So I finished my first two books of the year last month. As stated in my last post, I decided to start the year off with something optimistic and not too difficult to read. After I attended my youth ministry conference at the beginning of the year (NCYM) I got to hear and meet Bob Goff and decided I’d give his two popular books a try. Because I read them back to back and because of their similar content, I’ll review them as if they were one book.

These books are both the most whimsical and idealistic pieces of literature I’ve ever read.  No joke. Now, be sure to take into account that I’m trying to read 52 books this year because I’m not very well read at all. Even still, I was taken back by his unapologetically positive tone throughout both books. At times I felt something that might be referred to as optimism fatigue. But, for the most part, I felt encouraged and inspired by much of what Bob has to say in these books.

Bob tells some incredible stories throughout these two works. In fact, most of his chapters are collections of stories and anecdotes from his own life or someone else’s who is close to him. It seemed like most of these stories are aimed at disarming what our usual responses would be in the mundane with a response that is fueled and informed by love. While some of those stories could seem trite, many of them were pleasantly surprising and inspiring. Now, there was no shortage of “Bob Goff leads a very different life than me” extreme stories that were pretty tough to relate to as well. But by and large, Bob writes in a way that is accessible, inspirational, and with a kind of whimsy, that had me grinning without my even realizing I was doing it. The tone is reminiscent of Donald Miller (who wrote the foreword to Love Does and helped Bob write both), especially for those of you who have read his book A Millian Miles in a Thousand Years.

There were several stories that would seem to come to a very normal and unsatisfying end given the typical person’s reaction. But Bob is certainly not your typical kind of guy. He’s a “be awesome” and “just say yea” kind of guy. Many of his stories felt like they could be gripping scenes in a movie. Bob was set to tell stories that would thrill or at least make you feel like anything was possible. I laughed to myself when I realized I had read about 5 separate stories between his two books that included the phrase, “So I tossed him/her the keys.” And I think that’s a good example of what these books are about. The letting go of the expected in lieu of something that has the potential to be greater, better, more loving, riskier.

In these collections of Goff parables, Bob seems to be aiming at the typical churched person who has only been able to view the act of loving others through the lens of ordinary and comfortable. Loving others is so much more than a sentiment, it’s an indiscriminate and bold action. His subtitle for Love Does is “Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World”. For Everybody Always, its subtitle read, “Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People”. While the books are different, they both seem to be aimed at the same concept. That concept is that love is capable of more than we think and that it’s for more people than we’d think.

Are these books important for youth ministers to read? Probably not. Who is this book for? If you’re currently in a dark place or in need of some encouragement to be freer with yourself, with your interactions with people, I’d definitely refer these books to you. All in all these books are fun, joyful, and have earned a place on my bookshelf. Have you read Bob’s books already? What did you think?

Next time I’ll be writing on the book I’ve most recently finished, Andy Stanley’s Deep and Wide.