Dang, we have a ton of books... literally!

That fact that we have a lot of books is no surprise to us, and probably no surprise to anyone reading this. In a development that could hold interest to me and me alone, the site we use to catalog our books, LibraryThing, has implemented a 'physical characteristics' feature. This new feature takes whatever information it has for your books (too bad it's not perfectly accurate, that would be even more interesting) and calculates things like total number of pages, height, weight, etc.

As I said, among those who see this blog I could possibly be alone in finding this interesting... or maybe there are a few of you who are just dorky enough to be intrigued (don't worry, I won't tell).

Among other derived statistics, all shown here, I found the following to be the most fascinating - and yet, still spectacularly useless.

Volume
U-Haul book boxes: 69
Bathtubs: 4.2

Weight
Total (pounds): 2,304
Blue whales: 0.00968
Value of weight in gold: $37,584,605 (I'm intellectually millionaire! ...or something)

If all the pages in all the books were laid end-to-end...
Circumference of earth: 0.1704%
To moon: 0.0178%

And since a picture is worth a thousand words (hmmm... how many total words do we have in our books? Maybe that should be the next added feature!)


And here, in all it's boxed-for-moving glory, our books!


(Erin's comment accompanying this picture was "Sometimes I think we have too many..." - but fear not, her temporary insanity will surely pass.)

Labels: books, pictures

posted by Brett at 8:06 AM 6 Comments

HAPPY ST. PARTRICK'S DAY!

We had an eventful evening last night and morning. We wanted to catch a leprechaun; those sneaky guys have candy and gold. Come on who wouldn't want someone like that? Aeriana was so excited!

We made a leprechaun trap to catch them. Glitter and all things green attract them. Didn't you know?



Aeriana so proud of her and Zoe's (but mostly her) creation.



The next morning we woke up to glitter everywhere and no leprechaun, but we must have scared him quite a bit, he dropped everything he was carrying. Poor guy.

Checking to see if we caught one!



Mmmmm. Green eggs and green milk. :)






All morning long all Aeriana could focus on was the huge mess the leprechaun made. Not that he turned our milk green (resulting in green eggs for breakfast) as well as our toilet water. No she was only concerned about the mess and wanted to clean it up. So that's exactly what we did. What kind of mother would i be if i said no to my child wanting to clean?





And of course after we were all done cleaning it was time to rest with a book.



You see this look... yeah I get the same one from Brett when I bother him when he's reading.



So lets review... loves presents and chocolate (just like Brett), can only focus on the mess (just like Brett), and when reading, which is often, do not disturb (I'm seeing a trend here). Is her being female the only genetic contribution i made? Oh well, maybe Zoe will be more like me.

Then again maybe not...



Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Labels: Aeriana, books, Brett, family, holidays, pictures, Zoe

posted by Erin at 10:29 PM 3 Comments

Xenocide

I just finished another book and, with the start of the next book in the series, I've now got 51 books so far this year that I've either read or am currently reading - whew! The book I just finished was somewhat unique in how it was both addictive and very 'heavy' at the same time. Typically it's the lighter books the suck me in (Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter), while the heavier books are certainly enjoyable but don't make it as difficult to put the book down. Interestingly enough, I've even read this book before and liked it, but didn't love it; this time around I was just enthralled the whole way through.

If anyone has ever asked me about my favorite books, chances are I've mentioned Ender's Game. It's a fairly light story that's a lot of fun - technically it's science fiction, but I really think it's accessible even to non-sci/fi fans. The Ender storyline has a parallel called the Shadow series which follows one of the other characters from Ender's Game. While the Shadow series focuses more on action and political intrigue, the Speaker series (the series I'm currently reading) takes a more philosophical angle.

The direct sequel to Ender's Game is actually a new addition which fills in some holes previously left in Ender's life and is called Ender in Exile. Next in the series (originally the second book before Exile came out a couple years ago) is Speaker for the Dead, and the fourth book is the one I just finished - Xenocide. Today, as soon as I finished Xenocide, I started the last book in the series called Children of the Mind (supposedly there's another book coming out eventually to continue the storyline and merge the Speaker and Shadow series). I'm really excited right now about getting into Children of the Mind and getting to the end of this great series.

