i know i’ve been quiet this week, but i’ve been away, or simply wiped out from the heat wave… anyway… here’s a quick update that continues a daisy-chain that reached me from writer, editor, and cousin Jodi Whisenhunt… what is on my bookshelf?

1. How many books have you read so far in 2010?

Counting books that i’ve read exclusively in 2o1o, i’ve turned the pages of The Gospel According to Lost (Chris Seay), Saint (Ted DeKker), The Last Battle (CS Lewis), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis), Plan B (Pete Wilson), Will the World End in 2012 (Raymond Hundley), and The Last Christian (David Gregory), which totals a pathetic seven… HOWEVER, i also FINISHED I Am America (And So Can You) (Stephen Colbert), Live from Middle America: Rants from a Red-State Comedian (Brad Stine), The Magician’s Nephew (CS Lewis), and The Silver Chair (CS Lewis), all of which i began between November and December of o9…

So, short answer, somewhere between seven and eleven books so far…

2. What percentage is fiction/ non-fiction?

It appears to be around 45% non-fiction, leaving 55% fiction.

3. What’s your favorite 2010 read so far?

I’ve really enjoyed reading some of the Narnia books to the littles (when they sit still long enough), but overall, I’ve been most taken in by a book I’m reading right now – Devil in the White City (Erik Larson) of which I’ll be writing more in the coming days…

4. What are you currently reading?

Besides the aforementioned, I’m currently reading: The Principle of the Path (Andy Stanley), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Hear No Evil (Matthew Paul Turner), Weird Ideas That Work (Robert Sutton), A Horse and His Boy (CS Lewis), and i’m listening to the audiobook for Stuff Christians Like (Jonathan Acuff)…

5. What’s at the top of your to-be-read pile?

at the very top… The Jesus You Can’t Ignore (John MacArthur) and Chosen (Ted DeKker) – followed closely by the rest of DeKker’s “Lost Books”…

well, that was fun… now it’s your turn… go ahead and put your answers below as a comment or feel free to snag the questions and post them on your own blog (and link below) so i can see what’s on YOUR bookshelf…

peace… love… bdg…

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Okay, with Lost and Idol done, i’ve got a little room to breathe… (there is plenty more to say about LOST and maybe Idol as well, but not now)… it’s time now for a quick glimpse into the media that’s (figuratively) pushing my guts up against my rib cage… this week’s mashed potatoes… off we go…

BOOKS: END OF THE WORLD?!?!
now playing: This Is How the World Will End – The Elms

i have a double dose of bookage here today, but they both kind of touch on the same topic… Will the World End in 2012? by Raymond Hundley and The Last Christian by David Gregory are both “set” in the future and both deal with end-of-the-world type themes… however, they are quite distinct from each other, despite these similarities, and they’ve both been on my mind lately… (and i got them both for free, if that matters)…

Will the World End in 2012?… my first thoughts in response to seeing this title were probably standoffish… i immediately wondered why anyone would write a book asking such a question… secondly, i was a bit irritated because it’s not the right question to be asking… and finally, i thought, “I’ve got to read this” perhaps harkening back to the collegiate instincts that caused me to try random (and often disgusting) combinations of food based on dares or boredom…

It’s a quick book to read, i’ll give it that much… it does seem to address all the major sources of speculation that the world is somehow scheduled to vanish in the final month of 2012, but it’s written at an incredibly high level so nothing is ever fully developed… and, with the high amounts of repetition, it feels somewhat like a bloated pamphlet, a feeling that is realized by the last two chapters… i was glad that Hundley reframed the question from “Will the world end?” to “What if it does?”… however, the method he chose – a glorified altar call to close out the book – left much to be desired…

i know it takes all kinds of people, and everyone responds to different approaches, but this made the book feel a bit like a bait-and-switch… regardless, it was pretty interesting at times, perhaps it would’ve been interesting at all times had it not been about 50 pages longer than it needed to be…

