What are you reading right now?

[ajyouthguy]

Simple Church--Thom Rainer

[Vlad!]

I'm loaded up with the following:
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage (Cliff Stoll)
I got this book earlier this month. I don't know a whole lot about it (including whether I'll like it at all), but that's the way I prefer to approach books.

The New Turing Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science (A. K. Dewdney)
This book has been sitting on my shelf mocking me for an embarrassingly long time. I've been waiting for a time when I have enough mental energy to tackle it. I'm hoping this will be that time.

Walden (H.D. Thoreau)
I've read most of this book in bits and pieces for class, but I want to read it straight through. I recall it being full of serene wisdom, timeless aphorisms, and brilliant observations. Let's hope it stands up as well this time around.

[enemy anemone]

some years ago a friend recommended The Cuckoo's Egg and I meant to check it out, but I don't remember now if I found it, tried to read it, and failed or just didn't find it.

I'm reading bits and pieces from Color In Spinning, by Deb Menz. the book deals with color theory as it pertains to fiber and yarn and is the most technical book on yarn I've ever come across. ("there are technical books about yarn?")

[ajyouthguy]

Essential Church?--Thom Rainer

[ajyouthguy]

Beyond Belief--Josh Hamilton

[enemy anemone]

The Silmarillion

[ajyouthguy]

Know What You Believe--Paul Little
Know Why You Believe--Paul Little
Know Who You Believe--Paul Little

[ajyouthguy]

Good News About Injustice--Gary Haugen

[Vlad!]

Good News About Injustice--Gary Haugen

What's the good news about injustice?

[ajyouthguy]

i'm going to assume you're asking that seriously, so i'll answer.  Gary Haugen is the founder of the International Justice Mission, a Washington, D.C., Christian-based organization of lawyers and law-enforcement officials that Haugen founded when he came home from seeing the injustices in Rwanda in the mid-90's and felt led to 'do more' with his life.  He is a Harvard-educated lawyer, who at the time was working for the U.S. State Dept/Justice Dept/UN Human Rights team, etc.  He had also seen similar injustices in other corners of the world, including the Phillipines, and it tugged on his heart that there was something more he could do than just the state-mandated jobs he was given.  So, he founded the IJM.  They partner with the U.S. government and a lot of other governments to investigate and bring to justice many of the human rights violations occuring in countries all over the world (including the U.S.), things like bonded labor (ie, a child rolling cigarettes for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 50 cents, because they were sold to pay a family medical debt, or the brothels of teen (and sometimes younger) girls in forced prostitution (sometimes turning 20+ tricks in a single day) in Asia, and countless others.  The book is Haugen bringing to light what Scripture says about justice, about God's heart for justice, etc, and also sharing some of what IJM and other human rights groups are doing, as well as encouraging and challenging us as believers to do something on our part about it as well.

[Vlad!]

So the good news about injustice is that it's gradually being corrected, then. That's good.

That was a serious question, by the way.

[ajyouthguy]

So the good news about injustice is that it's gradually being corrected, then. That's good.

That was a serious question, by the way.

i assumed it was, because of past questions about books, but you're the only one who ever seems to ask those types of questions on the 'reading' threads, so i'm not totally sure sometimes. 

as to your first line, i would take it further than that, to say that Haugen is pointing out that, one, God HATES injustice, and loves when His children do something about it; and two, that there ARE some neat stories of what God is doing through people (not just him and the IJM) as it relates to injustices in the world...to extend it to today (the book is about 8-10 years old), he would probably include what is going on in organizations like Invisible Children, what people like young Zach Hunter and his "Be the Change" and "Generation Change" book and movement among school aged kids and youth groups are doing, what David Batstone and his "Not for Sale" book and abolitionist work has done, and many other examples of people making a dent in areas like human trafficking, forced prostitution, child soldiers, and many more.  The 'good news' is that there is hope...in God, and in what people are doing to try to combat and correct many of the injustices going on.

[ajyouthguy]

Christian Beliefs--Wayne Grudem

[Aaron]

Christian Beliefs--Wayne Grudem

How is that? I am not a big fan of Grudem and his works but am always interested to see what he has to say.

[ajyouthguy]

It's a good very basic look at 20 foundational beliefs.  According to the intro, it's a condensation of a 500+ page book, which was itself a condensation of a 1200 page book or something like that.

It's good for like new believers or youth to build a foundation of what they believe and why and so forth, which is why I'm reading it because we are doing basic beliefs in my youth group this semester b/c sadly, statistically, MOST students have NO clue what they really believe, what God really says, etc.

