Tag: Books

Books, old and new

I like books. I like old books. I like book titles. You can judge a book by its cover. Normally.

Kottke linked to this great little discussion thread featuring old books retitled for today’s market.

It started off with these – and got more fun in the comments:

“Then: The Wealth of Nations
Now: Invisible Hands: The Mysterious Market Forces That Control Our Lives and How to Profit from Them

Then: Walden
Now: Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany

Then: The Theory of the Leisure Class
Now: Buying Out Loud: The Unbelievable Truth About What We Consume and What It Says About Us

Then: The Gospel of Matthew
Now: 40 Days and a Mule: How One Man Quit His Job and Became the Boss

Then: The Prince
Now: The Prince (Foreword by Oprah Winfrey)”

September 18, 2009

Preach or Perish

My grandfather (aka Fafa aka Donald Howard) wrote a book. About preaching. I’m reading it. It has been helpful. When I finish reading it I’ll post a proper review. In the meantime you should know that it did not win the 2009 Australian Christian Book of the Year – but it was an equal joint second prize winner with two others. A little like Townsville’s Rachel Finch in the Miss Universe competition…

It was self published. It features chapters from plenty of well known preachers. You can buy it here.

August 31, 2009

Deadly Read

I grew up on Choose Your Own Adventure books. But I used to cheat. I’d read them in reverse, because I didn’t want to die. It turns out that’s the wisest approach. Because the writers want you to die. Statistically speaking. This guy named Michael Niggel put together a flow chart of a typical Choose Your Own Adventure novel. It looks like this.

You can see a high quality PDF here.

August 14, 2009

Kick it to meme

Well, Anna from goannatree tagged me in a meme. Let me just say that I think meme is a stupid word. But I’ve never been tagged in a meme before – not even the stupid ones on Facebook. So I’ll do it. I have to: “share the titles and authors of 15 books that will stay with you, or have stayed with you. You are to write this list in less than 15 minutes.”

This will probably show me up as the trashy “pop culture” reader that I am… and I probably deserve it. Actually, I decided to pad out the list with impressive sounding books that I remember… I cheated really.

Sadly, other than the Bible, I really struggle to finish Christian books – they’re often hundreds of pages talking about an idea that could be summed up in a nice, concise, blog post.

Right, here goes.

  1. The Bible – well, that’s not trashy – author God, and various human agents.
  2. The Godfather – Mario Puzo.
  3. The Assassins trilogy – Robin Hobb.
  4. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse – Robert Rankin.
  5. The Hobbit – Tolkien (I can remember as a child walking into Gould Books in Newtown – featured in Ben’s post yesterday and asking if they had Lord of the Rings by J R R R R Tolkien – which they did (without the extra Rs), and I bought it, sans cover and the cover was replaced with masking tape and a Coco Pops box – but the Hobbit was my first love).
  6. The Thursday Next series – Jasper Fforde.
  7. The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli.
  8. 1984 – George Orwell.
  9. All of David Baldacci’s trashy airport novels.
  10. All of Conn Iggulden’s historical fiction books about Caesar and Genghis Kahn.
  11. The Daily Scribe – my first year journalism textbook.
  12. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  13. Almost everything by Ben Elton
  14. The Little Book of Bunny Suicides – Andy Riley
  15. I just read a great trilogy about assassins by Brent Weeks that I really enjoyed. They were almost unputtdownable. People who like Fantasy and enjoyed Robin Hobb’s Assassin series should check them out.

You are all now tagged. Feel free to put your list here in the comments – or on your own blog, but make sure you put a link to your post in said comments…

August 11, 2009

Seeds of knowledge

If you’ve got a bunch of old books lying around taking up space why not turn them into academically themed pots.

Or you could just buy these (if you can read Japanese)…

August 10, 2009

One for the books

I’m a sucker for a good bit of other person promotion. And it’s probably time I mentioned Goannatree anyway.

It’s a good place to read intelligent scholarship from a Christian who is into literature, the arts and all sorts of culture.

This week Goannatree is running a book giveaway to encourage lurkers out of the woodworks – and probably to score a swag of new readers. So get along, check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

August 5, 2009

Bleak Books

I have no idea how many books have been published in the history of book publishing. There’s probably some sort of database that tracks that sort of thing.

Many of these books are crap, and justifiably fall through the cracks… Which is where “Awful Library Books” comes in – they’re tracking down the crap for posterity’s sake.

July 24, 2009

Austentatious 2 – Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters

 

From the team who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies…

July 17, 2009

Unsuggester: find the books you don’t want to read

LibraryThing (my profile) is a web cataloging platform for books. It can pull data from Amazon purchases – and you can manually enter in all the books you own. If you can be bothered.

It will make suggestions for you based on those books. It will now also “unsuggest” books for you based on what people who have a particular book are least likely to have on their shelves. The following is telling:

unsuggester

March 12, 2009

Good books?

The Times Online has just produced a list of “books for the religious” – I assume they’re a round up of newly released books rather than a catch all list of spiritual recommendations. Predictably they don’t include anything from an orthodox Christian standpoint.

Instead they recommend the following:

1. In Circles of Thorns: Hieronymous Bosch and Being Human, Justin Lewis-Anthony – a vaguely Christian book about the classic painting pictured above, with the summary from the Times saying: “that Jesus Christ is the calm centre in a circling, threatening world. It is that sense of peace that pulses through the book”

2. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Israel Shahak

3. The Atheist’s Bible: an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts, edited by Joan Konner

4. Making War in the Name of God , Christopher Catherwood

5. The Healing Word, Bishop Basil of Amphipolis

6. Creating a Future Islamic Civilization, Rashid Shaz

I’m pretty sure none of these would make my list. Although “Making War in the Name of God” sounds vaguely interesting.

