arms length list of books that I'd like to read and I always seem to start books without finishing them. It is not unusual for me to have 20 books on the go, on a variety of topics and within a variety of genres. So this year I'm going to attempt to start and more importantly finish atleast 52 books and I'm going to attempt to do this by reading one a week. This blog will serve to document this endeavour as I post (or atleast try to) a weekly review.