Monday, June 7, 2010

Monday’s Excerpts – The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

     I liked this book a lot because of its message, but I especially liked this book because the heaven portrayed is so fictional, obviously so. It's what heaven, or the afterlife, should be written as (in my opinion). A story, a dream, it'd be nice if it happened, but it doesn't try to convince you it will. It was really great.


This Weeks Book: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

     “Wait,” Eddie said, pulling back. “Just tell me one thing. Did I save the little girl? At the pier. Did I save her?”
     The Blue Man did not answer. Eddie slumped. “Then my death was a waste, just like my life.”
     “No life is a waste,” the Blue Man said. “The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone. (Page 50)
—————

     “People don’t die because of loyalty.”
     “They don’t? She smiled. “Religion? Government? Are we not loyal to such things, sometimes to the death?”
     Eddie shrugged.
     “Better,” she said, “to be loyal to one another.” (Page 138)
—————

     Ruby stood, and Eddie stood, too. He could not stop thinking about his father’s death.
     “I hated him,” he mumbled.
     The old woman nodded.
     “He was hell on me as a kid. And he was worse when I got older.”
     Ruby stepped toward him. “Edward,” she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by name. “Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hated is a curved blade. And the hard we do, we do to ourselves. (Page 141)

Books finished this past week...
★☆☆☆☆ Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
★★★☆☆ Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
★★★★☆ Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
★★★★☆ The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
(All title links link back to my webpages of them on Goodreads.com, a great library/reviewing/rating website for readers. Check it out, and add me as a friend if you decide to join!)

2 comments:

S. L. Boots said...

“The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."

I'm going to disagree with that statement. I wonder, if you pause here before reading on, if you can figure out why I disagree with it.

... (for the pause)

Now, the reason: it smacks of another line given to comfort. We're all alone. We'll always be alone. We were born alone and we'll die alone. Where people waste time is in thinking that this is unusual and becoming depressed by it (I'm guilty of it myself).

We're alone because we alone are able to feel what we feel at the time we feel it. We're alone because we alone can think what we think at a given moment.

I wonder if that makes sense to you.

Unknown said...

This is a great statement at the end! But I disagree that we are always alone, that is a choice. Life is all choices. Some are good choices and some are bad choices. But we all make them both ways. Life is a Journey, and we do not live that journey alone because of our choices. Feeling alone and being alone are two different things that we all need to experience, and we do. Why? Because we are Human!!!!!