Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

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Frankenstein, or The Modern PrometheusTakeaway: The common conception of the book has nothing to do with what is really in the book.

So here is what is probably most interesting about reading ‘The Modern Prometheus’, almost nothing that I thought I knew about the story line is actually in the book.  Many stories we primarily know through movie adaptations and not the book itself.  That is not unusual.  But the fact that almost all of the central features of the cultural understanding of the book are not in the book is fascinating.

Igor, lightning, the slow walk, the arms raised, pretty much all the features about the monster are all wrong.  Not even wrong, it is the opposite of the book.  The monster was brilliant, well spoken, desired only to love and be loved.  Even the name is wrong.  Frankenstein is the name of the Doctor, the monster is never named (I did actually know that part before reading the book.)

When I talked about the book with some friends there are pretty different opinions of it.  My sister in law loves the book.  She is a scientist and talked about it as part of a discussion about medical and scientific ethics.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel by John le Carré

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley NovelSummary: A spy forced into retirement comes back to ferret out a mole.

George Smiley is the anti-Bond.  The author, John le Carré, was actually a British spy, actively working when he first started writing.  And these books have a realism to them that is not present in the Bond books.

Smiley is middle aged, a little overweight, kind of short. He is not sleeping around, it is actually his wife that is having the affair.

Smiley was forced into early retirement after the head of the department (or Circus in the parlance of the book) was killed.  But something isn’t right and Smiley has felt it.  When a missing spy that was believed to be turned to the Soviet side turns up asking for help, Smiley knows he can’t ignore it any more.  And so begins a winding, often confusing book.

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From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart by Chris Haw

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From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for CatholicismSummary: From cradle Catholic to Willow Creek to radical servant to Sacred Heart.

Over the past couple of months I have been reading a good bit about Catholicism, mostly a mix of theology and conversion stories.

From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism is a mix of the two.  The first half is is the story of how Chris Haw was born and raised Catholic, but then moved to Willow Christ as an early teen.  Haw went to Eastern College and became connected with Shane Claiborne.  (They co-authored Jesus for President.)

Part of the story here is a fairly radical ‘conversion’ to work with the poor.  In some ways this may be more offensive to some than his later conversion back to Catholicism.

Haw, with his wife Cassie, moved to Camden, NJ.  He worked first as a teacher at the Sacred Heart school and later he refurbished homes and became a writer.  His return to Catholicism was gradual and at least in part because he was living across the street from Sacred Heart and working with the church on anti-poverty programs

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The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

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The HobbitSummary: Bilbo is recruited from his life of ease to become a thief to steal gold from a dragon.

I imagine a lot of people will be reading the Hobbit over the next couple of month.  Peter Jackson’s movie comes out Dec 13.  (I am still irritated that they are making this into a multi part release.)

One interesting feature of the Hobbit is that is has been studied academically quite well. One professor has released his academic lectures on the Hobbit online so the interested reader can listen in. (I listened to some of them.)

It is hard to remember, but I think I watched the 1977 cartoon before I read the book.  So my current re-reading is probably influenced as much by my vague memories of the cartoon as much as my vague memories of the book.

I have never purchased the audiobooks of Tolkien’s books because until recently there was not an unabridged version available.  I am glad that I listened to the Hobbit on audio.  I have the bad habit of skimming Tolkien’s songs and verse.  And the songs and verse are important to Tolkien.  For all of the problems of the productions of the audiobook (lots of random blank space and poorly edited audio passages), Rob Inglis has a great voice for the book and masterfully sang all of the songs.

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Amazon Author Rank

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We all know about best seller lists.  Best seller lists make a different.  A lot of people buy based on what is on the top of the list.  This is not just laziness, best seller lists are a way to find out what is good.  There is a relationship between what is good and what … Read more

Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter

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Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our FaithSummary: Our bodies are important not just to life, but to our faith as well.

Reading book again is an under-valued exercise.  I try to re-read at least one book a month.  For many books, it is not possible to catch all of the nuances and points on a first reading.

So it has been my tradition the last couple years to, when available switch the format of my second reading.  So if I start with an audiobook, I will move to paper or kindle.  If I start with paper, I move to audio.  In this case I read it in kindle version the first time and in audio the second.  I find that there is enough different between the different formats that you get something else out of the change that is more than just re-reading in the same format.

In this case I enjoyed Earthen Vessels just as much as the first time.  Read the first review, because I am not going to deal with any of the same content on this one.

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Lendle – A Kindle Borrowing Site: Review After 6 Weeks

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Since it has nearly 3 years since I first signed up for Lendle I thought it was time to update my review.  I am leaving the original review at the bottom and only making comments about things that are different or I have noticed since the original review.

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Lendle has continued to grow.  Just over 200,000 books have been loaned and there are also nearly 200,000 books available to lend.  Personally I have loaned almost 450 book.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Dover Thrift Editions)Summary: A brat of a girl falls into a fantasy world

One of my reading goals this year was to read more old books. Some of these I am re-reading, some I am reading for the first time.  If you have a kindle or like to listen to audiobooks, there are tons of free classics available (although of varying quality.)

I picked up about 30 free classic kindle and audiobooks through a promotion (some still available) last month.  Jim Dale’s (narrator for Harry Potter) version of Alice in Wonderland.  This is both good and bad.  Dale is a very good narrator.  But some of his voices seems to be the same as some of his Harry Potter voices and that provides a little unintended humor and confusion.

Prior to this I have never read Alice in Wonderland.  But I knew the basic story through the many parodies and cartoon remakes.  Alice follows a rabbit down a hole.  Alice drinks and eats things that make her grown and shrink.  She meets the smiling cat that disappears and reappears. And then she meets a pack of playing cards where the Queen keeps crying ‘off with their head’ every few minutes.

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