The Inauguration

After much consideration and many suggestions to do so, I have finally decided to start a blog. I wanted to do this months ago, but postponed it because I couldn’t think of a clever title (lame excuse, I know). I finally came up with “Take Me Out to the Bookstore,” combining two of my favorite hobbies that bring me so much joy (and in the case of baseball, agony as well). My goal for this blog is to begin writing down my thoughts about the things for which I am passionate. I suppose that's simple enough.

First of all, two weeks from today spring officially begins for me and the many other baseball fans around the world. For my Texas Rangers, pitchers and catchers finally report to Surprise, AZ, to begin the short couple months of spring training before the 2015 MLB season. I won’t go into what and why baseball means so much to me in this initial post, but I will say that it is my first and foremost sports love.

In other news, I’ve also made it a goal this year to read a book every week. So far, I’m about four weeks behind on my reading goals, but I think I might be able to catch up if I actually put some effort towards it.

The first book I read this year was Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, which I would recommend if you are interested in a fictional take on a kind of Mommy Wars. The book is set in a little beach-side town in Australia where a tragedy has happened at the elementary school’s annual Trivia Night, about which everyone has an opinion regarding how it started and who did it. The only problem for the reader is that Moriarty only tells you someone has died, but not who has died. Moriarty weaves an interesting story, taking on what happens when we begin to keep little secrets and tell little lies to those around us in order to protect ourselves or just save face amongst our friends. 

Demon: A Memoir by Tosca Lee is another book that I would greatly recommend to almost anyone. The novel was suggested to me by a friend, and I was able to pick it up pretty cheaply at Lifeway. It’s a Christian fiction book, a genre which I don’t typically read because of poor writing, but Lee creates a thought-provoking and well-written story dealing with the fall of Lucifer, the creation, and the redemption, all while telling it from a demon’s perspective. Sometimes it is hard to grasp the love of God until you see it from the eyes of a demon who will never get to experience it. It’s a very powerful book and one of the best I've read in a long time. 

I guess this is the end to my first blog post. It’s a bit scary writing your thoughts and opinions about things for people to read and potentially judge. It’s one thing tweet or write a Facebook status update, but for some reason, it is a very different feeling in this format.

Scripture of the day: 1 Peter 3:4

You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.