Bookwi.se – Page 206 – A few thoughts about books, kindles and Christianity

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray and Still Loving My Neighbor by Jana Riess

December 8, 2011 by Adam Shields

Note: Christianity Today women’s Blog Her-meneutics, had a blog post about this book on Feb 1, 2012. It seems that Reiss converted to Mormonism in 1993 and continues to be active in her Mormon church. While this does not change the overall review, I am a bit more wary of Paraclete Press, a small publishing house that I have enjoyed lately. I feel this book was marketed inappropriately.
Takeaway: Sainthood is hard, and more focused on a life time than month long experiments.

At some point we are going to tire of these year-long experiment books. There was Julie and Julia. Then AJ Jacobs books on reading the Encyclopedia and Living Biblically. Then the Christian knock-off by Edward Dobson and others. When I typed in “Living + year” into the Amazon search bar I came up with 147 books, most of which are memoir-y looks at trying to do something for a year (live generously, live in the country, live green, live without running water, listen to Oprah, read the church fathers, live shamelessly, live like my grandmother, live straight, live dangerously, not lie, travel, eat locally, etc–these are all real by the way.)

Which Kindle to Buy for Christmas

December 7, 2011 by Adam Shields

Left to right (Kindle Basic, Kindle Touch, Kindle with Keyboard, Kindle Fire)

A friend asked me this morning which Kindle she should buy for Christmas.

Here is my decision tree questions. I added a flow chart at the bottom of the post.

1) Do you want to read on it or do you want a tablet? The eink kindles (kindle 4, kindle touch, kindle with keyboard) are much better for reading. Eink is much closer to reading a paperback. All eInk devices are only black and white. There are no color eInk devices available commercially. If you need color you have to get an LCD screen. The only advantage for reading on a LCD screen (like on the kindle fire) is if you read a lot at night. The eink kindles have a nice light option for the kindle case, but that is an extra cost. In general if you are reading primarily, get an eink. If you want a tablet to do email, listen to music, watch videos and play games, you should get the Fire or iPad. A small group of people (around 10%) have sleep problems from LCD screens (it seems to be from the backlight). If you want a tablet, your only option is a Wifi only Kindle Fire. If you want an eInk device (which I strongly recommend for anyone reading for long periods), keep reading.

Junia is Not Alone by Scot McKnight

December 5, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: There was a woman in Roman 16:7 that Paul says was one of the apostles. Many Christians do not know this.

Junia is Not Alone is short. Frankly, it would be better as a long free article than a short paid kindle book. I read it in about 20 minutes or so. I do not believe it is listed as a Kindle Short, but it should be.

I want to be fair to Scot McKnight, many people do not know the history of Junia and that is the point of this short little booklet. Junia is mentioned as an apostle in Rom 16:7. For much of Christian history she has been referred to as a man, and even with good Christian language scholars it is only recently that the best greek manuscripts have admitted that Junia is a woman.

Reading on the Rise – NEA Study

December 2, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: This is a very good time to be a reader.

The National Endowment for the Arts has been studying how Americans read since 1982. Over that time there have been five different studies looking at how American read, what they read and how much they read. The most recent study Reading on the Rise, was completed in 2009.

After reading Upside a couple weeks ago, I decided that I am going to be more vocal when people make public pronouncements about how bad the world is that do not happen to be true.

Right before Thanksgiving there was a blog discussion on Books and Culture’s website about Tony Reinke’s book Lit! (my review). I think that Reinke’s books is decent, but that it does not really accomplish what it says it wants to to (move non-readers to readers). It is decent about moving marginal and aspirational readers to better readers. But in the midst of the discussion there was a question, “How then should we go about encouraging readers of books in a post-literate culture?”

I disagreed with the whole concept of the question. I am all for encouraging readers, but I do not believe we are in a post-literate culture. Both in the US and World-wide we have the highest literacy rates in history. There are more full length books being published now than ever in history (surpassing 1 million English language books published a year right now.) The third point is that I knew that there was a recent study that said that reading (of books) was up in all age, education, and racial groups.

