Book to read in 2013

At the beginning of the last two years I have put together a list of books that I plan to read over the year. In 2012 I had a list of 17 books which I thought would be achievable based on my modest reading pace. Alas I once again got sidetracked for a large period of the year. I did read Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchel - absolutely outstanding
Hombre - by Elmore Leonard
American Sphinx the character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J Ellis - fascinating character was Jefferson, brilliant yet with some major flaws
The Dark Night of the Soul - by Gerald D May - very profound, I think I have a reflection written somewhere that I may publish one day
In the Shadow of His Wings - by Jonathan Macy - I can proudly call the author a friend and this is a great book which adds another dimension to our understanding of God, his church and how His care is shown to us.

So what of 2013? Will I set myself a more realistic target? Well my list of books I want to read is listed below and is very similar to my 2012 list, I refuse to be beaten (and quite frankly if I don't read them this year then I should give them away!). In total there are actually 14 this year (down from 17). Also as I am publishing this list in mid February I have already read three books and I am onto my fourth so by the end of February I will have 10 months and 10 books to read - a month a book very achievable.
FICTION
Three Men in a Boat - by Jerome K Jerome - reading now
Tooth & Nail - by Ian Rankin
The ascent of Isaac Steward by - Mike French - the last (?) day of Isaac Steward sees the mental breakdown and rebuilding of a man's life and mental world, shades of Inception's dreams within dreams
The Road - by Cormac McCarthy
Blue Friday - by Mike French - excellent page turner sci-fi book that draws on elements of 1984 and chimes very much with the latest TV series Utopia

HISTORY
Six Centuries of Verse - selected and introduced by Anthony Thwaite
The War of the World – by Niall Ferguson

GROWTH
You Can Change - by Tim Chester
The Road Less Travelled - by M.Scott Peck
The Story From The Book, from Adam to Armageddon - by Ted Miller
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul - by John Eldredge
The Practice of the Presence of God - by Brother Lawrence
Longing for God - by Richard Foster & Gayle Beebe
How to be a bad Christian (and a better human being) - Dave Tomlinson - I recommend this to any Christian who is a little bored with the church thing, it will help you to ask questions, search out a bigger meaning and be a better person (but people may think you are a 'bad' Christian)

Book Review - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is an incredible book. The characters in its pages are described in great depth, despite the relative brevity of each of their stories and the narrative keeps your attention like the best page turning thriller.

Cloud Atlas is made up of six separate stories which are connected by a variety of threads which show how power and control continue to dog man throughout time. I enjoy stories that are told through interlinking lives, I immediately think of great films like Crash, Short Cuts and Magnolia. Cloud Atlas is easily as absorbing as those films and I eagerly await the release of Cloud Atlas the film this year (it will either be a tragic effort or a masterpiece).

The big difference with this story as opposed to the films I mentioned is the way it is spread over a timespan from nineteenth century to sometime in the distant future. The authors ability to write in such differing but truly authentic styles is brilliant. It is no wonder it was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2004.

It is certainly a 5 star book and one of the best works of fiction I have ever read.

Have you read Cloud Atlas? What do you think?

The worst of 2011?

Following on from yesterday's list of my most popular posts it seems only fair to list those posts that weren't quite so stellar. None of these posts gathered more than 10 pageviews (my last 10 posts averaged 60 pageviews). Part of the reason for the low pageviews for these post was that they were written in the early days of my blog.

So in no particular order:

Be Holy, Be British (a meditation on God's call to us to be holy)
Book Review: Team of Rivals (my review of this fabulous book about one of the great leaders - Abraham Lincoln)
Dexter (a liitle bit about my favourite TV programme)
New Music (my comments on 'new' CDs I found in my local charity shop)
What motivates us (I thought this was a great post with an inspirational video)

Have you any comments or thoughts on posts that you think were not great? I really would love to get any comments and constructive criticism if you have any. If you think that any of the posts from the above list don't deserve to be in this list let me know.

The best of 2011?

Just for fun I thought I would list my most popular posts, in terms of pageviews, in 2011. They were in reverse order:

5. I join the smartphone crowd (341 pageviews)
4. Book reading update (559 pageviews)3. I can do that (188 pageviews)2. Communicating Vision (631 pageviews)1. Admin Lessons - Planning (947 pageviews)

What has been your favourite post on finger in all the pies? I would love to know what has been memorable to you.

