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booknerd_therapist 's review for:
Searching for God Knows What
by Donald Miller
Where do I begin... First, this is the first Donald Miller book I've read. (It seems like every other reviewer has read Blue Like Jazz, so I feel obligated to admit I haven't.) Secondly, I really expected to -- and wanted to -- like this book. And I did like it, but only 3 stars' worth. Here's why.
The first thing is the writing style. I totally get that Miller wanted to be informal and conversational, but he spent so much time meandering around whatever topic was at hand that it drove me nuts. I felt like a plane circling an airport... eventually, we'd come in for a landing, but only after we circled the landing strip a few more times. Also, I could always tell when he was about to hit on something "profound," because he used the same sentence structure over and over again. He'd start a paragraph with, "The thing is..." or "The truth is..." Then, after he made his point, he'd sum up with, "It's _______, really." The thing is, he'd just said it so many times. It's redundant, really. (Why yes, I did do that on purpose.)
Secondly, and more importantly, I didn't feel like he really had anything new or original to say. Now, to be fair, this book was published seven years ago -- maybe it WAS new and original for the year of 2004. But I'd just finished reading two other books by two other disillusioned Evangelical Christians (Introverts in the Church and Mere Churchianity, if you must know), and I found the other two books far more profound. Don't get me wrong, he DOES have a few great ideas. The concept of us getting our self-worth from other people, when we should be getting it from God, is gold. I think that's something we can all relate to. The narrative about the pecking order in middle school was especially interesting to me, because I am a middle school teacher and I unfortunately witness things like that all the time. But honestly, I feel like this book could have been distilled to about 50 pages, as a lot of it just felt like fluff and repetition to me.
All in all, I do feel like it was a decent read, and there are a couple of chapters I would like to read again. Just don't expect anything particularly life-changing from it. :)
The first thing is the writing style. I totally get that Miller wanted to be informal and conversational, but he spent so much time meandering around whatever topic was at hand that it drove me nuts. I felt like a plane circling an airport... eventually, we'd come in for a landing, but only after we circled the landing strip a few more times. Also, I could always tell when he was about to hit on something "profound," because he used the same sentence structure over and over again. He'd start a paragraph with, "The thing is..." or "The truth is..." Then, after he made his point, he'd sum up with, "It's _______, really." The thing is, he'd just said it so many times. It's redundant, really. (Why yes, I did do that on purpose.)
Secondly, and more importantly, I didn't feel like he really had anything new or original to say. Now, to be fair, this book was published seven years ago -- maybe it WAS new and original for the year of 2004. But I'd just finished reading two other books by two other disillusioned Evangelical Christians (Introverts in the Church and Mere Churchianity, if you must know), and I found the other two books far more profound. Don't get me wrong, he DOES have a few great ideas. The concept of us getting our self-worth from other people, when we should be getting it from God, is gold. I think that's something we can all relate to. The narrative about the pecking order in middle school was especially interesting to me, because I am a middle school teacher and I unfortunately witness things like that all the time. But honestly, I feel like this book could have been distilled to about 50 pages, as a lot of it just felt like fluff and repetition to me.
All in all, I do feel like it was a decent read, and there are a couple of chapters I would like to read again. Just don't expect anything particularly life-changing from it. :)