Adam Shields

The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves

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Takeaway: We do not always know why we do what we do, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to understand. I am a fan of behavioral economics.  Basically it is a cross between economics and psychology and sociology.  Behavioral Economics tries to understand why we do what we do. Contrary to the standard understanding … Read more

Kindles on Planes by Next Year

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I am a big fan of kindles.  I vastly prefer digital books (either audio or kindle) to paper.  Part of it is connivence, part of it is clutter.  The only real place that I read paper books instead of ebook is on a plane.  But soon I should be able to read a kindle throughout the … Read more

Offsite: Silence by Shusaku Endo

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Slow Church Blog has a post (from the book Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should or Will Create Christian Culture) about Shusaku Endo’s masterpiece book Silence.  It is Shusaku Endo’s birthday today, he would have been 90.  I coincidentally picked up Silence yesterday to start reading today. Here is the opening of the … Read more

Kindle Touch Software Upgrade Makes it More like the Paperwhite

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aThe Kindle Touch, a now discontinued, Kindle has a major software upgrade today.  The Touch now has an entirely new menu and interface to make it almost exactly like the Kindle Paperwhite. The new Kindle Touch Software upgrades the firmware to 5.3.2.1.

Whispersync for Voice (ability to sync in between Audible.com Audiobooks and Kindle books) is now working on the Touch.  I believe from reading the documentation that unlike the Paperwhite you can both listen to the audiobook and read the kindle book on the Touch directly.  The Paperwhite does not have speakers or headphone jack so this is one area where you might be better off with the older Touch than the newer Paperwhite.

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The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton

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Summary: A series of short stories, originally serialized, about a mystery solving priest.

I am trying to read more old books that have stood the test of time.  (And save some money.)  So I picked up the Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton when I noticed that the audiobook was only $2.49 when you purchase the Kindle book (which is free.)

I have recently read the biography of CS Lewis and Chesterton is often compared favorably to Lewis.  They are very different authors, but both wrote theology/apologetics and fiction.  I have read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy in college, but I think that is the only full length book of his that I have read previously.

Chesterton’s Father Brown series is second only to Sherlock Holmes in popularity as a mystery series in Britain.  But it is very different sort of mystery series.  Sherlock Holmes is about deductive (scientific) reasoning.  Father Brown is more psychological and intuitive.  He understands the sin that is in people’s hearts.

What is most interesting about these stories is how often Father Brown either explains the crime (but has let the criminal go) or talks the criminal into confessing.  It is clear that Father Brown is solving crimes, but his primary interest is in the spiritual health of the criminal.

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