Jamie Moon > Recent Status Updates

2026, the year I became a Ray Bradbury fan.

As always, I am a reader of introductions.

“Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” -Neil Gaiman

I’m about a fifth of the way in (long book), and I’m a bit afraid that this great premise of a novel is falling into the trap of sentimentalism. In the words of Dr. Christina Bieber Lake, “any novel fails as a novel the moment it puts its desired effect—even a good one—above the truth demanded by the story itself. This failure turns fiction into propaganda.” Let’s see if it proves me wrong…

Don’t tell my professor I didn’t get to this one during our course timeframe…

“What is neglected is reading the Scriptures formatively, reading in order to live.” -Eugene Peterson

“Many Christians do not know ‘how to read it for the sake of our souls.’” -Ellen Davis

“…spiritual reading is perhaps ‘reading in which we keep company with the holy God.’” -John Webster

A book that starts with its own map is always very promising.

"And besides, I like to cry. After I cry hard it’s like it’s morning again and I’m starting the day over…A good night’s sleep, or a ten-minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine, Doug. You listen to Tom Spaulding, M.D.”

Ok, this book IS summer. I am already blown away by sentences like..

“…watermelons lying like tortoise-shell cats slumbered by sun.”

Could you ever look at the watermelons in your garden as anything else after reading that?

“You did not hear them coming. You hardly head them go. The grass bent down, sprang up again. They passed like clouds downhill…the boys of summer, running.”

Beautiful.

Found a copy at a thrift store and have had it sitting on my to-read shelf for fiction. I was going to save it for cozy fall mystery reading, but ended up starting a bit sooner.

Glad for another chapter of Tristan shenanigans—not enough in this volume, but better than none!