Reading: The Last Templar
Music: John Hartford
TV/Movie: Last of the Summer Wine
Link o' the Day: The Seventh Earth

Tis a very busy week and it's showing no signs of slowing down. Changes to a couple of book projects tonight, plus some more work for the Bulletin. Plus some of my own writing. And there's some cooking and housework to see to tonight as well. Tomorrow will be more of the same, only colder.

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I recently finished reading Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. I don't know what first attracted me to the book. I came across it at the Auburn U bookstore when I was making my safari down south. Then Pretty Maggie's mother had a copy. I flipped through a few pages and it looked well written. Somehow it ended up on my Christmas list, and I'm glad it was.

At first glance you might assume a couple of things. First, you might assume that it's going to be a cloyiing book just dripping with sentimentality and pop philosophy. This is a fair fear. All of the above is a little bit true--but only a very little bit. It seemed to me a book that avoided being overly sentimental despite its setting (Heaven and the main character's past). The writing style was not cloying, in fact the author seems to hold back a little bit, but there is still a lot of Maxfield Parish scenery. And as for the pop philosophy, well, that's kind of what it is. No harm. Perhaps a little overly simplistic in its message, and hardly a grand epiphany, but it's well presented and sticks to the theme throughout.

The second assumption is that it's a book about death. Actually, it's a book about life, and how our lives intersect each others' in a variety of ways both subtle and not-so.

Anyway, I'm highly recommending it. It's not Kafka, Satre or Camus. It's a far cry from Kundera. At the same time, it teeters away from becoming another Tao of Pooh as well.

The best thing to say about Five People You Meet In Heaven is that it's a book you're goig to want to lend to other people.

The book isn't very long, and is making its author a hell of a lot of money. Good for him.

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Today's link goes to a site that I can't decide if it's a joke or not: The Seventh Earth. Some kind of Earth Science/History page that could be fictional, or could be serious. I need to explore it some more. (I'm hoping it's fictional.)

Cheers!