Most Read Book Reviews of Nov 2011

December 1, 2011 by Adam Shields

Here are the most read book reviews of November 2011. For the first time I am looked at both the RSS and the website views. It seems that RSS readers and website visitors read very different reviews. Also it is interesting that RSS readers read reviews much more than website visitors, website visitors are much … Read more

The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl #2) by Eoin Colfer

December 1, 2011 by Adam Shields

Summary: Artemis may have found his father, and he is suspected to be smuggling human goods (and weapons) to Faire.

The second book in a series makes or breaks the series in my mind. It can either set up the series to be able to go further (usually giving some good background and character development) or it just tells the same story as the previous book. Colfer does a good job of keeping the action and the good parts of Artemis and the other characters from the first book, but developing them enough that you want to keep going.

The Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

November 25, 2011 by Adam Shields

Summary: The end of the world is coming. An angel and a demon happen to like the world the way it is. Which set of prophecies will win.

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman and have had this book recommended to me several times. I have not read any of Terry Pratchett’s Diskworld books, but his fans are legion.

I can feel Gaiman’s fingers in the book. It is funny, full to details and a ton of characters and a bit sacrilegious. There are so many story lines. Adam (the child destined to be the anti-christ is mixed up and given to the wrong family. The angel and demon that have been friends throughout human history realize that they are not really interested in the world ending and have to decide if it is worth the danger to try and stop it. Newt (an apprentice witch finder) and witch (descendant of one of the few real prophets of the apocalypse) end up finding one another, falling in love and playing their own part in the apocalypse.

Read My Lips by Debby Herbenick and Vanessa Schick

November 23, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Yes, this book is about celebration of women’s genitalia.

If you have a book review blog you get asked to review all kinds of books. Some I review, some I do not. But I decided to review this book for a couple reasons. First, although I am a guy, I am married, I am the nanny for two little girls and my wife and I lead a small group for newly married couples. So I regularly read and think about marriage and sex issues. If you look through my archive, you will find a number of books about sex and marriage. In general, I have not been a huge fan of any of them. All books on sex, gender and/or marriage seem to have several common problems. 1) They try to address too large of an audience. Issues that are appropriate to talk about in one context are not appropriate in another context. 2) They either suggest marriage/sex are really difficult, or really easy and tend to lack balance. 3) They are either Christian focused and tend not to address issues that confront real people, or they are non-Christian focused and tend to not have any moral guide.

After the jump, the review will be more on the rated R side. (Mom you may want to stop reading now.)

Semi-Vacation

November 17, 2011 by Adam Shields

Today starts a semi-vacation at my Mother in Law’s cabin for the next 10 days. We are going to have Thanksgiving first with my side of the family and then with my wife’s side of the family. I will have internet, but the amount of time I have for posting and reading is unknown. I … Read more

Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Gregg Allison

November 16, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Theology does not exist in a vacuum.

Historical Theology is a massive and far reaching undertaking. All theology has a history and a context for when and why it first came to prominence. My personal learning style is such that I tend to learn best when I understand the context of why.

My frustration with my seminary Historical Theology class was that it was focused on the thought and theology, but rarely talked about they history and the why around the thought.

Gregg Allison is writing a Historical Theology to accompany Wayne Grudem‘s Systematic Theology. I have not read Grudem, I used Erickson’s Systematic Theology text in college. But regardless, Allison is writing on the history of the basic points of theology that would be included in any systematic theology.

Obviously this is not a short book. And even at almost 800 pages, I still want more history and more wide ranging discussion. Allison says in the beginning that he is not dealing with Orthodox Historical Theology. So this is a historical theology of the western church, and as you read, you will see that it is a historical theology that is focused on providing context to Evangelical readers. I understand why he is fairly narrow in his wide-ranging task (in part because this book intended to be a partner to Grudem’s Systematic Theology), but I think that Allison’s conservative Evangelical understanding of theology would be better served if he was a bit wider ranging in his understanding of history. And I am sure that the general Evangelical student would be better served by a work that showed them that they are not the center of the Christian world.