Books of 2012

I have 17 books* on my reading list for 2012. As I finish each one I hope to write a simple review, my thoughts and feelings on each book. Last year my list was made up of 20 books and I only managed to read 11 so this year's list is still a challenge** but hopefully a bit more achievable. I have broken my list into three categories.
Fiction, History & Growth (growth refers to books that I hope will inspire, challenge and help me to grow). Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them.

FICTION
Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchel
Three Men in a Boat - by Jerome K Jerome
Hombre - by Elmore Leonard
Tooth & Nail - by Ian Rankin
The ascent of Isaac Steward by - Mike French
The Road - by Cormac McCarthy*

HISTORY
American Sphinx the character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J Ellis
Six Centuries of Verse - selected and introduced by Anthony Thwaite
The War of the World – by Niall Ferguson*

GROWTH
You Can Change - by Tim Chester*
The Dark Night of the Soul - by Gerald D May
The Road Less Travelled - by M.Scott Peck*
The Story From The Book, from Adam to Armageddon - by Ted Miller*
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul - by John Eldredge*
The Practice of the Presence of God - by Brother Lawrence
Longing for God - by Richard Foster & Gayle Beebe
In the Shadow of His Wings - by Jonathan Macy

* books that were on the 2011 list
** my 17 books means I have 4759 pages to read in 2012 that works out to 13 pages a day

Top of the Pops

image courtesy of
Vectorportal Site

It's the end of the year and I thought I would sign off by listing my favourite Music, Films, Books, Photos and Videos of 2011.

Music - I started the year of consciously listening to more music as a way developing my musical appreciation, exposure and growth. As a result this is the hardest category to pick one best band/cd but I will. Before that let me mention three notable bands/Cds
Rend Collective Experiment - Organic Family Hymnal, quite simply it takes me to a place of worship which no other music does, I wrote a post about one of there song why go read it - click here
Texas - White on Blonde, an old album from 1997 but it just brilliant
Jonathan Coulton - Joco Looks Back, if you regularly go to Ikea you must listen to his track of the same name, a fabulously quirky album which I stumbled across by virtue of the social network (seeing a friend listening to it so I listened to it)
But my pick for 2011 is Listener - Wooden Heart, I wrote about coming across this band at Greenbelt and they are just amazing - click here to read my post

Films - I watch quite a few films, I secretly want to be a film critic, but I rarely get to go the cinema so my top films this year are mostly via TV\DVD.
Thor - the best superhero adaptation in my opinion- funny, fantastic, great characters and great visuals and direction - the only bad thing was I had to watch it in 3D
Sunset Boulevard - a film from 1950 with William Holden & Gloria Swanson which I just loved
The Straight Story - a wonderful story about a man on a journey to repair his relationship with his brother
Bronson - a tour de force by Tom Hardy
But my pick for 2011 is A Town Called Panic - a French stop animation film which was just wonderfully surreal. It pops up on Film4 every now and then so try and watch it you will love it.

Books - if you follow my blog you will know that I have had a list of 20 books that I wanted to read this year. Of the eleven I actually finished two stand out.
The Shack by William P. Young -  - a wonderful touching story of God meeting a man at his lowest point it is moving and challenging and made me want to see more of God
My pick for 2011 is Teams of Rivals - the story of Abraham Lincoln's remarkable life and presidency. I reviewed this book back on Feb 12th mine and Abe's birthday!


Photos - this year I have been trying to take all sorts of photos - interesting and creative ones - I'm not going to choose one that is best but I here are some of my favourites.

Videos - I love how we can be inspired, amused and touched through the visual medium, here are some of my favourites - Resurrection by Rob Bell would be my pick for 2011.
 Resurrection by Rob Bell Parallel Parking by Yum Yum London Television is a drug by Beth Fulton John & Joe by the StoryCorps

Book reading update - 9 down 11 to go!

Oh dear my plan to read 20 books this year is going to require either:
1) a miracle, or
2) no sleep for the rest of the year!
Unfortunately I sort of stopped reading shortly after Easter and didn't really pick it up again much over the summer. Nevertheless I do have a few mini-reviews to update you with and a revised list of books I am going to try and get through - a new target if you like.

