I got this book almost two years ago.
When I started reading, I found the reading too intense—so much so that I couldn’t continue after the first 50 pages or so. By intense, I mean that it felt too precious and important, like being presented with a five-star five-course meal when I was more in the mood for eating tacos or a pizza.
So, I put it away for well over a year. Got busy with worldly involvement and forgot about it, basically.
Then a few months ago—with so little happening in this thing called “my life”—I thought to myself that I ought to take another look. I made a promise to myself that I’d read just a page or two a day, and no more. About half the days, I found myself shedding tears (briefly) at the clarity of his words and the depth of his devotion and dedication. At odd moments in the day, I would find his words reverberating and intruding upon my reality.
Then about a little over a week ago, I just gave in and let myself read three to five pages at each sitting! Haha. I was nearing the end anyhow.
And yesterday, I finished.
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I’ve likely read 70 - 80 books in the past five years, which isn’t a lot, but it’s also not too little. This is my favorite book of the bunch. I already know.
I have a top-five list of my lifetime. I might place this first on that list as well. I’m now going to begin a re-read today to see if it holds up there. Well, not really. I want to re-read it because it’s like watching a movie that you’re mesmerized by all the way through. You immediately want to rewatch it because you’re not sure what you’ve just experienced. And you want to make sure that you can glean whatever it is that you might have missed the first time.
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Ps- #2 on the list of the best books of the 70-to-80-or-so of the past five years is “Reality: A very short introduction” by Jan Westerhoff. This was more fun stuff. I’d say that if you have some familiarity with reading philosophy, it’ll be straight-forward. If not, it’ll be a minor grind—not too hard but not a total breeze either. Some of the arguments given are fine-grained and might require one to slow down at times.