Like lots of people who blog, a large part of my life revolves around books. Even when I'm not reading them I'm very interested in what new books are coming out and in what others are saying about books. Lately I've come across a few new book resources I thought I would point out.
1. Challies.com
OK - this is not new, but pride of place for book reviews in the blogosphere goes to Tim Challies. He is one of our most thoughtful and energetic book reviewers. A few of the books he has reviewed lately are With Reverence and Awe by D. G. Hart, What Jesus Taught About Praise and Worship by Ken Blount, Pursuing God by Jim Eliff, and Blog by Hugh Hewitt. Like I said, Tim isn't new to most of us, but I thought I would remind us again that Challies.com is a good place to begin looking for good books.
This is a new find for me and I'm very excited about it. The proprieter is Dennis Swanson, the librarian at The Master's Seminary. I've known of Dennis for some time as he has several papers published on the internet, one of which is a paper on the eschatology of Charles Spurgeon that I ran across several years ago. I've already linked to Dennis's regular blog, the Narnia3 Blog (check out his post comparing Hunter Thompson and Ernest Hemmingway), and wanted to point out this one which is devoted to book reviews. He seems to be having a problem getting his posts to show up on his front page right now, but you can go to the side and see his links to recent entries. He's working on this right now.
His most recent review is of Thom Rainer's Breakout Churches. I was initially surprised that Dennis gave the book such a favorable review. Rainer's writing is almost exclusively to church growth themes, and with Dennis being so closely associated with John MacArthur I wouldn't have expected this to be up his alley. But the review is very favorable and Dennis points out that Rainer is not like many church growth gurus. Contrary to the pragmatism and methodological emphases of many church growth gurus, Rainer emphasizes study and the preaching of the word as being central to church growth.
Needless to say, based on Dennis's recommendation I went out and bought the book yesterday. And I can recommend that you check it out for yourself.
And just to remind yourself that your addiction to reading is a good thing, check out this post called Reading is Real Life from Brandywine Books, and Tim Challies On Being a Bookworm.
I love books. I like almost everything about them, including the tactile sensation of holding a book in my hands. (E-books don't do it for me.)
As a book lover I'm always looking for new books to buy and read. (I wish I had more money and time for this.) So I will surely check these sites out.
Thanks.
Posted by: Teem | March 18, 2005 at 02:16 PM
Narnia3's words on Thompson and Hemmingway were interesting, but I don't think he really understood Thompson - and so his evaluation necessarily misses the mark. Really, I think this causes him to dismiss Thompson (like much of the media covering his recent demise did) too easily. Thompson chronicled the doom of the existential life with a viscerality not present in Hemmingway - he marked out clearly the vanity of the whole degenerate movement of the Woodstock generation. He also, accurately, describes the vanity of the American Dream. The talent and comedic wit of his writing is definitely intended for those of a particular taste and not all will find him palatable - but to guess that his books will soon be out of print and the author forgotten seems a bit short-sighted to me.
Further, whether one's holds a high opinion of Gonzo journalism or not, Thompson did correctly identify the impossibility of objective reporting - the point that drove his exagerrated style.
Posted by: The Dane | March 18, 2005 at 02:54 PM