I’m notoriously bad at collecting non-fiction books and then never reading them. I have a bookshelf full of half-read, or less, tomes of spiritual significance. Which ones should I read? What are your religious recommendations for others?

Obviously the seminal texts for each major religion are important to consider – and I think probably outside the scope of this Times article.

February 24, 2009

How to keep track of what you’ve read

I have a great deal of respect for John Piper. Which reminds me of a post I was going to write about all the sermons we listened to on the road in New Zealand. I’ll get to that one day.

John Piper is the “preaching pastor” of a wildly successful evangelical church in the US. He gives very few interviews. He’s old(ish) and seems pretty humble, passionate and level headed. He recently did do an interview online and here’s a great tip for keeping track of important bits from books. Create your own index. Piper doesn’t reread anything – but here’s how he keeps track of ideas:

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

“I index books as I read them, by writing short notes in the front of the book with page numbers beside them. In a good book there may be over a hundred such notes.”

February 12, 2009

Ego-Surfing USA

A long long time ago I wrote about egosurfing – the act of googling oneself. Have you ever done that? I have. About once every three years  – whenever I want to blog about egosurfing. It’s depressing. My first unique appearance is for a Media Release I wrote about the Magnetic Island crocodile – it’s on the second page of the results.  Other Nathan Campbells seem so much more accomplished. There’s a triathlete (certainly not me), an artist, a second grade player at the Parramatta Eels, a scout,  and someone who has been sentenced for a crime on YouTube. I do slightly better on the pages from Australia – I’m on the first page.

The reason I write this is because US author David Baldacci, writer of fiction thrillers that are borderline “airport thrillers”, has a bad case of egosurfingitis.  I must confess that I enjoy his work. I have purchased many of his novels for many a flight. But this page is pure ego stroking/search engine optimisation. And I made it, for referring to “The Whole Truth” in my “I Spy” post. My review wasn’t even that flattering… here’s the quote they’ve used:

“I’ve also managed to plow through a David Baldacci thriller. I don’t know about you – but I like my holiday reading to be pretty mindless. So “The Whole Truth” appealed to me much more than it did to the reviewer quoted on the Amazon page”

The worst bit is that the process doesn’t appear to be automated – it’s posted by “staff writers”. Now the reason I know this isn’t down to egosurfing – WordPress automatically tracks linkbacks to the blog from around the web. I can only hope that David Baldacci will link to me again if I mention his book “The Whole Truth” a couple more times. And perhaps put a link in to the Amazon page for The Whole Truth – which I did actually enjoy.  That’s the whole truth. I probably enjoyed the Robert Ludlum (of Bourne series fame) The Icarus Agenda more. It was superior as far as political conspiracy theory thrillers go. The Whole Truth seemed like a Wag the Dog derivative only instigated from the corporate rather than political sector.

January 27, 2009

I spy

Spy vs Spy

Spy vs Spy

This cartoon reminded me of a scene from NCIS the other night. It’s one of those TV shows I’ve probably under appreciated- the other being Bones. This post is largely about the things that I’ve been occupying my time with so far these holidays. I really like xkcd. I find their blend of stick figures and humour quite appealing.

I’ve been on holidays for a week now – or just over a week. My holidays thus far have consisted of time spent with family celebrating Christmas and having idiosyncratic family “moments” and the inevitable resolutions that follow. I’ve been filling the time reading books, and watching some cricket, and some Prison Break (series 3).

The cricket has been largely frustrating. Honestly, how our bowling attack seemingly duel handedly rested on the shoulders (how’s that for mixed metaphors) of Warne and McGrath for so long without our esteemed selectors doing any succession planning is beyond me. How can we be so devoid of bowling talent in a nation that prides itself on the depth of our domestic competition. I blame twenty20 or however they write the name of that abomination that causes desolation… anyway, I digress.

I’ve also managed to plow through a David Baldacci thriller. I don’t know about you – but I like my holiday reading to be pretty mindless. So “The Whole Truth” appealed to me much more than it did to the reviewer quoted on the Amazon page:

“Usually a sophisticated plotter, bestseller Baldacci (Absolute Power) offers a story line and villain on a par with an average James Bond film in what’s billed as his first international thriller. Nicholas Creel, the head of the Ares Corporation, a huge defense contractor, hires a perception management firm to start a second cold war by planting fake news stories on the Internet about Russian atrocities.”

Really it’s Wag the Dog for the Web 2.0 generation. Where once movie studios were used to create conflict for political gains – the protagonist in this novel employs blogs and youtube. I enjoyed it.

Not quite so mindless was the next holiday read – Final Theory. It’s like science fiction – only fiction about science, rather than the traditional sci-fi.

I find injustice in books slightly frustrating. When the central character is under unwarranted scrutiny or being mistreated by the “good guys” – the authorities. Which is what happens at the start Final Theory.

I watched the Get Smart movie last night for the first time. It was funny, and it’s the common thread that links the title with these other ramblings – other than the fact that they’re what I’ve been “spying” in the last few days. I enjoyed Get Smart.

I am in a little trouble though – I’m now almost at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the books I have to read during the holidays (and we’ve got a bit of flying and driving ahead of us with our New Zealand jaunt just around the corner). I walked around Angus and Robertson yesterday and was pretty uninspired. Any suggestions would be welcome.

January 3, 2009