The Last Christian… next up is a work of fiction from the author who brought you Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and The Next Level, neither of which i’ve read, but if you have, then you also have a frame of reference for Gregory’s latest book…

the book takes place about a few generations from now, in 2088, where the majority of the world’s population has internet access embedded into their brains via microchips and world-renown innovator Bryson Nichols has just unveiled his latest invention, a silicon-based brain to replace the human brain and grant the owner eternal life…

The scene takes place amidst a “Judges 2:10″ generation – one who “knew not the Lord, and the works which he had done” – that has all but done away with religion… and spends more time in virtual reality than actual life…

and then there is the protagonist… Abby, the daughter of life-long missionaries to the unreachable Inisi tribes of Papua, New Guinea, who has recently emerged from the jungle hoping to save her village from a strange disease… then, she gets a strange message from her grandfather, commissioning her to bring Christianity back to the US… and when a local doctor begins to investigate the disease, that’s when it all begins…

The Last Christian is a gripping tale of interwoven storylines and “DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!” moments (you know, when you think you can prevent the character from doing what is certain to spell their doom)… plenty of twists and turns keep this adventure rolling along while readers keep reaching for that next page to turn… I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but i’m pretty sure i got more than i could’ve expected… certainly a good read…

SO LONG, FAREWELL…

plenty more topics to write about… and plenty of work being done behind the scenes… thanks for your patience everyone… good things to be expected…

peace… love… bdg…

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a bit on the tired side, but i promised to get this up today… below is a review of the brand new book from Pete Wilson (@pwilson for my tweeps) called No Plan B… i got this early from Thomas Nelson and still ended up reading the bulk of it over the last 2 days… anyway, off we go…

THE PACKAGE…
now playing: No Plan B – Manafest

i guess when i first picked this book up, i expected something different… the term “plan B” has always had a negative context when coupled with spiritual endeavors… it always seems to be couched in the midst of something along the lines of, “Trusting God is your Plan A, there is no Plan B”… BE… that as it may, in regards to this book, which does cover some level of spiritual matters, it’s more aptly explained as an exploration of coming to grips with God’s Plan A being your Plan B… that is to say that sometimes our plans and God’s plans aren’t aligned… and that’s not only okay, but that should be expected…

after all, the Bible does mention this several times, foremost in my mind, when James explains that we have not because, when we do ask, we ask with the wrong motives… Anyway, Pete Wilson uses this as a backdrop to tackle some of life’s most challenging questions – Why do bad things happen to good people, among them – by reframing our perspective in the midst of some truly heart-wrenching examples of situations that are just plain difficult to wrap your head around…

I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say Plan B is a pretty quick read, not necessarily easy, but it goes down quickly and offers some potent and potentially life-changing advice… i certainly recommend it, especially if you’ve ever gone through a difficult situation in life or if you have any questions about why God lets things happen that don’t make sense…

And before i go, i also want to be mindful of a Plan B that has shaped up over the last 2 days for Wilson (and the expanded Nashville area)… there has been a lot of flooding and, in some cases, the damage is life-threatening… Cross Point Church is organizing some aid efforts and you can read some more about that on Pete’s Blog…

peace… love… bdg…

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okay, so i’m horribly off-schedule and i’ve come to a decision… i’m dropping the “monday morning” and simply going with “mashed potatoes”… the idea is still the same, it’ll still be a weekly thing, but it may not be posted on monday morning… actually, i don’t think any of them actually were… that said… continuing the introductory posts… i’m branching into books today with three from my “recently read” list… enjoy…

