The Rush to Judgment

author Markus Zusak

When we rush to judgment about any group of people we always make incorrect assumptions.  One group of people I have judged harshly in the past is the German people during World War II.  "What kind of people would go along with all that Hitler insanity and cruelty?"

Recently I read a book that required me to re-evaluate my thinking.  "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak was not a book I wanted to read.  I've read a lot about this period of time and felt like I had a good grasp about what happened.  I had decided who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.  Even after the first twenty or thirty pages I was not going to finish this book.  It was just too hard.  But each time I put it down, I had to pick it up again.  I am a different person because I finished this book.  I speed read a lot of books but I had to read this book slowly . . . every word.  For the author had some important morsel on every page.

Raw, difficult to read but life changing.