[ajyouthguy]

Cast of Characters--Max Lucado
Evil and the Justice of God--NT Wright

[ajyouthguy]

Death by Love--Mark Driscoll

[ajyouthguy]

At the Crossroads: Inside the Past, Present and Future of Contemporary Christian Music--Charlie Peacock

[ajyouthguy]

How to Read the Bible as Literature--Leland Ryken

[ajyouthguy]

Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation--Henry A. Virkler

[phaith]

Walden (H.D. Thoreau)
I've read most of this book in bits and pieces for class, but I want to read it straight through. I recall it being full of serene wisdom, timeless aphorisms, and brilliant observations. Let's hope it stands up as well this time around.

I love this book, I used to read it every spring but haven't done so in 4 years. I think I need to take it up again.

[ajyouthguy]

How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth--Fee and Stuart

[ajyouthguy]

Uprising--Erwin McManus

[latinchic]

Ann Coulter's "Guilty".
Ronald Reagan Biography
Josephus

[ajyouthguy]

Vintage Church--Mark Driscoll

[ajyouthguy]

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism--Timothy Keller

[enemy anemone]

currently listening to the audiobook of Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. it's funny.

[ajyouthguy]

Uncommon--Tony Dungy

[ajyouthguy]

Just finished Save Me From Myself by Brian "Head" Welch
now reading Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels

[Vlad!]

now reading Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels

Is he discontented with holiness, or does he feel that he's remaining holy in his discontentment? Either way, I'm skeptical.

[enemy anemone]

(I imagine "holy discontent" has to do with not being complacent.)

I started reading FotR the other day. it was weird (but cool) at first because I kept hearing the words in my head at random times as though they were spoken by Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, and Cate Blanchett. (different parts had different voices, not they were speaking in unison.)

[ajyouthguy]

Is he discontented with holiness, or does he feel that he's remaining holy in his discontentment? Either way, I'm skeptical.

i...don't get it...sorry?

[Vlad!]

i...don't get it...sorry?

Well, I have a bad habit of trying to figure out what a book is about by its title alone, and that title is ambiguous. When I first read the title, I thought "this book is about a guy who is working through his own discontentment with things that are 'holy', i.e. the church", sort of like Disappointment with God, which we discussed on this board a (long?) while ago. But then I thought "maybe the book is about how to be discontented with things (one's lot in life, the church, God) while still remaining holy". Since neither of these things seem like particularly great sentiments and certainly not topics of a book I would potentially want to read, I expressed my skepticism, by implication giving you a chance to explain your own feelings on the book once you've read enough to have developed some.

I hadn't thought of Schil's interpretation, but it's also potentially valid, and seems much more plausible. Holy discontent is not being content to sit in your own little rut and live out our safe Christian lives, but instead testing the boundaries of our faith.

[spacebrat311]

After Christendom - Stanley Hauerwas

On a book-related note, I just found out that one of my favorite theologians died last month. Rest in peace Marcella Althaus-Reid. After I finish my Hauerwas book, I'm going to re-read Another Possible World, a collection of essays she put together from multiple sources, including herself.

[ajyouthguy]

Well, I have a bad habit of trying to figure out what a book is about by its title alone, and that title is ambiguous. When I first read the title, I thought "this book is about a guy who is working through his own discontentment with things that are 'holy', i.e. the church", sort of like Disappointment with God, which we discussed on this board a (long?) while ago. But then I thought "maybe the book is about how to be discontented with things (one's lot in life, the church, God) while still remaining holy". Since neither of these things seem like particularly great sentiments and certainly not topics of a book I would potentially want to read, I expressed my skepticism, by implication giving you a chance to explain your own feelings on the book once you've read enough to have developed some.

i wouldn't have been remotely interested had it been either of those.

[ajyouthguy]

Knowing God--J.I. Packer
What Jesus Demands from the World--John Piper

[ajyouthguy]

The Hole In Our Gospel--Rich Stearnes (president of World Vision)

[Vlad!]

What is the hole in our gospel? Looking over the book's website, it appears to be very service-oriented, calling us to be disciples dedicated to reaching out and serving. I see nothing that suggests a hole in the gospel message or what that hole might be.

[spacebrat311]

I get the sense from the title "the hole in OUR gospel" that the flaw the author is pointing out is not in the gospel itself but in what we understand the gospel to be.

[ajyouthguy]

I get the sense from the title "the hole in OUR gospel" that the flaw the author is pointing out is not in the gospel itself but in what we understand the gospel to be.

...and how we live it out.

thanks, for piping in, seriously.