So tell me, what have you been reading lately?

Labels: books, Brett

posted by Erin at 7:42 PM 5 Comments

Steven Levitt

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Freakonomics, and I'm currently on the lookout for its sequel, SuperFreakonomics at a yard sale... Mean while, Money magazine posted a great, short little glimpse into the Freakonomics mind.

Check it out.

Labels: books, news, politics

posted by Brett at 6:21 PM 1 Comments

Awesome Books!

My "Year of Books" is going along quite well. So far I've read, or listened to, 33 books and am in the middle of two more. I've still got the list of books (next to Erin's) on the right, towards the bottom, and I've rated/reviewed each book as I've gone along.

I wanted to post a little something extra though for a few books that I just had to recommend to any readers out there.

First (and second) is the Hunger Games trilogy (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire) by Suzanne Collins. Absolutely incredible books, and I can't wait for book 3, Mockingjay, to come out in August and finish the trilogy off. If you haven't read these books, do so.

Next is a fascinating book called Incarceron; the start of a new series, this book introduces you to a super-high-tech prison and its inmates. As you read through this book, you'll be surprised time and time again as new twists are revealed, it's a lot of fun.

And finally is a book that I just finished reading last night, The Maze Runner. Frustratingly, this is again the start of a brand new series - which means that you'll thoroughly enjoy the book... and then you'll have to wait a while for the next one. Lame. However, the book itself is not at all lame. If I were to explain the book, I'd do so by saying that it's an interesting mixture of The Hunger Games and Incarceron, which was coincidentally the order I read these books in (though it doesn't feel at all derivative - it definitely stands on its own).

Of these three series, The Hunger Games is definitely my favorite, though the other two were excellent as well - I highly recommend them all.

If you've read these, or end up reading them later, let me know what you think... I'm always interested to hear other peoples' takes.

Labels: books, Brett

posted by Brett at 2:18 PM 6 Comments

2010 - The Year of Books

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions, it's just not my style. But for the new year I decided I wanted to do something fun with tracking the books I read, especially since I've been on a book kick since early December (I think I've blazed through almost a dozen books since then).

And so I've added a widget to the right-hand column, under our family pics, that will list all the books Erin and I, respectively, have read (or listened to) during 2010. I'm off to a great start with 4 books complete and 2 in progress since Jan. 1st; there's no way I can keep this pace up though. I've also set up a partial list of books I'd like to read this year, ranging from Arthur C. Clark and Isaac Asimov to Shakespeare and Victor Hugo, just to make sure I get a good variety in throughout the year.

I'm excited to see my list grow, and at the end of the year to look back and see my accomplishments. I'm going to also try to write a brief review of each book after I finish it; I'm not very good at expressing what I like and don't like about books, hopefully this exercise will help.

In the end, these lists are for Erin and me to enjoy, but that doesn't mean you can't take a look every once in a while and see what we've been reading. And, of course, if you've read something we did (or something you think we'd like) we'd love to hear about it.

Happy New Year! And Happy Reading!

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 7:40 PM 2 Comments

(Books x Charity)^Awesomeness

Is there anything better than books? I guess so, charity comes out above books. But what about books and charity combined? That's like putting together chocolate chip cookies and donuts... it's almost sinful. Almost.

This morning I learned about a publishing company that does in fact create such an incredible combination. Of books and charity, not cookies and donuts (still on the lookout for that one).

The Concord Free Press just celebrated their 1 year anniversary. Their mission: (1) Publish books, (2) Give them away for free, (3) Then encourage readers to (a) donate to a charity, (b) read the book, and then (c) give the book to someone else... lather, rinse, repeat.