The world needs more elders - PJ Smyth
I had started reading this on my last update back in April! It's an excellent thought provoking book, not only is it a good tool to use for training future church leaders, but also for anybody in a church to consider a measured and biblical view of what church leaders should be focusing on. Reading it challenged me in many ways in terms of my thinking about church and leadership and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Associate - John Grisham
I really enjoy the pulp fiction nature of John Grisham books and until the last chapter this book was engaging, fast moving and a 'real page turner'. However I have never been so diappointed in the ending of one of his books, it just stopped - no suspense, no future possiblities - sorry John you need to re-write that last chapter.

Disabled Church-Disabled Society: The Implications of Autism for Philosophy, Theology and Politics – John Gillibrand
I have never read a more difficult and challenging book. Actually I still haven't because if I am honest when I got to the almost impenatrable sections I skimmed quite a bit. However, the chapter about his life with his son Adam was incredibly moving and in amongst the rest of the book there are some challenging questions. Above everything I was left to wonder, as Gillibrand does, are people like his son who has no means of communication with the 'normal' world much closer to God than we can ever be?

Persian fire: the first world empire and the battle for the West – Tom Holland
I am a massive fan of Tom Holland's award winning book Rubicon about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Alas, whilst this book no doubt was as accurate and detailed as Rubicon it seemed to me very dry. That may be in part due to the incredible complexity of the tale it tells - not only many different nations, states and cities but tribes and clans within cities and states. The most interesting part of it was finding out about the complex and very clever bureaucracy of the Persian empire, that even a duck had to have a travel pass to move along the Persian highway!

The books I want to read before the end of the year (in one month)
Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It – by Steve Taylor
You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions – by Tim Chester
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
In total these have 610 pages, that means that on average I need to read around 30 pages per day - not a lot for an avid reader but a challenge for me! Wish me luck, and why not share what you've been reading lately?

Book Reading Update

At the start of the year I listed the 19 books I wanted to read. I thought I would post an update, give you some thoughts and most importantly I would love get some your comments on these books if you have read them or let me know what you are reading.

So far this year I have read:

Teams of Rivals - the story of Abraham Licoln's remarkable life and presidency. I reviewed this book back on Feb 12th mine and Abe's birthday!

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - This is a fascinating book which looks at why and how some fashions, messages, education, adverts, methods of working, even crime waves and crime fighting can be stunningly successful almost overnight. How they go from ordinary to tipping into epidemics.

Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner - a refreshingly honest and entertaining autobiography

Gridlock by Ben Elton - I normally like Ben Elton books but  I didn't enjoy this one.  The first half of the book was both turgid & hyperactive in it's changes of subject. The last quarter of the book suddenly became full of life and then it was suddenly finished. Not his best.

The Shack by William P. Young - A worldwide bestseller that has been criticised by several well know Christian leaders notably Mark Driscoll*. I found this work of FICTION to be moving and challenging and made me want to open my eyes to see more of God and His work in my life. A beautiful story.

And currently I am reading The World Needs More Elders by PJ Smyth which is a booklet on the role, character and key areas of development of Christian leaders and specifically church leaders (elders). It is excellent material that is really refreshing and challenging so far.

So do you have any comments on any of these books? What are you reading?

* just for the record I think Mark Driscoll is a great bible teacher and has built a great church I just don't agree with him on all issues and certainly I think he has gone way over the top on The Shack, he is just a little too black and white on certain things for me. But I must say he has got a great tag line on his Twitter feed "A nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody"

Rob Bell - the definitive take on Love Wins by someone who hasn't read it

I've been tracking some of the debate and furore that has surrounded the launch of Rob Bell's latest book Love Wins.

Now I have to say I haven't read the book but in the vein of many of the articles I have read that somehow doesn't seem to matter! However for upfront disclosure I have to say I am a fan of his work, especially his preaching. I would say he is the best communicator I have ever listened to, only C.J. Mahaney comes close in my opinion.

But back to the issue at hand "Love Wins" - or does everyone get to heaven anyway? The best reviews of the book and the central issue I have seen are Derek Tidball from EA which is a brief summary of the book, Steven Harmon who covers the issue of universalism and Derek Ouellette who brings an interesting question - is it the sub-title that has caused all the problems?

Having watched the video (see below) that introduces the book, my view is that I think the questions raised in the book are ones that real people, especially non-christians, struggle with. There is a tension even a bit of a paradox in the general love of God to want all men to be saved and yet we have  the option to choose God.