DISCUSSERING AMERICA…

now playing: America – Simon and Garfunkel

Well, i recently read two books about America… both were written by comedians and both have “America” in the title… that’s about where the similarities end… Stephen Colbert and Brad Stine would probably be at the opposite ends of the table in the banquet of life, but both profess a common affection for this country that they both call home… and, perhaps that’s exactly what makes the grand ole US of A such a great place to call home…

so, first up is Mr. Colbert’s pseudo-conservative ramblings packaged cleverly in a first-edition volume complete with stickers, activity pages, and a handy bookmark ribbon… and yes, Colbert has made his living playing the exaggerated stereotype and, though it can be hit or miss, many times the result is hilarious on television… in printed format, however, it’s more accurately miss or hit… it’s not that it isn’t an entertaining book, but unfortunately, many of the jokes were already familiar or just fell flat without the props or delivery… all in all, i enjoyed the book, but it’s not one that i’ll be reading again…

and in this corner, weighing in lightly, it’s an actual conservative, a stand-up comedian by trade with a budding acting career (perhaps)… it’s Brad Stine and his book, Live from Middle America… and while there are no puzzles, word searches, or pictures for that matter, the book still caters to the A.D.D. crowd that clearly dominates our cultural landscape these days… with short, punchy chapters that sort of build on one another, but stand alone easily and can be read days, even weeks, apart, without missing a beat…

in all honesty, the book reads much like a standup show is performed, basically picking a topic, mining it of all available punchlines and then moving on… lacking is the effect of in-person delivery, which often results in arriving at the punch before the words on the page are ever read… so, while the book certainly has its share of laughs (or perhaps chuckles), it probably would have worked better as an audiobook or, as i’m sure it has been on some level, as part of Brad’s stand-up routine…

“GET” LOST…
now playing: Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

it will come as no surprise that i happen to watch a certain show called LOST… so, when i was made aware of an upcoming book from one Chris Seay that promised to compare the engrossing narrative of my current favorite television action drama to the best narrative of all time, well i was immediately hooked and interested…

it wasn’t much longer before The Gospel According to Lost arrived in my mailbox ready for my consumption… in hindsight, i probably shouldn’t have read “Doc” Jensen’s extensive series of columns about the thread of redemption found throughout LOST before reading this book, nor should i have then expected this book to cover the same ground more thoroughly… but i did… and it doesn’t… and that’s actually fine…

truth be told, i was a little taken aback that “Doc” – of whom i knew and still know very little in regards to spiritual matters – seemed to have put together a more Biblically-based perspective for understanding the show’s core message… but in reality, Seay, who is a pastor – this much i know – takes a cue from “Darlton” and focuses more intently on the individual characters than the overarching themes of the story…

and to be fair, these chapter-by-chapter character studies are pretty interesting and certainly tie into a Biblical perspective as one might expect… it simply wasn’t what i expected to be reading… and as i stop to think about it, that’s probably good, too… either way you look at it, though, this “Gospel” is an enjoyable, insightful read and it certainly sheds light on LOST from an angle that’s not often shared…

NO MAS…

okay, so that’s that for the time being… i do still have one more set of mashed potatoes to discuss before we can begin the “regularly scheduled” episodes… and i’ll try to do that sooner rather than later… i suppose we’ll see though… i do have something else that’s rather pressing should i completely follow through on it… (which would be some kind of crazy, let me tell you)…

peace… love… bdg…

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so it’s almost time for another football entry, but here’s a quick change of pace during which time, i’ll discuss a couple books that i’ve finished reading… hard to believe that it’s only nine days away from Christmas… i’m working night and day (well, mostly night) to put together a new issue of theTRu.print (about 5 of 12 pages done at the moment) and, of course, working on the redesign as well… in the meantime, i’ll be trying to keep things updated here a little better as well… for now, it’s on with the show… books… let’s dig in…

TOTAL GLOBAL DOMINATION

now playing: If I Ruled the World – Sammy Davis, Jr

5 Cities that Ruled the World- Douglas Wilson

initially, this book jumped out at me… i mean, i’m a history buff in much the same way that the Buffalo Bills are a Super Bowl contender, but i do enjoy learning about history and i often find it to be fascinating… (especially when presented properly)… so this book seemed to be right up my alley… a brief look at the history of the world in five sections, tidily summed up and (presumably) easy to read…

i must first admit that i didn’t recognize the name attached to the project – Douglas Wilson is, apparently, a well-known theologian (well known by people other than me) – and thus i was surprised by the immediate and continual thread of religious implications that ran throughout what otherwise read as the scripts for episodes of City Confidential… (anyone ever watched that show? anyone?)… once i understood the perspective from which the book was written, however, all was fine and i enjoyed the book for what it is…