It's an incredible concept and is especially exciting because it has the potential to inspire people to give for many, many years. Already readers have reported over $90,000 in donations... and that's just what's been reported.

As we approach the Holidays, I'm going to try to keep this inspiration in mind and keep an eye out for opportunities for charity. I hope we can all do that. If you're interested, the Concord Free Press also accepts donations to further its capability of executing its mission.

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 9:10 AM 2 Comments

New Blog Layout

**Update**

It's Feb. 20th and we got enough feedback to know that the new blog design just wasn't working... so we're back to the old version, for who knows how long. I guess with my next attempt I'll keep it to a more standard format.

**End Update**


I'm sure many of you know someone who has "music A.D.D."; you're driving down the road and they listen to 30 seconds of a song and then change it, never settling in to listen to an entire song. Well, I apparently have blog-design-A.D.D. and have been itching to redesign our blog for a while. Attempt number one resulted in what Erin correctly called a "complete failure." What you see now is attempt number two.

I personally love the new design... but I designed it. Erin's not completely convinced yet, but it seems like she's starting to come around. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what all of you have to say... do you like the new look or the old look better? I've backed up my old files, so I can reset to the old layout in about ten seconds if the response to the new design is overwhelmingly negative.

As for the new design, there is now a lot less scrolling and a lot more buttons. The buttons hopefully won't be too confusing, but just in case here's the breakdown.

- Out of order, but most important is the "stop" button... most of the buttons trigger a pop-up and the stop button closes them all.
- The "power" button will take you to blogger.com, if you have an account this means it'll take you to your dashboard.
- The "rewind" button will display our monthly archives and ten most frequent posts. Hit the stop button to close.
- The "play" button will display our uploaded videos from Vimeo, these can be browsed chronologically (based on when we uploaded the video), there is also an option for full-screen viewing. Again, stop will close this.
- The "fast-forward" button takes you to the LDS website. Erin looked at me quizzically, wondering how that made sense... I told her the church is all about progressing and moving forward. I'm a dork, this should not be news to anyone.

- The "home" button will reset the page. Using this will reset everything and close open pop-ups, but may take a tiny bit longer than the stop button.
- The "B" button (Blogger icon) will display a list of blogs we follow. If your blog is not on this list, let me know. Use stop to close.
- The "globe" button will display a list of websites we love. Stop closes this (see the repeating pattern?)
- The "camera" button will start a slideshow of a subset (as defined by me, this may change) of our photos on Flickr. Once the slideshow has started, you can zoom into full-screen mode, browse through the included photos, or you can click the Flickr logo to see our Flickr site. Stop closes the slideshow, or the open Flickr page.
- The "book" button will display our never-too-long list of books. Again, use stop to close the LibraryThing page.


Please leave your feedback, since I designed the page it all makes perfect sense to me... if it doesn't for you, or if anything isn't working how it's supposed to, please let me know.

Enjoy!

Labels: books, pictures, religion, video

posted by Brett at 11:37 PM 7 Comments

Kid-Safe Media?

Movie ratings drive me bonkers... as Erin and I discuss movies and what is/will be appropriate for our children, we've got a hard and fast limit; no rated-R movies in our home, period. After that, things get a little hazy. The ratings system is just too vague.

How great of a movie is The Incredibles!?! It's PG because it's got some violence, but I personally wouldn't be concerned about a five or six year old watching it; on the other hand, have you ever seen Antz? Antz is also rated PG, but there are dozens of swear words in the movie. I certainly wouldn't want the same child who's just old enough to watch The Incredibles to also be watching Antz.

As for PG-13 movies, there are some that I would be fine with having an 11 or 12 year old watch with me, and then there are others that in my opinion deserved an R-rating and shouldn't be watched at all (while the kids are under my roof at least).

Having lived with this frustration for quite a while, and having discussed with Erin what we could possibly do, I think I may finally have an answer. I found a website today that is much more clear than the (lame) MPAA rating system, and certainly more specific. Please keep in mind that everything from here on is based solely on my brief review of the site as of finding it about an hour ago... by no means have I looked at every aspect of the site.

