Let me say right off the bat, there will be spoilers in this post. This is because I have to write about this short story, or novella, or I really don’t know what this was. A complete story it was not. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
A few weeks ago, I was watching Young Sheldon and the episode centered around Sheldon and his college buddies (professors) started a book club around Isaac Asimov’s writings, and they started with the story Nightfall.
I’d never heard of this title before. Actually, I’ve had little exposure to Asimov directly, other than an ill-fated reading of Nemisis several years ago, which I thought was a little anti-climactic in and of itself.
But, I figured I would give it a go, plus I had Asimov’s Complete Works (which actually turned out to not be so complete after all).
So, let’s discuss why I thought Nightfall was a terrible read (I really hope all his works aren’t like this)….
A few weeks ago I stumbled onto one of those BookTube girls online and I started watching her videos as she went through her bookshelves, talking about the myriad of books she owned and which ones she liked and which ones she hated and why and why not. All the while she complained about dating and college and the rest of her seemingly perfect life.
Despite this, I did manage to take some of her book recommendations, titles that I simply would never have heard of before. One of those that rose to the top (not exactly sure why) was the book You’ve Reached Sam, which is about a high school girl who’s boyfriend suddenly dies and, in her grief, she calls his number to hear his voice on his voicemail, but instead of getting a recording her dead boyfriend actually picks up.
I know.
I immediately got the book (along with around 200+ other titles that formed my new reading list and loaded them up on my new ebook reader (a Likebook P6). I set out to finish this book as soon as I possibly could with the intension of forming a new profusive reading habit that would move reading to the top of my list of daily activities (other than watching Youtube videos or television shows since there doesn’t seem to be enough of those to fill the day with – but there are more than enough books to do so). Just as a note, there will be spoilers in this post so be forewarned.
So, now that I just finished this book, let’s jump in and see what I thought of it…
There are few books that I’ve read in my life that have really stuck with me. In adulthood, there have been virtually no fiction books or novels that have touched me in any significant way. Nothing like when I was a kid. Back when I was 13 or 14, I would spend summers on my bed reading book after book. I would get up in the morning and ride my bike the two miles down to the library to check out books after scouring the stacks. I loved it.
I honestly can’t remember when I read Lightning for the first time. It must have been in high school. I don’t recall discovering Dean Koontz before that. But I can say that no story has ever really affected me so profoundly as this one did.
So, let’s jump into the book and explore the world Koontz created. I can’t wait..….
The second to the last book in Jean M Auel’s Earth’s Children series took awhile for me to finish. The last book I reviewed (book 4) in the series was back in July 2020, so just over a year and a half. That’s a stretch to read a book. Granted, the book is 753 page (apparently listening to the audio book doesn’t speed things up), but still, it really shouldn’t take so long, right?
But, I did finally finish it. That’s saying something. So, let’s jump in and see what has happened to Ayla and Jondalar and all the others in this bizarre and somewhat overly gratuitous fictional series.….
In this post I wanted to review a book that utterly changed my life for the better and redirected its course more so than any other book other than the Bible. The book in question is called Your Money or Your Life and I read it in 1995 when I was stationed in Germany. It is a personal finance book, but don’t let it fool you. It’s much less about money than it is about intentional choices and decisions you make in your daily life and how planning for what you really want as opposed to just accepting what everyone else tells you you want is the key to having the life of your dreams.
So, let’s jump in and see how to change your life for the better.….
As part of my Unschooled Master of Theology Program I finished reading J. P. Moreland’s Body & Soul.
I was unable to find a copy the normal way online, but LOGOS actually sent me a $20 coupon last month and this was the book I immediately thought of getting. Needless to say, I’m a bit of a Moreland fanatic. He’s a philosophy professor at Biola (not a big fan of the school…ridiculously expensive) and approaches the subject from a Christian perspective.
So, let’s jump into this book and find out what substance dualism actually is….
I finished the second book required in the Principles of Biblical Teaching course, titled Effective Biblical Teaching, which is part of the Theology Program at Credo House. This course is also part of my Unschooled Master of Theology program.
So, let’s see why this book really isn’t all that different from the others I’ve read so far…
There were two books assigned as part of the Theology Program from Credo House course, Principles of Biblical Teaching and here is a review of the first book by Howard Hendricks, Teaching to Change Lives.
This course was taken as part of my Unschooled Master of Theology program.
So let’s get started….
I recently finished a book I thought was great, so I decided to write a review about it.
Even though it’s not directly connected to my Unschooled Master of Theology Program, it’s an interesting story and is the first book in the Origin Mystery Trilogy by A.G. Riddle. The book I finished this week was The Atlantis Gene.
Care to find out how the world began?
As part of my Unschooled Master of Theology Program I started working through the entire corpus of the Church Fathers. All 37 volumes.
I have just finished the second letter in the series, The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus. I have to say, this was an interesting read. And, upon finishing this letter, I found myself turning to the next, making slow and purposeful use of background information so I can ascertain the best context available.
Interestingly, I’ve found myself desiring to read these documents in chronological order, which is surprisingly different than the order they are arranged in. I actually should have left Mathetes for after Ignatius, since it was written around 130 A.D. (and Polycarp around 108 A.D.), but Ignatius proceeded both, at 100 A.D. It is trivial, yes, but the first thing I noticed in Polycarp was the reference to the “Catholic Church,” which is not mentioned previous in earlier letters.
But, more on that later. Right now, let’s jump into all things Mathetes and discover a faith like few found today…
After completing the last major online course at KI, I decided not to take up another lecture series until I made a good dent in my reading list. It’s been building in numbers over the last year or two and threatens periodically to avalanche when I least expect it.
So, I jumped in with both feet and have finished most of my backlog of books I’ve been working on. One of those is Clay Writer: Shaping in Creative Writing.
If you would like to read more of my book reviews and other coursework for my Unschooled Master of Theology Program, then click here.
So, let’s get started….
Awhile back, as part of my Unschooled Master of Theology Program I embarked on a long desired task of reading the entire corpus of the Church Fathers. All 37 volumes.
As of today, I finished the first letter in the series, 1 Clement to the Corinthians. Although so far the extra biblical documents have been pretty drab and uneventful, at least 1 Clement is not as entirely devoid of purpose as say the Didache was. It was more like the Book of Enoch, in it had several interesting points, but overall was utterly and fitfully boring.
Despite this, let’s jump in and see what’s going on in the first century….
ISAAC HUNTER 