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)

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

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?

Understanding the difference between Vision, Mission, Values & Goals

On my previous leadership post I said if leadership is about anything then it's about achieving a vision. But what do we mean by vision, and what about mission, values and goals?

I think it may be helpful to define what is normally meant by these terms.

Mission (you can also use the word Purpose)
Dictionary definition – a person’s vocation, his mission in life
Mission answers the question “Why do we exist?”

Vision
Dictionary definition – something seen in the imagination or in a dream
Should answer the question “Where are we going?”
A vision statement must have a destination otherwise it is just a purpose\mission statement.

Values
The way we do things here – culture, ethos – our distinctiveness
What we believe in shapes our values, our values shape our behaviour.

Goals
These should annual plans that help you move towards your vision in bite-sized chunks
They should be achieveable but challenging.
You could have annual, 2-3 year or 5-10 year goals, it all depends on the long term nature of your vision.

I can do that

How often do you generate a list of good ideas and then don't do any of them or at least you don't do them very well?

At a recent conference I heard Rick Warren make a great suggestion. He was saying that at most conferences he likes to have a sheet of paper where he writes down ideas under the heading "I could do that", then when he gets back to his base he looks at the list of ideas and picks ONE and does that one and won't look to do any of the others until that one is done.

If you think about church, training, work, TV, personal reading and study each week you probably receive loads of suggestions and ideas to improve your life. Can you really expect to implement even one of these ideas on a weekly basis? It's just too much to do, never mind doing it well!

I often think if there was just one or two things each year we could really change or improve then we would see significant growth in our lives.

So if you could change, improve, learn one thing this year what would it be - what's the one thing that you can do?

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

Introductions

Let me introduce myself, I’m Steven Hunter.  Up to this point I have led quite a varied life, right now I live in Bishop’s Stortford where I work as a church administrator.

This is a job which means I very much have a “finger in all the pies” hence the name of this blog.

So why do a blog?  Well I’ll give you five reasons:

• Having to write\create content for this blog will I hope both stretch and develop me.
• The idea of journalling has always been something I wanted to do and get into yet I have always struggled, so somehow I hope that this blog will serve somewhat as a personal journal.
• It’s a way to interact in a different way with friends both near and far because in one way or another we are all inter-connected. One aspect of this blog will be to help connect others across the virtual (& real) world – seeing different, relevant and strange views, ideas and creations.
• Reading other blogs over the past year has inspired and challenged me, so I want to in some small way inspire and challenge others.
• I think it will be fun, I hope you think so too.

So please do comment (and subscribe!) on my posts if they speak\tickle\challenge\annoy you.

Let the adventure begin.