The Best Books Are the Ones You Give Away

Our Word theme of the month is "Here's a Christian title you should be aware of because . . . "

I shall end that sentence with this: Because the best books are the ones you give away.

To Own a Dragon

I desperately hope none of the Word readers currently suffer from Don Miller fatigue syndrome due to my posts. But as any faithful readers know, I went through a period of devouring anything Don Miller-penned that I could get my hands on post-reading Blue Like Jazz. I happened across a book of his called To Own a Dragon: Reflections of Growing Up Without a Father.

The fact that his foreword warned that it was from a "crude" male perspective didn't deter me. Neither did the fact that I didn't grow up fatherless make me think twice about diving completely into it. It's a memoir of sorts written with his trademark mixture of humor and pathos about exactly what the subtitle of the book says, growing up without a father. He talks about how the lack of a father in his life contributed to difficulties he had with maturing, self-esteem, relating to the opposite sex, authority, and in his relationship with God. He describes his journey and ends with the revelation he had about God being his Father, even though he never had a relationship with his earthly one.

Reading the book not only made me thankful for growing up with a dad and having a great relationship with him, but also gave me a taste of what people who lacked a father figure in their lives experience.

Why I gave it away

A friend of mine was relating some of his experiences to me about the strained relationship he had with his father who was absent for most of his childhood. He then began telling me about a documentary about elephants he had seen which made him reflect on the feelings of aggression and frustration he often felt and he realized it came from his lack of a father figure. The elephant analogy rang familiar, and I realized he was citing the exact same thing Don Miller does in his book. (Click here to read about the elephant documentary and The Mentoring Project his book inspired him to start.) I knew that he had to read it, and I gave it to him the next time I saw him.

In the end, my friend told me that the book brought him to tears and put into words many things he felt as a result of life with an absent father. He said that it explained a lot of things to him and helped him realize that, like Don, the feelings he had towards his father were transferring over into the feelings he had towards God. Reading the book changed his outlook, and he was grateful.

I put my name on all of my books before I lend them out. As a bibliophile, I'm actually sort of protective of them. But what was an interesting, entertaining read for me was an emotional, outlook-changing read for my friend. I gave it away.