Common Sense Media

Pros for the site:

- The site has a solid list of movies with very specific age ratings (year by year). The Incredibles - deemed appropriate for kids 5+; Antz - deemed appropriate for kids 8+. And on top of the movie ratings, there are also ratings for TV Shows, books, websites, games, and music.

A search on J. K. Rowling books shows the following:

Books 1-3: Ages 9+
Books 4-5: Ages 10+
Book 6: Ages 11+
Book 7: Ages 12+
Tales of Beedle the Bard: Ages 10+
Fantastic Beasts/Quidditch Through the Ages: Ages 9+

I don't know if I'd put exactly those ages on each book (I haven't put quite that much thought into it), but that's pretty dang close and follows appropriately the increased intensity as the series progresses.

What about Twilight? Books 1-2 are a clear Age 13+, books 3-4 are an iffy Age 13+.

- The site also links in what it considers to be relevant news articles and includes advice for parents when dealing with kids and media. Each review also includes potential discussion points for parents and their kids based on messages the media seems to be sending.

- One of the other things I like about the site is that it's ultimately answerable to the public. The site has an investment in constant improvement, if they begin to let users down, users will go somewhere else. I believe that the monopolistic MPAA ratings system has outlived it's usefulness and it will be something like this site that will replace it.

- Each review has some detail, outlining language or violence or sexuality. I used to use Screenit.com for this, but the 'outlines' were just too descriptive. The outlines on this site are straightforward, but don't include enough detail to be offensive if you're looking at a questionable movie. In other words, I wouldn't have wanted my kids browsing Screenit.com, but I don't think I'd have a problem with them browsing this one.

- Finally, I think this site could potentially create excellent avenues of discussion between you and your child. If the child is coming to see you about each book they're reading and each movie they're seeing, you're much more in the loop, making it more likely that your kids won't accidentally see inappropriate material and more likely that if they do they'll be able to come talk to you about it. It may be tedious at times for them and for you, but to me it's a small price to pay to make sure I'm a solid component in my child's media consumption.


Cons for the site:

- The selection of reviews is relatively small. They've got all 4 Twilight books, but not Meyer's The Host (which by the way was also excellent). I'm sure you'll have more luck with more popular media while more obscure selections will probably prove less likely to be included (though hopefully that will become less and less of a problem as the site grows, and I noticed that you can request a specific review).

The media count based on my quick look today is as follows:

Movies: 3067
TV Shows: 1923
Books: 1486
Websites: 502
Games: 981
Music: 1035

- Also, obviously each child develops at different speeds and each child can appropriately cope with different subjects at different ages. That being said, the age ratings for the media on the site will have to be adjusted based on the child in question. It would be really awesome if the site gave an option to auto-adjust ratings; say I wanted to be more strict with my kids, I could theoretically enter my desired adjustment, 'add 2 years to each rating', and thus see the new age appropriateness for that specific child... just an idea, not something I've seen on the site (though I emailed them, making the suggestion).

- Finally, I can't seem to find the criteria used to select ratings (seems like it's only available for registered educators, a complaint I included in my email); this is one of my big complaints for the MPAA; the MPAA has vague explanations available, but to me it's not nearly enough. Hopefully user demand will push the site to publish its criteria for assigning age ratings. It may be that the only thing holding them back is legal issues; maybe they don't want someone else stealing their ratings formula and then starting up a competing site? Maybe they can copyright their method? Not sure.


Overall, I'm glad that I've found the site. I've added it to my links on the left, and I hope that they continue to grow and improve so that I can start to rely on the ratings as Aeriana gets older. One final comment that probably goes without saying is that no ratings system will ever be able to replace an attentive parent. I would hope that no one would ever use this site as an end-all source of what's appropriate for their child. Nothing beats one-on-one discussions and attention for good parenting, but I'm all for getting a little help.

