I think the Internet is the main reason I seem to rarely finish reading books anymore. It is just way too distracting.

But - for better or worse, the Internet was out most of the day yesterday here at Sunshine's place. And while waiting for it to bounce back up, I got sucked into reading Isaac Asimov's & Robert Silverberg's novel The Positronic Man.

I read it through in one long sitting.

The story is interesting enough - it is the 200-year long quest of a robot who wants nothing more than to become a "naturalized" human. (The same way that an immigrant to America can become a naturalized citizen....) To that end, the robot Andrew pushes the boundaries of the law and science - slowly becoming legally and physically more and more human, until in the end "he pays the ultimate price" to realize his dream.

I'm not particularly fond of "ultimate price" stories. Particularly when an immortal robot has all the time in the world to work through the obstacles and find another path forward. Really - what is the rush? There has got to be a better way.

But - there is a lot of good thought-provoking ideas in raised in this book around what it means to be human, and there is some other good stuff derived from Asimov's three laws of robotics.

The characters however are pretty flat and one-dimensional, and the main character (the robot Andrew) is surprisingly unchanging despite the whole focus of the book being the 200 year long story of his evolution.

This book was made into a movie - Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams as Andrew.

Both the book and the movie are good, but could have been either more action packed and fun, or deep and thought provoking.

In the end I was left feeling a bit frustrated and wishing for more.

Rating: 3 stars.

Rachael gave me this book on my 31st birthday. I finally read it on my flight home from St. Louis this past Wednesday.

Wow. Why did I wait so long?

This is a short (115 pages) book of spiritual wisdom, conveyed as brief poetic answers to questions posed to a prophet about to depart across the sea for his homeland.

This is as divinely inspired of a book as any I have ever read. The words flow like music, the imagery is beautiful, and the wisdom is timeless and true. There is nothing in this book I found myself disagreeing with.

If this book had been written 1500 years sooner, it would have surely been worthy of incorporating into the bible. Reading this - you definitely feel closer to the deeper wisdom of the universe.

It actually makes me sad that Christianity has stopped growing to incorporate new wisdom, and new ways of sharing old truths. I could easily imagine some of the sections of The Prophet being read in church.

Divinely inspired books are still being written. This is one of them.

The entire text of The Prophet and most of Gibran's other works can be found here:
http://www.kahlil.org/prophet.html

Some of my favorite sections:

( On Love )
.......

( On Marriage )
......

( On Children )
......

And now at last I know the source of one of my favorite quotes and bits of wisdom:

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."


This book is definitely a truth - and one worth sharing.

I don't know if she ever reads this journal - but thank you Rachael, wherever you are. *love*

Rating: 5+ Stars.