A thought for a new year…
As the sun passed another milestone and the earth was beginning another orbit, the Buddha gathered his followers together on the side of the mountain to tell them a story. A wise village brahman was known across the country for his ability to ask the right questions. While this may seem far less important than giving the right answers, scholars and teachers and lay people alike came to him for…
Creative Faith
As a writer, I often get the most interesting commissions. I have had cause to write everything from song lyrics to product descriptions, biographies to scripture. But this one stands out as one of the most unusual from my recent writing experience. I have a dear friend who is active in the Christian church and who was seeking a rosary. This was written as a modernized interpretation of how to…
Persepolis
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) So this is probably a bit surprising to anyone who knows me well here in some ways. I have always been very open (and quite outspoken) as to my deep love for Japanese graphic art, be it decorative or literary. So it is unexpected that the only graphic work…
Red Storm Rising
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) As a hardcore pacifist and anti-military activist, this book might surprise all of you by appearing in this list. Not to mention, it’s old (as old as me, in fact, dating from the early 80s as do I) and it’s popular fiction, all things that most people would use…
Sophie’s World
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) This is the book that I always answer with when someone asks me what I think is, without question, the best book in the history of literature. I have a few reasons for that but perhaps the most significant of them is that it is, of all literature, the…
Snow Country
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) There are many books by Yasunari Kawabata floating around in discussions of “best books” over the last few decades but I would suggest that this, probably his best-known work, is the most stellar example of contemporary self-exploratory fiction out there. I will actually begin with the plot for this…
