I read this book form cover to cover in 2 days! It is an eye opening journey from religion to relationship with Jesus. Don Miller takes you on a walk with him trough the point of being a religious Christian to being a real follower of Jesus. After reading this book you feel as if you have a made new friends. Don shows the reader that you can be a normal person and a Christian. Not the stereo type Christian but a real living Christian. I recommend this book to EVERYONE, Christian or not. Thank you to the friend who sent this to me. This book has opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn't know that I didn't know. ( )

It seems like I'm the only atheist that read this book so allow me to present an unchristian perspective on this book.

I am an ex-christian and I was loaned this by a family member who wanted to re-convert me. I read it out of respect for her. However the arguments in favor of the Christian God aren't really arguments, they're sentimental appeals. The author talks about how he feels as a Christian and what he thinks he gets out of his take on Christianity/God but he never actually addresses why, other than it feels good, I should believe what he believes. Considering this book seems aimed at people who are either faithless (like me) or having religious doubts I'd have to say it struck out.

I suppose if you're someone that's looking for a feel good reason to believe in God or want something to cozy you up to the God you already have this might be just the book you want. As someone that's interested in hard won facts, logic and refuses to scrutinize the idea of God and religion any less than any other facet of life I was unimpressed. ( )

I'm late to the party, as usual.

Six years ago, when Blue Like Jazz came out, a bunch of people recommended it to me. I didn't read it. I tagged it TBR in my LibraryThing catalog. Every time it came up in conversation, or was mentioned in a book or an article, I'd say to myself, "Oh, yeah, I need to read that book soon."

So here it is, six years later. I borrowed it from a friend and read it in one day. The whole time I was reading Blue Like Jazz, I was pissed that I hadn't written it.

Donald Miller charts his spiritual journey in a series of autobiographical essays. His voice is sweet and almost child-like; he's real, and transparent, and funny. Miller, a lapsed Baptist reconditioned into a non-denominational Jesus-lover, struggles with the same existential dilemmas that keep me awake at night: the responsibility of being human, the irrationality of God, the meaning of life, and why girls like Pride and Prejudice so much, but guys don't.

(You can read the rest of my review here: http://greenroomthoughts.blogspot.com... ) ( )

I love this book. ( )

I love this book. ( )

I love this book. ( )

This one's for you Tom Bombadil. And for anyone else who cares about this sort of thing as much as I do. Or even if you don't.

Tom has been recommending a certain book by a certain "Christian" author to me for quite some time now and I have been telling him for quite some time now that I would get it to it. Well, I finally got to it. The book is Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I devoured this little 250 page or so book in about 5 or 6 hours, almost at one sitting.

It was just so refreshing to finally see a "thinking" Christian, someone who has wrestled with the same issues that I have been wrestling with for so long. If more Christians were like Don, I truly believe there would be more Christians in the world.

Donald Miller is basically not your Grandma's Christian. My own mother would probably call him a heretic. For you see he loves Jesus, but he drinks beer and smokes cigarettes, cigars and pipes. He even attended what he termed the most liberal college in all of America, while auditing a few courses, Reed University in Portland, Oregon.

To me, Donald Miller's version of Christianity is MUCH closer to that originally envisioned and taught by Jesus Christ himself. I can't really put it all into words, Don did such a fine job of it himself.

But... not to rain on the parade, there were still some problems with all that he had to say, things I didn't quite agree with.

For one, he says at one point, that the story of the Fall of man, whether viewed allegorically or as actual historical fact, is the ONLY explanation for why man is the way he is, why mankind is so selfish, mean, etc. Hold on a minute, Don. Is it REALLY the ONLY explanation around? I think not. Maybe the only explanation he has ever heard of but certainly not the only one. Maybe the only one that makes sense to him, but certainly not the only one. Evolutionary biological theory explains it all pretty well if you ask me. As does the Buddhist way of looking at the concept of suffering. Even IF the Fall of man in the garden of Eden WERE the only explanation around, where does that leave us? All 3 Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity AND Islam believe this same story. But they each have very different views on the way to salvation, only one of which believes Jesus is the one and only way.

So even if I concede that the story of the Fall of Man IS the only explanation around, great, now we have narrowed the field down to 3 different religions, each of whom believes the other two are going to hell. We still haven't progressed much past ground zero, have we?

Also, he says that it doesn't really matter if the story is taken allegorically or as fact, it is still the only explanation. But... it DOES matter if the story is allegory or not, doesn't it? Truth matters, does it not? Are we merely subscribing our beliefs to what makes us feel good? If the story is not really true but just an allegory, just myth, then it explains nothing. Some cultures have stories about how the earth is suspended on the back of a giant tortoise and when you ask them what holds the tortoise up, the answer is another tortoise, ad infinitum. This story explains things, does it not? But it's not the truth. There are lots of theories around the world relating to creation, they all explain what is observable, but they can't all be the truth.