Labels: books, movies, music

posted by Brett at 1:04 PM 2 Comments

Books, Books, Books

It's almost not fair; finding a series/author that just sucks you in should only happen occasionally, giving you a chance to catch up on things other than reading (as lame of a concept as that is). Unfortunately, just shortly after getting sucked into Stephanie Meyer's world, Erin and I were introduced to another amazing author; and coincidentally enough, he's also LDS.

Brandon Sanderson currently has three books published and one on the way next month, as well as a free one online. They are fantasy novels, so they won't be for everyone, but if your curious I highly recommend them.

We first got sucked into the Mistborn series (the third of the series being the one that comes out in October). Mistborn starts off exciting and just gets better and better. As I told Matt, these books must have some illicit substances in them to be so addicting.

Elantris is Sanderson's first published novel and I'm about 2/3 of the way through... this one didn't start off with as much of a bang as Mistborn, but was still pretty intriguing; again the book just gets better and better the deeper into it I get.

Warbreaker is free online, for now. Sanderson is making his drafts for the book available online to help spread awareness of his work. It's in its sixth draft so it's not too rough, but there are still a number of things (ranging from typos to plot holes) that will hopefully be fixed before this is actually published; unfortunately you either have to print it out or read it on the computer.

I would actually recommend not reading Warbreaker now unless you have read Sanderson's other stuff and just can't wait (like me); I always like to hold off for the final product if my willpower allows (which it obviously didn't). Either way, it was a fantastic read, the Mistborn series is still my favorite of Sanderson's, but Elantris and Warbreaker aren't far behind.

Sometimes I wish I could quite my job and just read books all day... did I just say 'sometimes'??? Make that 'Always'.


P.S. As a reminder for those book lovers, check out librarything.com. It's the coolest.


UPDATE: Erin was reading Mistborn tonight when it came time for us to read scriptures, she put down her book and sat with me as we started reading from Jacob chapter 5... about half way through the first verse she started laughing. Apparently Mistborn had sucked her in so deep that even after switching to the scriptures she was still expecting the Mistborn story to go on and Jacob's words just didn't mesh with the writing style she was expecting. Illicit substances indeed.

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 4:16 PM 3 Comments

Proud Papa!

First off, apologies for the lack of posts... we've been traveling more than usual and work has just been insane, so when I finally get home I'd rather spend time with Erin and Aeriana than give you something to read. Nothing personal. If you really want to know what we've been up to, we've at least uploaded almost all of our pictures to Flickr, so feel free to check that out.

Anyway, on to the reason I'm a proud papa. While we were in Washington DC, the family all went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and Aeriana was proving pretty fussy (not feeling well, not sleeping well, and just too many people around) so I took her for a short walk in the mall. I took her up the escalators which led directly into a Borders Book Store; instantly she was as happy as could be, just looking around, smiling at everybody and every thing.

There was a possibility that she was just happier because it was quieter, but I had a hunch it was because of all the books. That was confirmed on Saturday when we stopped quickly into a Barnes and Noble... one of those two-level ones that's completely open in the center. As we walked in her eyes just lit right up and she tried looking around as fast as possible to take it all in. You could just tell that she loved being there. Of course, so did I... six books later we left and she passed out in the car. But for that little while I could see the curiosity and excitement just over-flowing in her little six-month old body.

Luckily this proud papa gets to experience her excitement at home too, all Erin or I have to do is open a book and start reading to her and she'll (usually) sit for a while and listen.

That's my girl.

Labels: Aeriana, books, Erin, family, food, pictures, trips

posted by Brett at 10:38 PM 6 Comments

I Love Books

The fact that I'm a book nut is probably not news for any of you; but just in case you didn't know, I LOVE books. I've looked back over my previous posts and surprisingly don't think I've ever blogged about a website I use to keep track of all of my books. It's called LibraryThing.com and it's very cool. For the first couple hundred books it's free, for more than that it's $25 for a lifetime subscription. The site catalogs all the books you own, allows you to tag them, provides recommendations, etc. (there is a certain amount of effort involved, but generally it will add your books based on the ISBN). I also use a "Wishlist" tag to identify books that I want to keep an eye out for. Overall a very cool, very user-friendly site.