LOVE WINS. - Available March 15th from Rob Bell on Vimeo.

The best summary of the issue of who gets into Heaven I have seen and I fully agree with is from Steven Harmon who writes, "a settled doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all persons seems difficult to reconcile with the clear teaching of many passages of Scripture. Theologically, a necessarily universal salvation seems to contravene both the freedom of God and the freedom of humanity. I will not be surprised if I discover in heaven that the God revealed in Jesus Christ has indeed in the end reconciled all people to God, but I cannot presume that."

Ultimately God's love will win and I hope as we consider these important questions we remember 1 Cor 13:13 "three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love". Let's pursue love with God, one another and the lost above all else - especially above telling people they are wrong and we are am right.

Book Review: Team of Rivals

Today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, so it seems fitting to post my review of the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

The book tells the story of Abraham Lincoln and the three rivals he beat for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. Lincoln appointed all three men to his cabinet, soothed their egos, drew upon their talents, political skills and experience to help him in leading the country through the most difficult period of its history. The book spans the decades running to the Civil War, the war’s big battles, and ends with the assassination of Lincoln.

Through the book you get an idea of Lincoln’s leadership: his superhuman empathy, superlative sense of political timing, and patience. But what really set him apart was his ability to strike compromise and control his own emotions - whether he was under attack by colleagues, critics or public opinion.

He would not be rushed but carefully thought through issues from all sides. He took counsel from those with more experience or clear gifting, always sort to take others with him. Slow to react to critiscism, fast to forgive, never afraid to apologise, generous with his time and always looked for the good in people. The statesmanship of Lincoln is immense and it is easy to see how he is so revered, indeed the story related by Tolstoy and mentioned in the book sums him up well. Tolstoy was the guest of a tribal chief in Russia 40 years after Lincoln's death and had entertained them with of tales of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon.  The Chief then stood and said, "But you have not told us about the greatest general and ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock... His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America"

In my opinion Abraham Lincoln stands alongside Henry V as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. Great because of the skill, leadership and humanity they show.

Through this book I had grown to care and respect Lincoln so much and see the love in which he was held that reading the last chapter which chronicles his assassination was quite an emotional experience.

I thoroughly recommend this book.

I would be glad to have a tenth of the qualities old Abe had.  The one thing I do share with him is my birthday, so Happy Birthday to the both of us!

My books of the year

At the start of the year I made a realistic list of books I want to read.  There 20 on this list, out of the 40-50 books I have that are yet to be read. No doubt I may add some other books on the way and some on this list could become casualties of war (the new books overtaking these ones).

I hope to write a simple review of each book over the course of the year.  Why not let me know what books you are reading or what you think of these books if you have read them. 

The books I am reading now

Team of rivals : the political genius of Abraham Lincoln – by Doris Kearns Goodwin

[So far it is an absorbing historical account and a look into the mind & working of one of the truly great leaders]

The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth – by M.Scott Peck

[I am trying to read a chapter or two of this a week as part of trying to understand myself and my world – incredibly insight and very readable]

The Story From The Book - From Adam to Armageddon – by Ted Miller

[A summary paraphrase of the bible – reading this I hope to get a better sense of the sweep of scripture]

Books I plan to read this year

Persian fire: the first world empire and the battle for the West – by Tom Holland

[His previous book Rubicon on the Roman Empire was fascinating]

The War of the World – by Niall Ferguson

[His previous book Empire on the British Empire was excellent and made me proud to be British!]

The world needs more elders – by PJ Smyth

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul – by John Eldredge

The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity – by William Paul Young

You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions – by Tim Chester

The Associate – by John Grisham

The Catcher in the Rye – by J. D. Salinger

[I never read any classics when I was younger so I am trying to catch up, no pun intended]

The Road – by Cormac McCarthy

Gridlock – by Ben Elton

Frank Skinner (The Autobiography) – by Frank Skinner

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference – by Malcolm Gladwell

Leadership Handbook of Management and Administration – by James D. Berkley

Disabled Church-Disabled Society: The Implications of Autism for Philosophy, Theology and Politics – by John Gillibrand

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want – by John Gray

[pop psychology I know but I thought I’d give it a quick read]

The Wisdom of Crowds – by James Surowiecki

Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It – by Steve Taylor