CharlesJones

Writing Down the Jones

Posts Tagged ‘reading’

June 21
Posted in Books
Tagged

Two Sad Realizations

I just coded a page where you can see my reading year-by-year, which can be found here. After I was finished, admiring my coding work, I noticed two things that made me a little sad.

  1. Last year I read 36 books, a number that I’m really proud of. But I was only able to get up 20 reviews. Then I threw a pity party, posted about it, and said I’d write more. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
  2. It is June 21st, and I’ve only finished 7 books this year. So, I’m reducing my goal to 26, and hoping for the best. Wish me luck!
January 12
Posted in 52 Books
Tagged

52 Books in 52 Weeks

Last week when I was setting up my library, I found the Now Reading Reloaded plugin @ A Modest Construct. In looking around I noticed that Ben had posted numerous in-depth book reviews over a long period.

I found that it was part of a project called “52 Books in 52 Weeks”, and the goal was, as it sounds, to read a book a week for a year and review it on your site. It seemed completely impossible, but he’s read and reviewed over 300 books in 5 years. Pretty impressive. I don’t know if he was the first one to do this format, but several others have taken up the project, and I though it would be a good challenge for this year. So my 2010 New Year’s resolution is to read at least 52 books this year. Good luck to me.

Check out my reviews here: 52 Books

September 25
Posted in Books
Tagged

Is Dan Brown a “writer”?

The-Lost-Symbol-3I’ve never read Dan Brown’s writing. My wife and I listened to The Da Vinci Code in the car on a long drive, and we saw the movie, which we liked. So, outside of some excerpts I’ve run across, I’ve not read anything he’s written. I don’t plan to, either, mainly because I didn’t really find the Da Vinci Code stimulating.

This evening I caught this article on the Telegraph website (h/t Christ and Pop Culture) which is a list of 20 really bad sentences in Brown’s books. I thought the list was entertaining, and for a few of them it’s hard to believe they’re really in published books. They are simple and blatant literary mistakes, not the kind of rules that “masters” break. These are sentences that I would be embarrassed to find in my own writing.

Judging from this selection, it’s tough to call Dan Brown a “writer”, unless we’re willing to reduce that to anyone who has successfully published a book. I sincerely hope we can be more selective than that. Right now it looks like he’s just a guy who sold a bunch of books by passing a series of lies off as the truth, kind of like James Frey. Except Frey is that and a writer. Anyway, it shouldn’t matter to him or his fans…they have the books (and there will be more), and he has their money. Everyone should be happy.

As usual, the comments were more interesting than the article itself. And as usual, I’m left to wonder if many of them actually read what they’re commenting on. Read more

August 5
Posted in Books
Tagged

Read Books: They Make You Smarter

Wade‘s back from his hiatus, and has some book recommendations:

Here are several books I’ve just read or am about to finish.

1. What Would Jesus Deconstruct? I loved this book. Caputo is sharp, funny, and able to explain deconstruction in a constructive way.

2. The Reason for God. This is a great book for me to read. I’m a doubter and every so often I need to read a book like this to help me doubt my doubts.

3. The Fidelity of Betrayal. I think Peter Rollins is a brilliant writer, thinker, and storyteller. If you loved How (Not) to Speak of God, you will love this as well. If you hated it, then you’ll hate this one even more. His discussion of Judas as one who faithfully betrays Jesus will either set your wheels to spinning or cause you to skid off the road. Read more