the book does, in fact, describe the history of five cities and the legacy that they’ve left behind throughout history… or, in the case of New York City (perhaps the most personally interesting chapter) is currently leaving for the rest of history… coincidentally (or not?) the legacies all relate to freedom of some sort or another… Wilson clearly believes that freedom is life’s end game and, for him, each city represents the unlocking of a new facet of life over time… and it all leads up to New Jerusalem which will usher in complete and total freedom…

the quirkiness that litters the pages can work, depending on how you read (me, i read with inflection in my head)… but as charming as it can be, it does present a bit of distraction and adds to the overall cluttered content… and by “cluttered,” i mean that at times it feels like the book has no structure and that the topics at hand are lost in a whirlwind of whimsy… and again, this can work, but it does make following along – or retaining anything of value – fairly difficult… scratch that, challenging…

all in all, i’m glad that i read this book as it was rather engaging and enjoyable… i think that, had it been a lecture – or perhaps a 5-part, 30 minutes each lecture series – it would be very popular… as a book, i suppose it’s pretty niche, but definitely a nice read… [and in the interest of full disclosure i got it from Thomas Nelson for free]…

AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP…

now playing: Story – The Rocket Summer

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
by Donald Miller

it was a long time ago (feels like it anyway) that i first happened to hear Donald Miller give a talk about the concept of story and how the elements that make up a successful story can influence how we live our lives… this is another memoir from Donald Miller and once again, he manages to write in such a way that is comforting and casual… having read this and some of Miller’s previous books, i feel like i’ve had some incredibly interesting conversations with the most familiar stranger i’ve never met… (it puzzles me sometimes, too)…

Here’s the thing though, i know that books are one-way communications, but books like this make me talk to myself for hours on end afterwards… (it’s not out loud… usually)… anyway, it’s hard to really unpack this book without it all spilling out on the page in front of me, so i’ll try to just pick out a few of the highlights…

the book centers around character development, which plays out in to scenarios – in a story and in real life… Miller talks about how the traits and qualities that endear us to characters in a movie are the qualities and traits that we should work on developing in our own lives… we need to have the right goals and ambitions in life if we ever want our lives to have any meaning… one of the lines that stood out to me came after Miller described the scene of his uncle’s funeral… something to the effect that if you die and you weren’t telling a good story with your life, nobody will say that you died too soon, just that you’re dead… basically, you need to make sure that no matter when you die, it’s too soon…

The long and the short of it is that Donald Miller weaves in a number of interesting storylines to support what appears to be a very solid philosophy for life… i highly recommend this book and any of his others… and listening to his talk, too… [and for the sake of full disclosure i bought TWO copies of this book with my own money - no free copy (what's up with THAT?)]…

CLOSING THE BOOK…

that’s going to do it for now… i’m currently reading The Silver Chair from the Chronicles of Narnia, I Am America (and So Can You), Live from Middle America, and i’m about to dive into Saint… and if i don’t get to it tomorrow, the Colts are going to win…

peace… love… bdg…

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oops… forgot to include this one with last night’s batch of books…

NOT THE SYMPTOMS, THE DISEASE

now playing: Done All Wrong – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Christianity in Crisis (21st Century)- Hank Hanegraaff

Hank Hanegraaff revisits a book that he wrote about twenty years ago… and it’s pretty clear that, based on the escalated propagation of the message he specifically targets, he’ll need to write another edition in half that time…

the book calls out many “celebrity” preachers of the day – televangelists and what not – by name, providing quotes and pointing out the fundamental flaws that have led them and many others astray from the original message… he tries to detail where the paths have intersected, but the “prosperity gospel” and “faith movement” messages seem as accurate as the last person in a long game of “telephone”…

