If I was a trappist monk, I would definitely read more than 50 books in a year

So I heard about this Thomas Merton guy a few years ago, and at first he sounded like a nut case. He may very well be a nut case, but he has some good things to say. Granted, I do question anyone that can live extended amounts of time without human interaction, but that doesn't take away from his thoughts. I'm not going to get into the details of Merton's philosophies but this is an excellent overview of the many branches of Cistercian monks. There are as many types of monks as there are denominations in the protestant Church, and many of the differences are just as trivial. I'm not going to lie to you, this isn't a pleasure read for most people, but if you've ever wondered what a vow of silence would be like, this is a pretty inside look. Thomas Merton has some very different, and often controversial, viewpoints but if you can weed through those there is some very significant content to contemplate.

47! And a series complete

Well...I promised a full review when I completed the 5 books in the Percy Jackson series. I don't want to give too much away, but as adults with any semblance of knowledge of Greek mythology it isn't too difficult to pick up on foreshadowing and thematic devices in these books, so here it goes.

Percy Jackson is 12 years old when we meet him, he quickly discovers through a series of monster related adventures that he is a half-blood. That is to say half mortal and half deity. In Percy Jackson's world the deities of Greek mythology have continued to exist and they just move around wherever Western civilization is centered. With this knowledge Percy is invited to attend a camp for half bloods with others from around the world along with centaurs, satyrs, naiads, dryads, harpies, and myriad other beasts that I previously had little knowledge of.
Needless to say, the demon side of mythology has persisted as well, and these creatures soon begin to unleash there fury. Over 5 books Percy himself deals with most of Hades' worst minions in the city, below ground, under water, and in the sky. Percy relies on the help of his friends as well as the Gods themselves, most of them make appearances, but you may be surprised how, and when.
Overall I highly recommend these books. If your child may not be able to understand this is mythology then you may want to wait, but for any mature kid these are great epic adventures. They are tales of good versus evil, and wonderful stories where good decisions ultimately lead to success. Percy Jackson was just something I started as a distraction from my quest, but like Percy I was sucked into a journey I was unable to say no too. I normally say I don't enjoy fiction but Percy has caused me to reconsider that stance.

46, but this should have counted as a couple of books

So I guess I never figured I'd read a Jonathan Edwards book, let alone a book written by John Piper commenting on a book by Jonathan Edwards, which by the way, included the entire Edwards book as well. But, I did, and it was tough. I am decently familiar with Piper so I actually thought the Piper portion of the book was pretty straight-forward. Don't get me wrong, I learned an immense amount of information, but as far as difficulty of comprehension I was pleasantly surprised that I felt like I was in-taking what Piper was attempting to convey. That all ceased when Edward's original writings took over. I need to say that if it were not for the Piper thoughts to lead the book, I don't feel I could have gotten through the remainder of the writings. The text that Edwards wrote was entitled The End for Which God Created the World it is a fairly well known piece of Christian literature, but I found it very hard to track with. This was not beacuse of the content or necessarily even the level of theological understanding. It had much more to do with the changes in the English language over the last 250ish years. Jonathan Edwards was a contemporary of the founding fathers and his writing reads as such. To my "post0modern" sensibilities the words of Edwards came across much like contemporary legal documents. This is not to say that it was intentionally confusing, in fact I often found that Edward's made his point more thoroughly than necessary, the writing just piled up at great lengths causing me to often get tangled up in his ideas, and proof texts. Having said all of these things I felt this was an incredibly valuable read. I was stretched in my understandings of God, and was challenged as a reader. It was fascinating to see that many of the struggles in the modern American Church are similar to those of Edwards day, even though the language of his time is as foreign to me as Greek or Hebrew.

5 to go!

Assasination Vacation is not a murder novel. It is however a ridiculously fascinating story. I feel it is important to note that I grew up in a home that would make most presidential libraries jealous, so I am probably prone to information on our presidents, especially the ones killed in office. In this book Sarah Vowell takes to the road unearthing the minutiae surrounding the first 3 Presidential assassinations. Those 3 assassinations were Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley. The first of these is pretty well known and as a native son of "the land of Lincoln," I had the tale pounded into my head each year along with the stirring exploits of Kazimir Polaski (look it up). Any way, the Lincoln assassination is indeed fascinating, and full of intrigue but so are the lesser known of the presidential assassinations. If I didn't trust the sources of the information I would have a hard time believing that many of the plot lines didn't come from telenovelas. These stories are rife with espionage, conspiracy, bribary, bizarre sexual exploits, teapot manufacturing, And strangely enough Robert Todd Lincoln comes to play in all three stories. Reading this book inspired me to visit Washington D.C. as soon as possible and explore the historical sites that are off of the normal tourists radar, as well as visit the Truman presidential library in Kansas City when I go home for Christmas. He wasn't assassinated, but a couple of people tried. Maybe there is a good story behind that as well.

44! I can see the light

So a few years ago I was reading the book Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. At the time it seemed like 1300 pages of what could only be classified as theological shock therapy. Looking back on the book, it was neither that overwhelming of a read, nor really that arduous a task, but I'm a little older now and definitely a better reader, so that is to be expected. Anyway, I have asked the guys in my community group to read this book and since I try to not ask people to read books I haven't read myself, you shall now get a blog post describing the book. Grudem took the 1300ish pages of Systematic Theology and "condensed" it down to just under 600 pages for the book Bible Doctrine which was then parsed down to around 150 pages and presented as this book Christian Beliefs.
I really appreciate what Grudem has done in this book, having read the monster version I was actually surprised to find that a couple of the things presented actually seemed clearer in their abridged form. I have very few complaints with the book, I felt the tone and writing style was very accessible and easy to enter into. I did, however, wish that Grudem had chosen to discuss the ordinances of the Church as well as getting into exactly how the Bible was canonized, but I realize he was limited to 20 topics. I would highly recommend this book to anyone hoping to get in on the ground floor of reformed theology, or for anyone wanting to brush up on their knowledge of the essentials.

43

Book # 4 in the Percy Jackson series is completed!

T minus 8

I feel that I need to say this on the record - I am still reading mature adult writing. I just got wrapped up in this story and want to finish it. Like I said last time, I will give a huge write-up on the Percy Jackson series once I am done. But just in case anyone doesn't believe me I am also currently reading God's Passion for His Glory, it is definitely higher level reading. I haven't abandoned scholastic pursuits, but sometimes you have to finish an adventure!