A Thought From Jeff Bezos

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Image representing 37signals as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

In spite of the fact that I am a huge fan of the Kindle, I don’t really pay that much attention to Jeff Bezos.  But I really identify with an idea that 37 Signals had in a blog post today.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos starts his High Orde...

Jeff Bezos stopped by their office and before he left he had an open Q & A session with the staff.  In a response to one of the questions he said that he did not think that consistency in thought was all that helpful.  People that are right a lot of the time were people who often changed their mind.  It is perfectly healthy – encouraged even – to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.  Many of the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they had already solved.  Jason Fried finished the thought by saying that it means that points of view should be considered temporary.

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Call of the Wild by Jack London

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The Call of the Wild (Dover Thrift Editions)Summary: Classic children’s books about a dog that is kidnapped to work the Klondike Gold Rush.

I remember reading Call of the Wild as a child.  I am sure it has been over 25 years since I last read it.  But it still seemed quite fresh in my mind.

Jack London wrote clear prose.  He feels like a western writer (like Zane Gray or Louis L’Amour).  In fact I would not be surprised if I read this after reading some Louis L’Amour books. I had several uncles that were long haul truck drivers.  And they spent a lot of time reading on their off time.  The westerns were passed around frequently and I think that I probably read most of L’Amour’s books by the time I was 13.  I am not sure if the prose feels similar because they were writing at a similar time, or because there is a similar western individualism that is flowing through the authors.

The Call of the Wild is clearly a children’s book in orientation.  It is told in third person, primarily from Buck’s perspective.  It is not Buck (the dog) narrating but a unknown narrator that is telling Buck’s story.

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Finding God in the Hunger Games by Ken Gire

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Finding God in the Hunger GamesSummary: Mostly Gire does not find God at the hunger games.

I loved the Hunger Games.  I have read it twice, watched the movie twice.  I spent long hours talking with my wife about the books (we don’t often read the same books and when we do we often talk a lot about them.)

So when christianaudio.com was offering Finding God in the Hunger games to review I jumped.  And since the book is short I listened to it all in an afternoon the same day I requested the review copy.

My main problem is that this is a slipshod book.  I do not have a problem with the relatively short length (about 85 pages).  But the is not really a book about the Hunger Games.  It is three essays.  One about entertainment and Rome. One about the hunger for God within each of us.  And a final chapter about the end times.

Not only is Finding God in the Hunger Games not about the real content of the Hunger Games, but the author admits that the few interactions with the Hunger games are mostly from the movie and not the book.  That was disappointing, no where in the description does it say that this book is primarily about the movie.

He even says he had not finished reading the book before he started watching the movie. This leads to lots of impressions and not much content. There are the occasional quotes, discussing a couple scenes.  However, what I was looking for was a discussion of the story, the over arching themes of the book.

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Kneeling With Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers

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Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History's Best TeachersSummary: A look at 10 different forms of prayer through  biographical sketches.

There are so many books on prayer.  As Evangelicals have started paying more attention to historical theology, church history and church practices of other streams of Christian faith there is a need for books like Kneeling with Giants to help us understand the value of prayer practices that we may not be as familiar with.

Gary Hansen takes his experience teaching prayer practices to seminary students and melds it with good church history.  In many ways the actual information is not much different from what has been presented in other books, like Richard Foster’s Prayer.  But this book will appeal to those that like their history in biographical sketch.  Foster can be a bit heady at times.

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Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julie Child by Bob Spitz

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Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia ChildTakeaway: Julia is one of the most fascinating women of the 20th century.

Julia Child is one of those fascinating characters that gives me hope that I may not be spinning my wheels in life.  She got married late, didn’t really learn to cook until her late 30s.  Did not start writing her first cookbook until her early 40s.  Was first on TV when she was 50. (And she was a woman that was 6′ 3″.)

But Julia Child has had a lasting effect on food and culture and TV and even the idea of celebrity.

I did not come to this book cold.  Several years ago after watching the movie Julie and Julia I read Julia Child’s memoir/biography My Life in France. My Life in France was written at the very end of her life by her nephew based on interviews and discussions with her.  It was not published until after her death but it feels more like a memoir than a biography.

Dearie is a full biography written by Bob Spitz, nearly twice as long as My Life in France.  I was glad for the extra details on her early and later life.  Stylistically, this is a very narrative biography, similar to Laura Hillenbrand‘s Unbroken.  It is not hagiography.  Julia is presented as being quite amazing woman, but one that made a lot of mistakes.

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Primal Credo: Your Entrance into the Apostle’s Creed by Derek Vreeland

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Primal Credo

Summary: The Apostle’s Creed is the most basic of theological statements.  It is one that every Christian should know and understand.

With the exception of a church that I occasionally attended in college (that was right on campus so it is where I went when I woke up late), I have never attended a church that used the Apostle’s Creed as part of regular worship.

Theologically I think it is an important thing to do, just like weekly participation in the Eucharist.  Practically, like the Eucharist, I attend a church that very actively reaches out to marginal Christians and those that are exploring Christianity.  And I believe in that (read my review of Deep and Wide to understand my reasons.)

So even if I do not say the Creed every week, I do think it is something that is important for all Christians to know and understand.  Rich Mullins’ song Creed is probably the way that many Evangelicals most know the creed.  And I bet that many that know the song do not realize that it is actually the Apostle’s Creed.

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Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan

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The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, Book Three)Summary: All of the heroes have been assembled.  Now they are on the way to Rome to defeat Gaia.

I really like this extended series by Rick Riordan.  The characters are not perfect. They are average teens with extraordinary powers (like many of the readers wish they could be.)  It is literary, makes lots of references to mythology and events that are fairly advanced for the intended readers.

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Kindle Book Price Fixing Settlement

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US Dept Of Justice Seal
US Dept Of Justice Seal (Photo credit: methodshop.com)

The US Department of Justice and Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster have settled an anti-trust lawsuit about the price fixing of kindle books. It still has to be approved by a judge, but this morning Amazon sent out an email about the settlement.  The current estimate is that between $0.30 and $1.32 per book will be credited to your Amazon account for each book you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012 (or you can request a check.)

I have no idea how much that will add up for me, but I buy a lot of books.  Because this is a suit by the Dept of Justice and not a class action suit, the majority of the settlement will not go to lawyer fees.

Here is the compete text of the email that I received:

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A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists by Mitch Stokes

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A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists

Summary: A readable look at the philosophy of reason and human inquiry.

A common frustration in arguing with someone about, well, anything, is the problem of different assumptions and conflicting foundational beliefs””especially when we aren’t even aware they are in conflict. I tend to want to address the underlying issues first, to distill them down to their fundamental essence. Mitch Stokes does exactly that in what is basically a layman’s summary of the work of well-known Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga.

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