However, and very importantly, Hanegraaff issues a call to action of sorts… recommending avoidance in some cases and a healthy dose of self-evaluation… it’s important to address the root cause, the disease rather than just all the symptoms… and to that end, the book offers a boot camp of sorts, with the “Back to Basics” section that explains the fundamental beliefs of Christianity… following after that are three appendices that are also quite helpful and informative…

All-in-all, there’s a lot of finger-pointing and calling on the carpet in a sense, but without being mean-spirited… it’s clear that “The Bible Answer Man” has done his due diligence and that his goal is not to attack, but to heal what could potentially become a fatal blow to a large cross-section of the church… Christianity in Crisis is an interesting read for those into church history or perhaps sociology as it relates to the church…

peace… love… bdg…

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time keeps on chugging along… i only wish i could keep up… and still get sleep… i’m really trying to get more posts written up that don’t involve football, because i know that my fantastic insights don’t really appeal to everyone… and that’s okay… i’ve just been adjusting… today, i’ve got a few books to talk about and soon, i’ll have some things that i want to hash out with the written word… something i saw on a television show that’s normally unengaging, something i’ve learned from the Redskins, and more… i may also talk a little bit about the redesign that i’m working on for the main site… if you sign up for the newsletter, i’ll send you an email when it’s back up to speed… you’ll also get the newsletter, if i ever send them out… anyway, no time for the dilly-dally… let’s move on…

LIGHT IT UP

now playing: Illuminate Pt. 1 – Lightheaded

Illuminated – Matt Bronleewe

a while ago, i read and raved about House of Wolves and now, finally, i managed to buy and read a copy of the first book of the August Adams series… and guess what?… i’ll rave about this one too… Matt Bronleewe certainly puts together a mean story… fast-paced, thrilling, intricate and well-detailed… Illuminated kept me flipping through the pages as though i were cooling myself off… (maybe not THAT fast)…

Anyway, it is, again, or perhaps first, a great piece of writing and at 300 pages, it’s a manageable length for those of us who can’t keep our schedule in order… certainly there are themes that are similar to storylines such as the National Treasure franchise and books like, duh, the Da Vinci Code, but it’s a special tale that stands on it’s own despite any other books about secret societies and mysterious symbols… Cheers to Matt… looking forward to book three..

SECOND ROUND

now playing: The Hard-Knock Life – Original Cast of Annie

Knockout Entrepreneur – George Foreman (with Ken Abaraham)

i gotta admit… i love watching George Foreman… i think there’s a part of each of us that feels that way… and now i know that it was by design… George opens up with a very enjoyable book telling his story of success in the business world… one piece of advice that stood out? When you answer the phone, keep a smile on your face – it comes through… clearly, Foreman wrote this book with a big smile on his face, because that’s exactly how it reads…

Granted there are times when the book feels a little repetitive (revisiting the same events) and almost like a sales pitch – for instance, the grill is mentioned by its full name (with adjectives) several times – but that’s the nature of the game… Foreman is very up front about the fact that he’s using every opportunity to sell his products and continue to be successful… that’s fine, because, overall the book has plenty of good advice tucked away in each chapter…

It’s also worth noting that this is a Nelsonfree product – and yes, by the way, this is based on a free promotional copy – which means that with the book in hand, you can click over to the special webpage, answer a question or two and get a free PDF and audiobook version of the book as well… (George Foreman does NOT narrate the audiobook, but it’s still a rather lively reading)…

Anyway, the bottom line, as with many career/business/self-improvement books is that you won’t find too much here that you can’t find in many similarly-themed… the difference is that this is someone else’s story and the more times you hear success stories from different voices, the more you’ll start to believe that soon enough, it can be your voice telling the tales… plus there’s the whole smile thing… and George has a lot of mouths to feed in his family…

CAN YOU DIG IT?

