Left Behind

For a total of 10 years I have been off and on reading the “Left Behind” series of books by by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. It basically chronicles the events after the Rapture and the years after that, where the Book of Revelation in the Bible gets interpreted and dramatized as a series of novels. Whenever, folks get converted to Christianity the first book of the Bible they head for is Book of Revelation mainly because it speaks of what is to come. However, they do not get very far as the Book of Revelation is one tough book to read and understand as it is full of symbols. So if you are a new Christian or if you are long time believer and want to finally read the Book of Revelation, the “Left Behind” series is a good start point with a little bit of a fictional license. One point to note though is that the entire series spans 16 novels so its not a quicker way.

My story and how I got reading these books, starts in 1999 when I went on a month long business trip to Kokomo, Indiana where my company at the time Delphi was headquartered. Now if you have never heard of Kokomo, get the visual image with the Beach Boys song playing in the background out of your head, its nothing like it at all. Its Indiana’s 15th most populous city with 46,000 people censured there as of 2000. What all this translates to is the fact that Kokomo is a boring place for a city boy like me.

My favorite hangouts during this month long trip and a few years later another 4 month stint was the Markland Mall in particularly the Books-A-Million (as pictured below thanks to Google Maps).

And it was here one night I heard two guys talking to each other while looking at a book and this was what they said: “Wow, spreading the Word of God via the Internet!” and that peaked my curiosity for some reason. In 1999, I was not as firm in my belief as I am today but I was enthralled nonetheless more so by the fact of how could the Word of God go via Internet, at that time only e-mail, research and rudimentary chatting was done on the Internet. I had just completed 5 other books during my stay in a matter of 2 weeks and the thought of another 2 weeks without any book reading ideas scared me, and so I guess this was a sign, and moreover the fact that 3 of the books in the series was in that branch’s best sellers list probably got to purchase the first in the series.

So it started!

I was utterly hooked by the second book and when I finished one I headed to good ol’ Books-A-Million to get the next novel in the series. It ended there, as Assassins was the latest at the time i.e: Book 6. When I returned to Kokomo a few years later in 2002, I continued with;

Sometime between 2002 and 2006ish I read the next book in the series, The Remnant, not sure when exactly. If you are wondering why I have all the book covers in this post, it is because the covers are nice and glossy which was another reason I decided to buy Book 1. After book 10, there was a pause for some reason and now when I am currently in a book drought so to speak, as every book that I have picked has been nothing short of so so. I have decided to resume, but this time a little differently rather than buying the next book in the series I borrowed it from the National Library. I have 10 of these books lying around and honestly I do not think I want another book shelf clogger but I would like to get to the end of the series.

 

So as I re-embark on this series I thought it will be nice to share these books with you guys and perhaps one of you may have stumbled upon or even read one of them. If you have, gimme a shout and let me know what you think. I started reading the 11th book and I am back into that reading sweet spot that does not let me stop. So this has led me to sleep really late and being increasingly tired, during the hours of 2.30 to 4pm, like right now. So I guess it is time for a caffeine fix.

M Reading, Yawning and Enjoying!