Tonight, after much self-flagellation and doubt, I started recording my first book project.
I had thought about doing some smaller projects first, to get my feet wet and all that, but Baha’u'llah apparently had different plans.
I had recorded a letter from the Universal House of Justice about the Regional Conferences. It was primarily for practice, but it turned out well, and I got the idea in my head that I could record all the UHJ correspondance that outlined, described and encouraged the shaping of the Institute. I for one would love to listen to a compilation of all those letters. I submitted the recording to my NSA, and was lovingly and politely told, “Please don’t do that.”
I also had the idea of recording the booklet describing the history of the Ruhi Institute. But when I contacted the publisher, I was again lovingly and politely told, “Please don’t do that.”
My take home message there? Quit stalling and get to work!
Of course, then there was the whole deliberation process over which book to record first. At one point, I was ruminating over it (again!) when an exasperated thought popped into my head: “It doesn’t matter, just pick one!” I laughed out loud. It was like my guiding angel had gotten frustrated by my lack of decisiveness.
Eventually, I took my inspiration from the Regional Conference I attended in LA. It seems like much of the guidance we’re receiving from our NSA and the Universal House of Justice is coming from Shoghi Effendi’s Advent of Divine Justice. And then there’s my father. Whenever we talk about the tribulations engulfing the world today, he always has a quote about what we as a Faith can expect. So I asked him where he gets all this information. His answer? You guessed it, Advent of Divine Justice. That did it for me.
I know that historically, Advent isn’t a big seller, but I think that as more Baha’is realize how much of our current guidance is coming from it, they’ll want to read it for themselves. When that happens, some folks might become frustrated with how… “sophisticated” Shoghi Effendi’s writing style is. A long time ago, I heard a story about someone asking Shoghi to simplify his writing style. I understand he said something like “No, let the friends increase their capacity.” What this boils down to is, he’s difficult for many of us to read. I don’t know about you, but I can listen to and understand a book I found too difficult to read.
Of course, the down side of recording a project that is so “literarily dense” is that it’s difficult to read out loud in a way that conveys the original meaning of the text. I’ve had to do a lot of practice reading. I guess anyone else might call it rehearsing, but that seems a bit pretentious to me.
As you can see, although my blog has gathered a bit of dust, I have been far from idle!
I have chosen my first book project, and am moving ahead with it.
What do you think about my choice of Advent? Is it a book you want to read? Is there another book you would like to hear? Leave me a comment and let me know!
I’m wondering if there’s anyone else out there who would like to be a test subject and take a listen? I’ll take the first five people who are willing to listen carefully to what I’ve done and offer their honest, carefully thought out opinion. (Specific likes, specific dislikes, suggestions…) 