My apologies if I'm repeating something I've already told you, but I just found a really cool new feature today and had to share. The site has a program called "Early Reviewers", all you have to do is be a LibraryThing member (free or paid) and you can sign up to receive free books from publishers in the hope that you'll provide a review for them. There are more details of course, but no hidden catches; the site posts a list of books at the first of each month and you have about a week to flag the ones you'd be interested in receiving. They then randomly pick from the interested people and send them free books. The likelihood of being chosen ranges, some prior books had 15 copies and 300+ requests, other books had up to 100 copies available. Either way, it's a free book!!!

If you're a book nut like me, I highly recommend checking out LibraryThing.com as well as their Early Reviewer page.

By the way, if you sign up to LibraryThing let me know and I'll add you to my contacts list.

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 2:53 PM 2 Comments

Apple of my Eye Living Room

Several years ago I thought it'd be fun to hook my brand new top-of-the-line PC up to my TV to watch movies and use the internet from the couch... in all honesty it was absolutely awful trying to read anything on screen because I had a normal TV with analog inputs, but movies (sort-of) worked.

Then a bit later, about 3 years ago now, in a moment of complete and utter genius (if I do say so myself) I splurged and bought an HDTV with digital inputs and a surround sound system. Using the computer from the couch became a wonderful experience and had me hooked from the get-go (not to mention how the setup impressed the ladies, I believe Erin's reaction was "Woah, that's sweet!"... and three months later we were married).

Unfortunately the computer that has been my playground/guinea pig for these experiments and modifications is standing on it's last... um... megabyte. After proving less and less reliable over the past few months and with blue screens of death abounding, Erin and I started contemplating replacement options.

I pushed pretty hard to get a Mac since I've heard such good things lately, Erin however grew up with them and had a bad after-taste from the earlier versions. But I think I'm getting her convinced after about a week of testing one out. We've got a Mac Mini hooked up to the TV and it looks great, we've got everything networked together, and thanks to the Mini's, um, miniature size and the wireless capabilities of Apple hardware, we're making the entertainment center much more aesthetically pleasing; the modem and router are hidden behind the bookshelf, the Mac is hanging out under the TV, and the gigantic eye-sore printer has been banished to the other room. The cherry on top is the ability to use Boot Camp to run Windows on the same machine for a couple of programs that don't run on a Mac.

This is (hopefully) the last part of a complete overhaul that we've done to the living room, mostly in preparation for Aeriana. It's really opened up the room and things look much more cozy. Below are some pictures of the new setup... anyone who's seen the place prior to our recent re-arrangements will probably be fairly astonished; everyone else, well the setup probably won't be exciting to you (but well, with counseling I think you'll come to forgive me for posting it).

From the front door...


Opposite view (you can see my other obsession... Erin's a saint for putting up with my inherent need to own books).


BIG TV, Tiny Computer, and tons of movies... :-)



P.S. Special thanks to the McBrides... Kyle's, Nikki's, and Karlene's postive experiences with Macs helped propel Erin into being willing to at least give Mac a shot.

Labels: books, family, movies, pictures

posted by Brett at 11:15 AM 6 Comments

Harry Potter 7 Was Awesome!!!

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything for those who have not yet had the pleasure of reading the entire book (and I'll ask the same of anyone who feels compelled to leave a comment). But all I have to say is wow!!! The book was jam-packed with action, excitement, suspense, humor, and a whole lot of answers. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is easily my favorite of the series and Erin feels the same way.

Reports are coming in that of the record 12 million copies printed in the U.S. by Scholastic, a record 8+ million of those were sold in the first 24 hours of release (Erin and I are proud to be part of that amazing statistic). World-wide, estimates are that about 15 million copies of the book were sold in the first 24 hours of it's release. Overall, the Harry Potter franchise has sold over 335 million copies, been translated into 64 languages, made into 5 movies (with book 6 in pre-production), and has made Joanne Rowling filthy, filthy rich.

