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Danny

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Danny is Currently Reading

Danny is currently reading

The Physics of Filter Coffee

by Jonathan Gagné

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The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

by Brandon Sanderson (Goodreads Author)

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Reading for the 3rd time

read in April 2023

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Danny said: " A friend recommended this book as it was on sale on kindle. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. One problem with kindle is you don’t have a sense of the size of the book you are reading.

The beginning of the book drags at a snails pace, A friend recommended this book as it was on sale on kindle. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. One problem with kindle is you don’t have a sense of the size of the book you are reading.

The beginning of the book drags at a snails pace, dropping you into a world with no set up or explanation. This is followed by about 900 pages of set up for about 200 pages of mind blowing story and ends on a cliffhanger forcing you to buy the next book at full price. Now I’m trapped in the world of Brandon Sanderson. There is no escape. Well played sir. Well played indeed.

The vast number and scope of characters in this book is impressive. So many different angles and perspective. From slave to scholar, from pacifist to war monger. I appreciated contemplating the social structure based on the arbitrary genetic feature of eye color. It seems ridiculous until reflecting on the fact that in the real world most light skinned people have light colored eyes. Why value has ever been placed on genetic features in the first place is beyond me. And yet it happens. This book spurred me on to continue to promote anti-racism in my own life. I don’t know if that was the intent but that was an impact it had on me.

I suppose that learning a lesson like this reiterates this quote from the book, “Too many scholars think of research as purely a cerebral pursuit. If we do nothing with the knowledge we gain, then we have wasted our study. Books can store information better than we can—what we do that books cannot is interpret. So if one is not going to draw conclusions, then one might as well just leave the information in the texts.” (507). It is interesting because I largely left the world of intellectual pursuit because I found I was growing too much of a hypocrisy gap. The gap between knowledge and action. Learning lots and not having the time or space to do anything about it before learning yet another new thing and on and on. So I jumped into fiction and found an unintended intellectual challenge.

That is the place of story though is it not? Even the book agrees, “the purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you what to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often we forget that.” (897) This quote reminded me of Jesus who was a master storyteller and often would respond to questions with questions of his own. This would challenge someone to think. Yet, many of the churches I have been to that say they follow Jesus attempt to give answers and seemingly try to eliminate questions. Obviously interpretation to the original context is needed for proper understanding or people will (and do) base their lives off bad understandings. They will quickly hold to their understanding as unbiased truth which is dangerous no matter what worldview one has. There needs to be a place for discussion and I think this world needs open mindedness. “A true scholar must not close her mind on any topic…no matter how certain she may feel” (515).

The book goes on to comment on this theme, “When we are young, we want simple answers. There is no greater indication of youth, perhaps, than the desire for everything to be as it should. As it has ever been…the older we grow…the more we question. We begin to ask why. And yet, we still want the answers to be simple. We assume that the people around us—adults, leaders—will have those answers. Whatever they give us often satisfies us.” 585 Such a profound statement. And the cause of so much conflict in our world today. The enforcement of morals, simplistic answers, unbalanced between learning and action, lack of open mindedness. Yet fiction can press where scholarly debate and religion lectures often cannot. We are a people of stories and we should not forget that. We need more story tellers.

I have a lot of questions about religion. There is a world of hurt in the history and in modern newspapers inflicted by religion. I do have critiques. And yet, “You will find wise men in any religion and good men in every nation. Those who truest seek wisdom are those who will acknowledge the virtue in their adversaries and who will learn from those who disabuse them of error” (756). In my pursuit to be more open minded and to challenge my pervious understandings of the world I do not want to become judgmental and unloving toward others in a new way. This would be yet another hypocritical stance in life. After all, “strength [even intellectual strength] does not make one capable of rule; it makes capable of service” (897). It is hard to be open minded and be called a heretic. To pursue what is right and be called a deserter. Yet, “somebody has to start, somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right. If nobody starts, then others cannot follow” (647). And “if I should die…then I would do so having loved my life right. It is not the destination that matter, but how one arrives there.” (874). Perhaps not true for everyone but it seems true for me. I want to make the most of this life and this world and not waste away waiting for death to some idealistic version of an afterlife while ignoring the hellish world people experience in the life I live here and now. If I can do something to bring more healing in this place now then I want to do that.

So maybe not the review many will give so here is a more superficial one. It is long. It’s not perfect but it well written. There are magic swords, battle speeches, adventure and action to rival a movie and thought provoking dialogue. All of which I found less compelling than written descriptions of a girl with mad art skills. ...more "

Jan 19, 2024 12:17PM · see review

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Yoga, Fascia, Anatomy and Movement, Second edition

by Joanne Avison

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Nov 30, 2024 11:56AM

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Danny’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive, #2.5)

Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive, #2.5) by Brandon Sanderson

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I will remember those who have been forgotten.

See Danny’s 57 books with notes and highlights…

Danny’s Quotes

“having a healthy spirituality involves feeding our souls in three ways: through prayer, practicing justice, and by having good things that we enjoy (friendships, good food and wine, and healthy leisure that keep our souls mellow and grateful).”
― Ken Shigematsu, God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God

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“From autunm's profligate seedings to the great spring giveaway, nature teaches a steady lesson: if we want to save our lives, we cannot cling to them but must spend them with abandon. When we are obsessed with bottom lines and productivity, with efficiency of time and motion, with the rational relation of means and ends, with projecting reasonable goals and making a beeline toward them, it seems unlikely that our work will ever bear full fruit, unlikely that we will ever know the fullness of spring in our lives.”
― Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

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“When God looks at sin, what he sees is what a violin maker would see if the player were to use his lovely creation as a tennis racquet.”
― N.T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion

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“One of the most painful discoveries I made in the midst of the dark woods of depression was that a part of me wanted to stay depressed. As long as I clung to this living death, life became easier; little was expected of me, certainly not serving others.”
― Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

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“Human beings were never meant to participate in a worldwide social network comprised of billions of people. We were designed by evolution to be hunter-gatherers, with the mental capacity to interact and socialize with the other members of our tribe—a tribe made up of a few hundred other people at most. Interacting with thousands or even millions of other people on a daily basis was way too much for our ape-descended melons to handle. That was why social media had been gradually driving the entire population of the world insane since it emerged back around the turn of the century.”
― Ernest Cline, Ready Player Two

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