iTunes U Passed 1 Billion Textbook Downloads

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Goodereader.com posted today that iTunesU has passed the 1 billion textbooks download since opening in.  iTunes was launched in 2005 as a partnership with Stanford.  The partnership expanded to more schools in 2007 and then this last 2005 year a dedicated app was released.  Now there are more than 1200 colleges and universities and more than 1200 K-12 … Read more

Second Shift – Order (Wool #7) by Hugh Howey

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Summary: Now that we know the background of the silos, we return to a different perspective, the instigators.

One of the unique perspectives that Hugh Howey brings with this extended series is a way of writing a series that does not primarily rely on affiliation with the main character to move the story.  Instead while there are recurring characters in the books, mostly each new book has a new main character.

Done poorly this will mean that the author has to reacquaint you with the story and draw you into the character that you are now reading (and waste a lot of time for the reader in repetition).  But with the Wool/Silo series Howey has used this method to move through a lot of time and tell the story from a wide variety of perspectives.

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Buying Your Way Onto the Bestseller’s List

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The New York Times logo
The New York Times logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have recently discovered a good blog about ereader news.  There have been several interesting articles, but one that caught me by surprise was post about services that allow you (for a price) to buy your way onto the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller lists.    it is not cheap, the service essentially buys your book in really large quantities gets you on the lists and then returns or resells your book.

According to a Wall Street Journal article that is cited several books have had 99% drops in sales the week after getting on the list because they paid to be on the list.

I have the same response that the blogger that wrote the article, the best recommendations are word of mouth or real people like Goodreads.

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Do Not Update iOS Kindle App

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Update: The new update to 3.6.2 is out and is safe.  If you updated to 3.6.2 and did not open the app, updating to 3.6.2 and then opening the app is safe.  (At least it was safe for me.) Lilliputing and a few other sites are reporting that Amazon has said to not upgrade the … Read more

A Life Together: Wisdom from the Christian East by Seraphim Sigrist

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I am reposting this review because A Life Together is on sale for $2.99 for Kindle until March 1.

A Life Together: Wisdom of Community from the Christian East

Takeaway: Community, like all great Christian paradoxes, is both here, with what we really experience, and potential, with what we might imagine.

I have been thinking about our theological isolation as I have been reading the two books For Calvinism (my review) and Against Calvinism (my review).  It is interesting to interact with other Christians that cannot comprehend thinking about a theological issue in any other way than the way they conceive of it.  It is not that it is wrong to be sure of our faith.  But if we are sure of our faith because we have never thought of our faith or understood that there are other ways to think of our faith, then are we really sure of our faith?

So I think it is important to read works outside our theological comfort zone.  If you are a Calvinist, you need to read John Wesley.  If you are a Baptist, you should read Pope John Paul II.  If you are Methodist, you should read Bonhoeffer or Barth.

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How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins

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I am reposting this review because How (Not) to Speak of God is on sale for $2.99 for Kindle until March 1.
How (Not) to Speak of God

I have read one other Peter Rollins book, The Orthodox Heretic.  My opinion of How (Not) to Speak of God is very much the same. Rollins is very bright.  He knows what he is talking about (although I don’t always understand), and in this book where he is more directly talking about philosophy and epistemology, he is way beyond my ability.  I consider this one of those books that I read outside my comfort zone (both theologically and philosophically) to help expand my horizons.

I am not alway sure what he is talking about, and even when I am, I do not always agree with it.  But there are three ideas that I pulled out of this book that I do think are useful and/or are a different way of approaching how to speak of God.

His first tack is to take on the traditional idea of idolatry.  Not many modern people literally worship physical stone or wood idols.  But Rollins wants to move away from a concept of idol as thing.  That is common.  We have all heard sermons about turning money or security into idols.  But Rollins takes it a step further.

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Who is the Holy Spirit? A Walk With the Apostles by Amos Yong

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Version 1.0.0

Takeaway: The Holy Spirit is with us today just as he was with the apostles in Acts.

Who is the Holy Spirit uses the parallel books of Luke and Acts to illustrate how the Holy Spirit empowers Christians to do God’s work in the world.

For the last six months of last year I was focused on reading and reading about the gospel of Luke.  Spending that much time in Luke really helped to focus me on how intentional the parallels from the gospel of Luke and the books of Acts are.  This book takes the parallels and focuses on how the Holy Spirit not only is God, in the same way that Jesus was God in person on the earth, but shows how the Apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit, worked to fulfill the mission of God just as Christ did.

This is a wide ranging book.  And if anything, that would be my main criticism.  I almost wish it was more focused.  But Yong wants to hit all the major themes and actions of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.  So there is a very good section on the power of the spirit in salvation and empowering the apostles while they were in Jerusalem.

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