23 August 2005

On Vacation

MaryAnn and I are taking some time off for "R & R" - reading and relaxation. Right now we are in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Not exactly your ideal resort getaway spot, but the weather is beautiful and the price was right. Schatzie is along with us, but she doesn't know how to read, so she is just relaxing.

We are staying in a Candlewood Suites hotel, which is ok. The first night we got here, the room air conditioner wasn't working right, so we had to move to another room. Unfortunately, we didn't figure that out until AFTER we unpacked everything, so moving into a different room was quite a hassle. Fortunately, it was just across the hall, so we didn't have to go very far. We also got an upgrade to a larger suite for the same price, so it worked out ok.

We found a neat little used book store / coffee shop called "The Attic". Why they call it the attic, I don't know. There didn't appear to be anything other than the ground floor, and it didn't look like an attic. However, I picked up some pretty good books at a cheap price, so who cares what they call the place! On the window is painted the words "Good Books - Great Coffee". I told MaryAnn that two of the most pleasant sounding words in the English language are "Books and Coffee". If I ever open up a book store, I think I'll call it "B.C.".

Here are the books I picked up:

Faith Alone by R.C. Sproul
The Talmud and the Internet by Jonathan Rosen
Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas ed. by Anton C. Pegis
The Contemporary Christian by J.R.W. Stott
The Matter Myth by Paul Davies and John Gribbin
God - The Evidence by Patrick Glynn
Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson

I've finished reading the book by Patrick Glynn. He is a recovered atheist who posits that we are living in a "post-secular" world. The sub-title of the book is "The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World". I thought it was a good read, although much of the information I have read previously in other books. I'm not very good at book reviews, so if you're interested you can read some good (and not so good) reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761519645/104-2112399-0537549?v=glance

I have started reading The Matter Myth by Davies and Gribbin. I know its a bit outdated (it was published in 1992) but I have seen the book referenced by other authors enough times that I thought it would be a good idea to read it. Read some reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671728415/qid=1124838850/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-2112399-0537549?v=glance&s=books

I'm also reading some books that I brought with me:

The God Who Risks by John Sanders
Encountering Evil - Live Options in Theodicy ed. by Stephen T. Davis
Stone Campbell Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1
Across the Spectrum by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy
The Canon of the New Testament by Bruce Metzger
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades by Robert Spencer

Another book that I bought to read on vacation, but that I finished before we left, was a book called

Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Levitt and Dubner. This was an interesting book, especially the authors' conclusions about cause of the dramatic decline in the youth crime rate in the 90's. Whether or not his conclusions are true, it is an interesting (and troubling) hypothesis. A recommended read. Here are some reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/006073132X/ref=cm_rev_prev/104-2112399-0537549?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=1

I know that there is no way to get through all of the books I brought along, but if I can knock out a few of them, and get started in the majority of them, I'll he happy. Linc-Up classes at Lincoln Christian College begin the week we get back, so my reading time will be greatly diminished. I have a paper to write while I'm up here in preparation for the first class, so I'd better get started on it.