Don't Worry If You Have No Clue Who I Am
Friday, February 9, 2007

A blogger writes:
This morning I was listening to an interview with Bruce Feiler on my local NPR station. Bruce Feiler (don't worry, I had no clue who he was before this morning, either) is the host of the PBS series "Walking the Bible" and has written books chronicling his travels through the Middle East while attempting to locate many of the critical places written about in the bible. While I don't consider myself a "believer" of the Christian God (or any other single entity, for that matter), I found the dialogue captivating. At one point, Mr. Feiler was describing the role of military chaplains as masters of interfaith dialogue. He brought up the point that, despite the aggressive, conservative stereotype of the American armed forces, in some social sense, they have been pioneers. The military was integrated racially long before the rest of American society was out of necessity, and they are also necessarily respectful of varying religions, perhaps more so than our culture at large.

I found it fascinating that when we must, for practical purposes, work together and find ways to live in harmony with opposing viewpoints, we tend to do so much more readily. Perhaps it is easier to put aside our differences when our overarching goals are the same. Maybe it is that we are all respectful of the same authority and are unwilling to question it when we are commanded to collaborate. I know that when I do not, as a parent, make my rules crystal clear, my children feel more compelled to challenge them and use every inch of wiggle room they've been allowed. When I lay down the law in no uncertain terms, they may struggle initially, but then they relax and move forward within their narrower boundaries.
To hear the interview yourself, click here.

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM 0 comments

You-Pod?
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

A reader writes in response to Me 3.0

Thanks Bruce for the new site design and your great books and PBS Series. I'll be ordering your Walking the Bible DVD to share with friends. In my opinion the single most important item that you add to your site is podcasts of your various appearances. You're going to be making appearances anyway, why not record and then share them on your site for busy professionals to download and listen to on commutes?
As you can see, we are busy adding a bunch of new features to the site, including discussion boards . Be the first on your block to contribute! Podcasts, I must say, had not come up. I’m wondering if anybody else out there is clamoring for podcasts? In the meantime, Walking the Bible, Abraham, and Where God Was Born are available in downloadable audio through audible.com . I see audible even sells a speech of mine from C-SPAN and an interview I did about Dreaming Out Loud , my book on Garth Brooks and the new face of country music, that aired on Fresh Air a number of years ago.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:26 AM 0 comments

You Are Alone
Friday, December 1, 2006

Noted on the day I started a blog: Adam Nagourney writes in The Caucus at the New York Times that Republican governors recently heard from the CEO of Google:

Mr. [Haley] Barbour said that Republicans in particular were concerned about getting their point of view out without what he described as the filter of newspapers like The New York Times and the Washington Post. But he frowned in concern as Mr. [Eric] Schmidt went on to talk about the risks of truly unfiltered blogs spreading unverified and often false information about elected officials.

"Most of us now fear or have great concerns about what you are talking about," Mr. Barbour said. "Things can get on the Internet that have no relationship to fact."

Mr. Schmidt responded: "I share your concern, passionately."

Mr. Schmidt said that by by Google's calculation, a new blog is being created every second of every day. He said that Google now estimates that the average blog is read by one person.

One person.

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:52 AM 0 comments

Me 3.0
Sunday, November 26, 2006

In March 2001, on the eve of the publication of Walking the Bible, I started a website. I did it on a whim. "Authors should have websites," I thought. It changed my life. Not just my professional life. My life life. The experience of having people write me, in the middle of the night, two days after finishing a book, on the eve of a discussion in their book group,thirty-five years after teaching me in kindergarten; from Japan, Kuwait, the Philippines; in Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi; in appreciation, in tears, in rage; while watching me on PBS, while listening to me on NPR; while sitting with their dying spouse, while serving in Iraq, just after sending their grandchild to Israel, just after nodding off on the side of Route 1 in California while listening to me on an audiobook; has been the unexpected gift of nearly two decades of being a professional writer. Publishing books, appearing on television, giving a speech, succumbing to the occasional temptation of being the glib, knowing witmaster pundit (like on Stephen Colbert) are mostly one-way forms of interaction. This site has enabled me to communicate, in the best, two-way sense of that word.

So now, more communication. This is the third major design of this site, and the first in several years. Many of the features visitors have come to expect remain, including descriptions, an excerpt, reviews, and links to purchase each of my nine books. For my last three books - Walking the Bible, Abraham, and Where God Was Born - we have very popular interfaith discussion guides andother materials for readings groups or classes. You can read a full bio and signup to receive a newsletter of upcoming appearances. Also, on the events page,I keep a perpetually updated list of where I'll be speaking and a have a link to the wonderful folks at Royce Carlton who help arrange my schedule. And, ofcourse, I have a way to send me an e-mail. In over five years, I've answered every single one.

But in coming weeks we're going to be adding a new slate of features, including forums to discuss Walking the Bible, Abraham, and Where God Was Born on the site, video links to some of my appearances, and, as you can tell, a blog. Soon, I plan to begin posting comments, reports from my travels, photographs, the occasional video diary, the occasional rant, questions from my research that you might be able to help answer, requests for a restaurant recommendation or an interview tip, a tidbit that comes across my desk that you might beinterested in, a tale or two of twins. I'll also explain the story behind thename of this blog.

For now, I wanted to get this redesign in place before the holidays, especially since many PBS stations are re-airing all three hours of Walking the Bible. Since it's been one of the most frequently asked questions of late, a DVD is available.

Please know that we're hard at work on our end. Please stop back by soon. And please turn off that audiobook if my voice is putting you to sleep.

Special thanks to Holden Richards of Kitchen Media for his splendid redesign. And grateful appreciation to my brother (and editor), Andrew Feiler, for the use of his photographs in the blog roll above. The picture of me on the top of the Great Pyramid in Giza was taken by David Wallace, the British director of Walking the Bible, who, when I offered to pay him for the use of his image,wrote, "I believe that anything that happens on top of a pyramid betweenconsenting adults does not require a fee."

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Posted by B Feiler at 6:29 PM 1 comments

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