now playing: The Pleasure Principle – Janet Jackson

The Treasure Principle – Randy Alcorn

the section title is from the cornerstone illustration for this book, by the way… the parable of the man who finds a treasure in a field, sells all he has, buys the field and, presumably, lives happily ever after… it’s a passage from the Bible that i feel is somewhat betrayed by the application here and the book tends to further unravel from there… but let me back up for a second…

i feel like i came upon this book under false pretenses… pretenses that keep me from being at all unbiased (as if i’m ever unbiased) and that said, my attitude when reading this book was more of a cynic than of a reviewer… and, honestly, i don’t want to spend too much time talking about it right now because i’m pretty sure it will be part of the focus of another piece of writing that i have brewing but i will say this… (that was a long sentence, sorry)… i will say this… bottom line, i feel like this is the prosperity gospel repackaged and framed from a “more spiritual” perspective… that’s not to say that there weren’t some parts that i agreed with, but largely i’m pretty sure that htis book misses the mark…

NO MAS

time’s up… well, over up… beyond? long since past?… whatever… good night…

peace… love… bdg…

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a few quick notes, i’m going to be posting my weekly football picks and comments later (probably tomorrow), but first i’m finally getting around to posting these book reviews that i had actually scrawled out old fashioned style on paper… also, if you didn’t notice last week, i did something called “album twee-views” or album reviews via twitter… it’s a rough concept that i’m trying out… we’ll see how it goes… as always let me know what you all think… feedback is always appreciated…

TRIpLE DEKkER…

now playing: Titanomachy – The Beginning – The Showdown

Showdown – Ted DeKker

I’ve had this book for a few years, but didn’t ever dig into it until i was somewhat tricked into breaching the Books of History Series by reading Sinner… Having read Sinner, i became quite interested in reading Saint, but figured i should read Showdown first – since i had it and since it was the first of the three part subseries…

Anyway, despite having a good idea of where the story was headed, i was still enraptured by the narrative presented in Showdown… it’s still a very suspenseful endeaver regardless of any prior knowledge of the series and as such was an incredibly entertaining (and pretty quick) read… one downside is that the overarching metaphor became obvious – almost painstakingly so – long before what i would’ve considered the appropriate time for it to have been revealed…

All in all, though, it’s a compelling read and one that certainly continued to whet my pallette for Saint, which is on my short list…

now playing: Washed By the Water – Needtobreathe

Lunatic / Elyon – Ted DeKker

Well, these are books 5 and 6 of the Lost Books subseries and, in TRu fashion, they were my entry point into the set… my initial thoughts were that it’s clearly a story along the lines of the Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia in the sense that this entirely new universe is created and it’s certainly well-situated in the fantasy genre… i suppose it’s also important to note that i think these books are written for a teenage audience, but the narrative works beyond that target demographic…

Having not read the previous four books, i was a bit unfamiliar with the relational dynamics surrounding Darsal, Silvie and Johnas and at times it was even difficult to keep track of who was speaking and the full weight of what had been said (lots of impersonal pronouns complicated things as well), but it was pretty easy to follow along in the story regardless…

The main theme that stuck out was clearly the mandate to love your enemies and as such, the books do a good job relating just how difficult that can be… there’s also discussion of baptism and romance and choosing friendships wisely and all of it was presented well, rolled together in a compelling enough tale to encourage me to read the first four (i’ve only got the first two, though)…

One downside, besides the “who’s on first” type issue of who said what, was that the voice of each co-author came through clearer than that of the characters… it was pretty obvious which parts came from the pen of Kaci Hill and which did not… and that’s fine, but it was a little distracting and pushed me out of the narrative at times… Certainly not enough to prevent anyone from truly enjoying this set…

TH-TH-THAT’S ALL FOLKS

and that will do it for now…

peace… love… bdg…

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okay, one more book… i meant to get to these the other night, but didn’t quite have the time… don’t let this post keep you from reading the previous post if you’re like me and ready for some FOOTBALL… now to the book…

THIS I KNOW…

now playing: Jesus Loves You – Stellar Kart

Jesus Loves You – Craig Gross & Jason Harper

i got this one a while ago and figured that i had plenty of time to read it before the deadline that i agreed to, then everything changed… anyway, by way of background, Craig Gross is one of the founders of XXXChurch.com and Jason Harper is a cable guy and a pastor… that’s probably enough for the time being… the book on the other hand demands your full attention… i often feel like the simplest messages are the most profound… and this simple message, that Jesus loves you, is perhaps the most profound of them all…

