First. I was wondering how posts are going to work. I was under the impression that we were going to create a single post per book, and then add comments to it, but that does not seem to be the way that it is working. Karthik, do you want to take this one?

Interesting choice for the first book. This blog's first post says: "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.", ones of Ray Bradbury's finest. The topic the destruction of our culture is said to be very near and dear to this book. David Brooks, in a NY Times editorial, said, comparing the danger of this book to the danger of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, that, "... while religious dogmatism is always a danger, it is less of a problem for us today than the soft-core spirituality that is its opposite. ... We've got more to fear from the easygoing narcissism that is so much part of the atmosphere nobody even thinks to protest or get angry about it." In other words, the underlying religious tones of this book pose a greater threat to our secular society than blash-you-in-the-face religion because we do not realize this underneath-the-surface religious rhetoric as such. This forum has more on the topic, if you are interested.

I will attempt to get this here book read by August 1. Both of Mitch's, as far as I can tell, are about death. I thought "Tuesday's with Morrie" was decent because it more talked about the afterlife as a contribution to the ethos. I think that I will disappointed if this book is more about faith as a vehicle for self-support.

Peace.