To much hype? Right before book 7 came out I was beginning to suspect as much... but after finishing book 7 I dare say the hype and the intensity of the fan-base is well deserved. Rowling has written a complete series that is as much of a pleasure to read as any other book/series I've read before.

This morning, in my 10 minutes of free time before leaving for work, I started reading another of Rowling's books... not a "Harry Potter and the..." title, but one of two short books that Rowling wrote a few years ago for charity. Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are written under the pretense of being a book from Hogwarts' library and a textbook of Harry's, respectively. Only on Chapter three, I'm already enjoying the humor that Rowling integrates into seemingly everything she writes, and it's fun to read a little more about the Harry Potter universe.

I talked with my brother Riley yesterday, starting with a warning that spoiling anything from book 7 before I'd had a chance to finish it myself would result in dire consequences. He expressed the same thing I felt last night around midnight when I finally finished the book myself... now that I have the answers to all the questions that have been plaguing fans for the entire series, I want to go back and read them all again. I plan on doing just that quite soon.

If you're reading book 7, enjoy... If you're not reading it, you should... If you haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, pick the first one up, prepare yourself for a fun ride, and watch out for blast-ended scroots.

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 7:51 AM 6 Comments

Book Report

A few weeks ago I found myself sitting in the Miami Airport with a bit of a dilemma on my hands... I had already finished all four books I'd brought on vacation and still had a lengthy wait in the airport and an even longer flight. So I did something I rarely do, I bought a book... okay, so anyone who knows me at all knows that isn't in fact rare at all, I'm a bit of a book-a-holic; what is rare is that I paid retail price for a book I'd never heard of by a pair of authors I'd never heard of either, normally I go with recommendations or positive reviews. But hey, it was about an Egyptian curse... or something like that... and I'm a bit of a fan of Egyptian lore so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Well, I've just finished the book and the results are in... awful, awful, awful. It made it all worse that I checked amazon.com and the book has a really high rating so a lot of other people must have enjoyed it, not to mention that it's a New York Times Bestseller (as much as that counts for any more, seems like everything is a NYT Bestseller). I found it to be as formulaic a book as I've ever read; the characters were weak and one-dimensional, the plot was predictable at every turn, and even without the predictability the mystery and suspense had climaxed and were on their way down three-quarters of the way through. On top of all that every antagonist got his dues, every protagonist made out well (except for a sloppy attempt at a last sentence shocker), and the dialog was sappy and unoriginal.

I've just recently started James Patterson's Along Came A Spider as well as a book called The Alienist by Caleb Carr that I picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents. Both are already much more interesting, and I hope they continue to prove better written than The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Oh yeah, and the count-down is on for Harry Potter this Saturday!!!

Labels: books

posted by Brett at 7:56 PM 3 Comments

Harry Potter Rhapsody

At 12:01 tonight we will be exactly one week away from the release of the 5th Harry Potter movie. Check out this video to get pumped.

And don't forget the last Harry Potter book comes out July 21st!!!

Labels: books, movies, music

posted by Brett at 9:05 PM 1 Comments

Movie Time

We saw a couple of good movies this weekend... thought I'd share. I'll start with the least exciting, Disney's Cinderella III: A Twist In Time.

The idea is pretty cool (wicked step-mother steals the magic wand, reverses time, and undoes Cinderella's happy-ever-after), the animation was good, and Erin and I laughed quite a bit. The music was even catchy and well done, Disney is definitely getting the sequel-formula figured out better than it had ten years ago. I don't think I'd say this one was worth buying, but certainly worth a rent if you're into Disney movies.