Another minor point of contention, is that Don at times, resorts to old Christian cliches. You can readily tell that he was raised in a more conservative Christian surroundings. When he was in the mountains at one point in the book, he is staring up at the stars and all of a suddent has an epiphany. He says that God holds the stars and the heavens static in the sky. Apparently, he didn't audit any basic astronomy courses at Reed or else he would have known that nothing in the universe is static, not even the stars which appear to be static. God does not hold anything in the heavens static, everything is in constant flux.

Lastly, it all just appears to me as if, not only him but his many friends who were once skeptics but become Christian, do so as a sort of intellectual giving up, so to speak. It's as if they have just given up. The questions were just too difficult for them to bear, and the society in which we live tells us that Christianity is the answer, so after much internal wrangling and fighting, they just gave up and defaulted back to the religion of their youth. His friend Penny had some major issues with Christianity, as far as I can tell from the book, none of them were answered, she just called him one day to say, "Hey, I love Jesus now too."

Having said all of that, if I was to become a Christian again one day, this would be the kind of Christian I would be. Don seems like a really cool guy, a really smart guy who loves the arts and is not afraid of intellectualism. I really loved the fact that he once fell in love with Emily Dickinson. Here is a man that understands that just because one loves Jesus does not mean they have to be a monk. There is still much beauty in this world to behold, much to enjoy, and that includes reading, the arts, a good beer, and even watching South Park.

I am not saying that this book totally convinced me, as I said, there were some issues that I had with it, but it's come closer than anything in a really long time to showing me that it's ok to be a Christian and that the Christianity I grew up is not necessarily all there is to Christendom.

I understand what he means when he says that believing in Jesus is not something he can intellectually explain to someone, but it is just something he feels in his gut. I can understand that. I can respect that. I can relate to that. Even as I have run away from the Church, I have still always found myself believing in God, I have NEVER been able to make the leap to Atheism and I have always admired and revered Jesus Christ, even if I haven't always admired and revered the Church that sprang up after his death. ( )

senior or jr bible class. discovering God and building a relationship

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1226803...

I got this book because LibraryThing predicted I would not like it. Earlier this year I ran all the books I had read that month through the LibraryThing 'unsuggester' and this and one other book (to be revealed in due course) came up the most often. I can't reconstruct exactly how, but the UnSuggestions for Blue Like Jazz are not a completely inaccurate match for my library, I suspect because few sf readers are into liberal brands of Christianity.

I, of course, am into liberal brands of Christianity, so I anticipated I would be writing a smug review about how LibraryThing's UnSuggester Got It Wrong. And intellectually, I found as I had expected that I have a lot in common with Miller's take on faith (disconnecting it from intellectual arguments) and tolerance of diversity (he is in favour). We are on the same religious and political wavelength.

However, that is not sufficient to enjoy the book. There were two big issues which led me to the uncomfortable conclusion that the LibraryThing UnSuggester Got It Right, even if not necessarily for the right reasons. The first is that the book is not written for people like me; it is written for people who have been deeply involved in US-style evangelical Christianity and have come part of the way out the other side. I found it very striking that there was no discussion of other faiths at all. In my day job I happen to work with several (rather secular) Muslim clients and also a Buddhist political movement. One of the holiest men it has been my pleasure to meet was the late Baba Tahir Emini of the Bektashi shrine in Tetovo. As I try and work out what God has been telling me, I cannot ignore the fact that he appears to have spoken to other people in other ways. Miller's book is largely set in Portland, Oregon, and entirely features people located at different points along the Christian/non-believer axis; the concept of another dimension (or indeed of the world outside the continental USA) is simply absent.

The other problem, sadly, is that it simply isn't that well written. It's not as bad as Jim Wallis' God's Politics, which I simply couldn't finish even though I agreed with most of it, but Miller's style is peculiarly limp, in places crashingly dull, aspiring perhaps to the style of Vonnegut (or maybe Hemingway) but reaching excellence only in Chapter 18 (on 'Love'). If you find yourself in the bookshop considering whether or not to buy the book, read Chapter 18 (where the good bits are the middle couple of pages) and bear in mind that the rest is not as good. Does that help you make your decision?

So, LibraryThing, good call; I hope you update the UnSuggestion engine soon.

Having said all that, people who know Reed College will certainly find a number of points of local interest, so I can recommend it to them! ( )

Blue Like Jazz, weaves great and genuine stories that leave the reader thinking about what they believe and why. Miller's narrative is well constructed and moved along at a good pace. If you are looking for a book to affirm your beliefs then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a book to gain better understanding about the christian faith I am not sure if this is the book for you. If you want to think about faith and stretch yourself a little this is a great book. You may not fully agree with the author, I did not, but I enjoyed the dialogue. ( )

I have to say that I began reading this with my armor up because of things which I had heard others say about it, but about halfway through, I realized, there are other Christians who think and feel like I do. I know I am not the intended audience for this book, but it has certainly buoyed up my spirits and attitude. It makes me remember that I want to have active beliefs, love others unconditionally and overflowingly, as if they were Jesus, not people I "have" to love, and find my awe of God again. It takes years to sort through all the misconceptions of spirituality that we pick up along the way, it is nice to read that others are on that same path. I am very glad I read this. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. I don't feel, however, that I can adequately describe it in a short review. What I liked about it was its fresh and honest approach to examining the Christian life in the 21st Century. There were plenty of thngs that I questioned or did not agree with Miller about. However, the book made me think and continues to do so long after I finished it. If you want a different perspective and are prepared to be challenged in your Christian walk, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. ( )

Sometimes this felt a little too liberal for me, a little too much about experiences and not enough about truth. A little too hostile to established churches. But only sometimes.

