DonMillerFans.Net reports some intriguing news regarding Miller's first book: Blue Like Jazz makes the New York Times Bestsellers List Three Years After its Release:
“Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz has slowly climbed many independent and regional bestsellers list but until this month, three years after its release, has not made the coveted NYT bestsellers list. Analyzers claim the reason for this is that 30% of the books sales come from Christian bookstores, whose sales are not considered in creating the list.”
I'm fascinated by this, because I know that people other than Christians are reading Donald Miller's work. Apparently there is an untapped vein of interest in "Christian spirituality" in America. I should also note that the NYT analysis policy is seriously flawed. Anyway, in acknowledgement of this accomplishment, I'm feting Donald Miller's success with some of my favorite quotes from Blue Like Jazz. Enjoy (and comment, I dare you. Or not - see if I care ;).
It was as if we were broken, I thought, as if we were never supposed to feel these sticky emotions. It was as if we were cracked, couldn’t love right, couldn’t feel good things for very long without screwing it all up. We were like gasoline engines running on diesel. I was just a kid so I couldn’t put words to it, but every kid feels it. (I am talking about the broken quality of life.) A kid will think there are monsters under his bed, or he will close himself I his room when his parents fight. From a very early age our souls are taught there is a comfort and a discomfort in the world, a good and bad if you will, a lovely and a frightening. - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 14Here's to many more solid reads by Donald Miller. And here are my previous posts on Donald Miller (whom I warily admire) if you want to read more.
Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don’t even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe. The problem with Christian belief—I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell—is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe. - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 107
We see those cigarette advertisements with the rugged cowboy riding around alone on a horse, and we think that is strength, when, really, it is like setting your soul down on a couch and not exercising it. The soul needs to interact with other people to be healthy. - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 154
I need wonder to explain what is going to happen to me, what is going to happen to us when this thing is done, when our shift is over and our kids’ kids are still on the earth listening to their crazy rap music. I need something mysterious to happen after I die. I need to be somewhere else after I die, somewhere with God, somewhere that wouldn’t make any sense if it were explained to me right now. - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 206
It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, 217
1 comments:
I have only recently come across Donald Miller and cant wait to read his books.
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