Bookwi.se – Page 197 – A few thoughts about books, kindles and Christianity

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

October 29, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A spy forced into retirement comes back to ferret out a mole.

George Smiley is the anti-Bond. The author, John le CarrÃ©, 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.

From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart by Chris Haw

October 26, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: 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

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

October 25, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: 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.

Amazon Author Rank

October 24, 2012 by Adam Shields

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

October 24, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: 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.

Lendle – A Kindle Borrowing Site: Review After 6 Weeks

October 23, 2012 by Adam Shields

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.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

October 23, 2012 by Adam Shields

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.

A Thought From Jeff Bezos

October 19, 2012 by Adam Shields

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.

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.

Call of the Wild by Jack London

October 19, 2012 by Adam Shields

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.

Finding God in the Hunger Games by Ken Gire

October 18, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: 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.