Donald Miller is very open and honest, and he does a great job of connecting with the reader. Especially in the later chapters, I really appreciated a lot of the things he was saying and there's a lot of truth to think about, especially where love and friendship are concerned.

There are twenty chapters and I read one a day. Some of them build on others, but most are self-explanatory and I found that reading them one at a time helped me remember the point of each. The last few were by far my favorites. Well worth reading again. ( )

I felt relief that someone elses belief looked like my own. A very open book. I love seeing inside other people. And once inside I liked Donald Miller a lot, ( )

Very thought-provoking; helpful in part; engaging to read; but overall too anti- organized church; general disrespect and distrust for the church as an establishment; over-emphasizes the personal relationship with Christ at the expense of the corporate realities of Christianity ( )

Revealing, humorous, humble, compelling vignettes in the life of this yong adult as he comes to grips with his faith which is often misunderstood by his culture. ( )

I had been reading the book for a couple of months but finally got “into” the book enough to read it through in just a couple nights.

I like reading again.

The book is amazing. By amazing, I mean that it is totally different than any other book I’ve ever read. It’s almost like you’re reading a book by a person who decided to write every single word that came to his mind as he sipped on a latte at his local coffeeshop.

Donal Miller is a Christ-follower - his words met my heart over these last few nights with the kind of “meeting” that says - “hello, I’ve felt that way before”. There isn’t a lot I DISAGREE with in this book, except maybe the fact that I don’t know how many beers Donald had to drink while he was writing.

It still amazes me how “anti-drinking” I am at this stage of my life - I guess I’m just a Wesleyan through-and-through..

Anyways - the book carries the subtitle: “Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality” - and that is exactly what it is. Don Miller talks like a preacher’s kid - with his insight to the “Christian subculture” and his outrage with it. It’s an exciting book for me to read and it will take another reading to even scratch the surface of what great stuff this book is made of. ( )

This book has something everyone. Although, I didn't understand/(connect with)/(identify with) 75% of this book. The 25% I did understand was spectacular. It just has to do with what experiences you've had, etc. ( )

I started reading this book because it was thrust upon me. "You need to read this book, its great' "Have you read this book yet?" so dutifully I picked it up and read it.

It was a struggle to start off with; maybe it had something to do with the 'post-modern' memoir structure, where he jumped forward and back through the years in a non-linear structure. It was an interesting read while I had the book open and some ideas Miller brings forward were thought provoking and I must say that I did end up enjoying what I did read.

However, after I put it down it was often difficult to pick up again to read. A good read yes, an enjoyable one? Not really. ( )

super duper! ( )

Blue Like Jazz is a simple read. Don Miller is an insightful guy. He is mindful of the presence of God in the world around him. I appreciate that he challenges the political conservatism of American Christianity and puts a new face on Christian Literature.

I enjoyed the read but I can't, for the life of me, figure out how Donald Miller's name has come to be spoken in the same breath as Anne Lamott or Leonard Sweet. Don Miller is a good writer but he lacks the eloquence and depth of Lamott and Sweet.

I recommend this book if you are beginning to feel disillusioned with Christianity in America and its celebrated voices. Don Miller will make you stop and think about some things. If you have been working through your disillusionment for some time, you may read this, as I did, and say to yourself, "And...?" ( )

Incredible. He tells stories and talks about life and makes you think. ( )

This is such a great book. Don Miller has a wonderfully humble and genuine voice. The book is basically a chronological set of essays and stories, thus making it a fairly easy read.

This is NOT your typical Christian book. Don talks about alcohol and smoking every once in a while, and you get the feeling that this is a guy who's spent a lot of time honestly figuring out his place in life, society, and the spiritual realm. And while some people might take the book at it's surface and see a barely-spiritual, self absorbed "dude," those readers who take the time to investigate the stories and compare them to their own lives will find that Don is very aware of is place in the world, that he has a strong spiritual base, and that he'd be totally thrilled to sit down with anyone and talk about life.

I really really enjoyed this book, all the times I've read it. It's made me think hard about my faith, sparked hundreds of discussions, and provided fuel for my spiritual walk. ( )

A witty, insightful, and starkly honest re-telling of one man's relationship with God. Recommended for anyone that doesn't think Christians have any original thoughts about their personal faith. ( )

A profound book written for the average joe. It allows you to feel real in your own struggles of faith and yet pushes to dig deeper. ( )