Now onto the good stuff... one of the better movies I've seen in a while, and I watch a lot of movies. Bridge to Terabithia is based on the children's novel by the same name, also produced by Disney. It's PG, and in my opinion definitely warrants the rating as I'm guessing younger kids will get a bit scared at times. The acting was good, especially Leslie's part; the special effects were outstanding, and the plot line is fun. Above and beyond all that there was something I liked more than anything.

If you've seen Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet you might understand where I'm coming from. Finding Neverland (one of my top favorite movies of all time) is the story of J.M. Barrie's authorship of the famous book/play Peter Pan (which is incidentally, one of my favorite books). In the movie they use special effects to show the imaginations of the minds of J.M. Barrie and soon more people that he becomes close to. It creates a seamless blend of reality and fantasy that just screams "childhood imagination." Bridge to Terabithia achieves the same feat, making you wonder where the children's reality ends and where it begins.

Be forewarned, there are other similarities between the two movies (though they're in no way repetitive or tiresome in regards to the other). Both feature a young boy being taught to use his imagination; and both feature a great tragedy. Yep, it's a sad movie... Erin cried, then playfully smacked me in the arm in feigned anger for making her watch a sad movie. I didn't mind, it never hurts... and even if it had, Bridge to Terabithia was worth getting hit for. I highly recommend watching this when you're in the mood to laugh and let your imagination run free... oh, and have a couple of tissues handy.

- Brett

Labels: books, Disney, movies

posted by Erin at 7:36 AM 1 Comments

Cogito, ergo Deus est (I think, therefore God is)

I finished another book tonight... this one took quite a bit longer than most. It's called The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. I saw this in the book store a couple months ago and it intrigued me. The author of the book renounced Christianity in college after learning about Darwin's theory of evolution and all the "proof" science had built up against the possibility of the world being created by intelligent design. Then several years later, more recent scientific findings brought him back to Christianity and have led him to believe that the world was indeed created by a Supreme Being, and to a belief that science is starting to show it.

Interesting as the premise was, it was slow going. The original findings were absolutely fascinating, and I have to admit that the author made a good case as he interviewed respected expert after respected expert in various scientific fields. My mind was astounded time after time by the "proof" that there is a creator of this earth. One explanation he gave in the book was regarding the cosmic perfection of physics, specifically the fine-tuning of gravity to allow life to thrive in the universe. "... gravity is fine-tuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion." (yeah, that's 5 billions preceded by a million, or 51 zeros). It was also very easy to overlook the differences in this man's belief and understanding as a mainstream Christian (I don't recall him mentioning his specific denomination) from my own beliefs and understanding as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

So where did the book go wrong... well, I told Erin that this is the only book I've ever read that could be improved by a Reader's Digest abridgment. The author is repetitive to a serious fault. I have a bit of a tendency to repeat myself and go into too much detail when explaining things; this guy made me look like a 3-second bottle rocket.

Despite his apparent need to repeat and repeat and repeat, there was one thing that bothered me more. I sat there reading, thinking "so if man's scientific reasoning ever starts moving back away from a creator... will this guy's belief move away too?" Don't get me wrong, I love a good scientific explanation for things, but my faith in God is built on a lot more than the most recent scientific journal article. Despite what scientists may say, despite what critics may say, I believe in God. I don't care if all scientific evidence points away from a creator, I will still believe for one simple reason... men are flawed. Our scientific processes/theories/methods are far from perfect, but the testimony in your heart from the spirit is perfect, definitively so.

There are very few people I'd actually recommend this book to. Anyone who is really into science and modern creationism discoveries would probably at least find it interesting... anyone who still touts Darwinism as a "proven" theory would probably not like this book much so I'd want them to read it. But unless you fall within one of those two groups... and chances are if you're reading my blog you at least don't fall into the second category... then you'll probably be happier ignoring this brightly colored book, and moving on to something else that catches your eye.

I, for one, am going to get back to reading the other three books I'm in the middle of... The Historian, The Fourth Thousand Years, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. All considerably better reads than The Case for a Creator.

- Brett

Labels: books, evolution, religion

posted by Erin at 9:46 PM 1 Comments