Bookwi.se – Page 219 – A few thoughts about books, kindles and Christianity

What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters Most

April 22, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Theology has to be built on the basics. Everything else, by definition is non-essential.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I really like the idea of this book. Martin Theilen is a pastor. A man he knows was an outspoken atheist. They continued their relationship and eventually the man said he had upgraded to agnostic. A while later the man ask “What is the least I can believe and still be a Christian?” It was not because he was trying to minimize having faith, but instead was frustrated by variety of things that people add to their faith.

The first ten chapters are very quick looks at beliefs that are non-essential to the faith. None of these choices are surprising or dealt with in depth. Thielen in general looks at a view that holds the belief as essential, and a view that dismisses them and then either dismisses them or shows why we cannot really know the final answer. I wish he was a bit more inclusive in this area. In some cases, he is a bit harder on some of the more conservative views than I would like. It is not because I really disagree with him on most things, but because I want to respect my Brothers and Sisters in Christ that believe differently than I do and honor them as we disagree. He is not mean, just dismisses a bit too easily. The topics of this section are Problems of Evil, Doubt, Evolution/Creation, Women (in marriage, authority in church and society), Environmentalism, End Times, Salvation of other religions, Scripture, Homosexuality, Judgmental Christians.

The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement

April 21, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Narcissism is a serious and real issue in the modern world. May be even more important spiritually.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition

First admission, I got bored with this book. I started it in January and read about the first third in a day. But then I started something else as I often do and I just had a hard time reading more than a little bit at a time.

The first section, which talked about the definition, myths and some of the benefits of Narcissism was very interesting. I sped through that and spent a lot of time talking about it to anyone that would listen.

The next section talks about why there is an epidemic. The chapter on parenting I thought was incredible. I was convinced that there really is a big problem with the way that the US thinks about parenting. Then the book started talking about the rise of celebrity culture, digital natives and web culture and school and I was less impressed. It is not that I do not think that Narcissism is not a big deal and it is not that I do not think that celebrity, the web and ‘everyone wins’ is not a problem.

Till We Have Faces…A Myth Retold by CS Lewis

April 20, 2011 by Adam Shields

Till we have faces;: A myth retold Takeaway: An unusual re-telling of a greek myth.

I have never heard of this book before I stumbled across it on Audible. I was in the mood for some fiction and wasn’t really interested in any of the books that I had in my wishlist. After surfing around a little while I found that this book. It was the last real fiction book he wrote. It was written and published during his early relationship with Joy Davidman.

Till We Have Faces

According to Wikipedia and the book’s introduction, this was a book Lewis was thinking about from his early days in college. It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. (Although I had no idea what the myth was till after I read the book.)

The basic story is that a princess, Orual, raised her sister after the death of her step mother in childbirth. The sister, Psyche, was the most beautiful girl anyone had ever seen while Orual was very ugly. The sisters were separated and the younger sister was married to a God. But the Orual was convinced that the God was not real or that if there was a husband, it was actually a man that was wrong for her sister. She convinces Psyche to violate the conditions of the marriage and the God leaves. But Orual and Psyche are not reunited.

Amazon Announces Kindle Library Support

April 20, 2011 by Adam Shields

According to Amazon (I first saw the announcement on Kindle Review), Amazon will support the ability for Kindle to ‘check out book’ from the Overdrive Library system. I am a fan of Overdrive and have written a review of its Android and iPhone/iPad apps. Overdrive is something that your library has to subscribe to, but … Read more

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Book Discussion: Chapter 2

April 20, 2011 by All Old Users

Guest Post by Joanna, she blogs at http://joannamuses.com/ The first post in the series is here.

Our culture loves romance. Pop music is full of it, it has a book genre named after it, whole movie genres centre around it and many magazines devote themselves to the romances of the famous. Romance even has a special day dedicated to it- Valentine’s day.

Christian culture also likes romance. We may seek to present a more wholesome version of it, but nonetheless, romance is given a valued place in Christian culture. We talk about true love waiting or finding our soul mate. We preach sermons on the goodness of marriage. Christian bookstores are filled with books about getting or staying married.

On the surface these all seem like wonderful things. Some of them are good, biblical things. However, in chapter 2 of Sacred Unions, Sacred passions, Dan Brennan contends that there is an dark side to our elevation of romantic relationships.

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Books Discussion: Chapter 1

April 18, 2011 by Adam Shields

Cover of "When Harry Met Sally" — Cover of When Harry Met Sally

Over the next couple weeks a group of people will be reading and responding to the book Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions by Dan Brennan (my earlier review). A chapter will be discussed each Monday, Wednesday and Friday until we are done. Please come back and interact with us. You do not have to have read the book, but it will likely help in the discussion.

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Brennan understands that he is working against the grain to suggest that not only is it possible, but it is important to have friendships between men and women that are ‘non-sexual’, but still intimate and deep. The classic movie When Harry Met Sally has the line “…Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.” And most of us believe, and are taught, that Harry is right.

SuperFreakonomics by Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner

April 15, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: More unconventional ways of looking at the world around us.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I like economics. Overall I like this book and the movement of micro-economics and behavioral economics books that was created out of the original Freakenomics (although I think some people need to think of some better titles.)

The method of Freakenomics is to find an issue, then think of a way to look at that issue using mathematical models. The Freakenomics guys and their counterpart research economics that do a lot of the research are creative. They have to be creative, and willing to balk conventional wisdom, to come up with their research ideas. (And hope the mathematical models really explain the reality.)

The Pastor: A Memoir (The Audiobook Review) by Eugene Peterson

April 14, 2011 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: On Audio, still the best general book on what it means to be a pastor I have ever read.

Purchase Links: Hardback, Kindle Edition, christianaudio.com MP3 audiobook

I read this immediately after it came out just over a month ago. I wrote a gushing review. Then I was asked if I wanted to review the audiobook as well. At first I thought I would just listen to a little bit of the audiobook and rework the original review a bit. But this is a very good book. And ‘reading’ it twice in less than six weeks is not too much.

Eugene Peterson reads the introduction and afterward himself. So you get a sense of his own voice. But it is narrated by Arthur Morey. His voice is not the same as Peterson, but his reading understands the nature of the book. As with many good narrators you forget the narration and hear the voice of the author, as the authors intends you to hear.

Google Books – A Review of the Reader Software

April 13, 2011 by Adam Shields

It should be no surprise that I use the Kindle software. I prefer reading on an actual Kindle, but about 2 months ago I broke the screen on my kindle and have not replaced it. I am being intentional about this because I have a good number of paper books I need to read and I have both an iPad and an Android phone on which I can read my kindle library. (And my wife has a kindle if I want to use her’s.)

As good of a system as the Amazon Kindle world is, it does not have nearly as many public domain books as Google Books. Google has invested considerable resources into scanning all of the books of many major libraries. There are about 3 million public domain books in the Google library. This dwarfs any other public domain collection. As a system, I think Google books is pretty good. I am not going to leave Amazon, at least in part because Google’s selection is smaller and price seems to be a bit higher. Google was depending a lot on their agreement with the Author’s Guild to make their system the world wide leader in both paid and public domain books. Since that agreement was blocked in court, Google is far behind in the recent book department.

This video is a pretty good introduction to how Google conceives of themselves.

True Grit by Charles Portis

April 13, 2011 by All Old Users

Rating: 5 Stars Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook I think 5 stars should only be given to the best of the best – this is one of those books. True Grit is fantastic. I suspect that the Coen Brothers film adaptation will bring some well-deserved attention to the book, or at least … Read more