I really liked the way the book reads, very conversational and well organized… it seems to covers all the bases and, right about when it dawned on me that something critical was missing from the equation, Craig hits it right on the head… very good read, interesting perspective and a reminder that we all need to hear over and over…

peace… love… bdg…

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this morning, i walked my boys, my little boys down the street, to the corner and i watched them climb up into a big yellow bus and off they went to school… kindergarten and second grade and still i see them curled up into a tiny ball kicking against my arms fighting to stay awake when they were supposed to be taking a late afternoon nap… ah… time… you dirty little tramp…

anyway, this is the entry where i really talk about all the books that i’ve read over the last few weeks… it could be a lot, but we’ll see how far i get…

DOUBLE SHOT OF FEARLESS…

now playing: Fearless – Falling Up

Fearless – Robin Parrish

finally managed to get back to the Dominion Trilogy and this is book two of the series… that’s the backdrop… the big deal is how much the story has progressed and how well put together this storyline is… it’s always exciting to witness an author come into their own and Robin has clearly done so here… Fearless is more cohesive and well-focused than when Grant Burrows first debuted as a serial novel on his website…

I was very impressed by the character development, and, given the similarities between this and the premise of Heroes, thought a number of times that the show could really take a few cues from the trilogy… That’s not to say that the book feels at all like a copycat or anything like that – it’s definitely got its own legs – it’s just that there’s no point ignoring the similarities… on a side note, the adventure is thrilling, but this one ends on a cliff, so make sure that Merciless isn’t too far away when you get to the end… i’ll be hitting that one soon…

now playing: Fearless – dcTalk

Fearless – Max Lucado

i don’t think i’ve ever had milk toast in my lifetime, but as i was reading this book, i couldn’t shake that image from my head… which is a little odd, because i didn’t even know exactly what it consisted of… really, i think that my subconscience was trying to make a reference to the verse in the Bible about some people needing milk and some needing meat… if it’s a sliding scale, this book – as well as many of Lucado’s numerous works – lands squarely in the liquid state of nourishment…

that said, i can overlook the painstaking way that Lucado applies puns to each point and see that the points that he’s making are actually pretty good… and the book itself is something definitely worth reading… we’re certainly living in a time when we all need a little help finding a little peace of mind… Lucado focuses on a dozen or so specific fears, but treats them all with the same general prescription… a long-term, Kingdom mindset… overall, Fearless is a quick, light, easy read… if you like Lucado’s previous books (and/or if you don’t mind things being spelled out to the en^th degree), you probably won’t have any qualms with this one…

THE GREAT ONES…

now playing: Great – Ten Shekel Shirt

Everyday Greatness – Stephen R Covey

so, i suppose i didn’t exactly understand what i was getting into when this 400-plus-page collection of short stories… in fact, i didn’t realize it was short stories, much less stories in the key of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”… generally not my cup of tea… i’m not sure what i was expecting, actually…

Odd first impressions aside, though, Covey provides an interesting framework from which the book unfolds… seven “pillars” so to speak of areas of life in which we can display greatness, each with three more specific qualities to exercise… each chapter follows the same basic premise: Covey’s introduction, a story or stories, Covey’s comments, points to ponder, and then relevant quotes from throughout history…

To be honest, the quotes are what interested me most… i think that Covey’s commentary could’ve been a little meatier, but understandably, they’re short here (i mean, how long could this book have been?)… the bottom line, however, is that this book is a nice volume to have as something of a reference manual… it may be nice to have a book exclusively with Covey’s thoughts (perhaps that already exists?), but this is a fine collection for what it is… just not what i was wanting…

TAPPING OUT…

okay, that’s three of them… i’ve still got… about five more to tackle in the next day or so… including that “triple DeKker” (insert suspenseful “oooooh” here)… right now, though i must get some sleep…

peace… love… bdg…

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