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2013 February 9

Began adding titles of books read with finish dates, but not reviewed.

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Update as of 2011 July 30 (written 2011 September 7).

Notwithstanding what is written below about why I write book reviews, I've decided, on review of personal activities, to stop.  One thing and another, I ended up with a backlog of about five reviews one Saturday, five to ten hours worth, something that was going to take all day, and having just lost an entire review to a computer error and having had to spend another 90 minutes doing it over, and it was just Saturday and I hadn't had spare time for anything for several weeks and wasn't going to have spare time to do anything else for several more weeks, I decided to wrap it up and quit.  Spent about a book review's worth of time thinking about the value of doing them and why I was always backlogged and why reading was an energizing activity and writing was draining and what the value was and decided that I wasn't getting enough out of the exercise, I never go back and look at my reviews, and potential future readers weren't getting enough out of the exercies, as far as I can tell, no one but me ever visits this site, for me to keep doing it, not at the cost of all that time that I could spend doing something I was wanting to do, something that I was actually good at doing.  Another part of the reasoning was that if you want to know what I think about books and how I write book reviews, read the ones that are already here, I won't remove them.  (My website came back after about two months AWOL, so at least that's not the problem)

Today, 2011 September 7, I'm proofing and posting the last seven that were in the system.  Looks like the very last one will be "Amazing Grace."

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Whenever I read a book I don't consider it done until I've written a personal book review.  Sometimes these reviews don't have much to do with the book but just what it made me think about, or even something else that was going on in life when I reviewed it.  These are not critical reviews, they are just reminders.

I spend hours reading a book.  It only takes a few of tens minutes to do the reviews.  For more on this thinking see On Reviews.

For a few days way back there, I thought I would also do movies and videos.  I even made a note to search through the memo lines of Quicken, where I would usually put the name of the movie with the rental or purchase charge, to make a list.  Movies are different, however.  They are abbreviated versions.  Writing a review might well take nearly as long as watching the movie and referring to source material would be much more difficult.  I did only these three and then quit.

And here's something hilarious.  In my ever over-planned, under-performed self goals, I was going to write a bunch of books too.  I kept the raw list in something I called the "Writing Hopper," that is "Whopper," which I've posted, unedited, here.  I had forgotten all about this until it showed up in the "book reviews to be posted" folder.  Apparently I had maintained this for around a year.  Most of the sentence fragments in the outlines remind me of what I was intending to say.  I have no idea what the dates mean.  Is that the date I made that entry?  The date I did something about it?  (Probably not.)  Something inconsistent?  If anyone reading this is curious about a particular fragment (i.e., "Is it bleeding?  Is it spurting?", e-mail me (address to the left just there) and I'll tell you what I was thinking, if I can remember.  Then there will be something else to post!

Other than that, here are all the actual books:  Everything here (c) 1996 - 2011 Courtney B. Duncan, of course.

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years - Carl Sandburg

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other - Sherry Turkle, 3/14
Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith - Kathleen Norris
America's Prophet - Bruce Feiler
Antarctica -- Kim Stanley Robinson
Art of Racing in the Rain, The - Garth Stein, 2012
Augustine's Laws - Norman R. Augustine
Be Well - Estess, Dr. Ted
Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas, 5/13
Boundaries - Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

Boys in the Boat, The - Daniel James Brown, 9/14
Brothers Karamazov, The - Dostoevsky

C.S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet - Alister McGrath, 5/14
Caleb's Crossing - Geraldine Brooks, 11/21/12
Called Out of Darkness -- Anne Rice
Case For Faith, The - Lee Strobel
Catch-22 -- Joseph Heller
Cellist of Sarajevo, The - Steven Galloway
Certain Trumpets - Gary Willis, 2011
Chaos - James Gleick
Church Signs Across America - Steve and Pam Paulson

Christmas Carol, A - Charles Dickens, 12/14
Cloudsplitter:  A Novel - Russell Banks, 1/24/13
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, Third Edition - Aaron Hillegass
Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report, Volume I, August 2003 - Harold W. Gehman, Jr., Chair
Consider Christianity, Evidence for the Christian Faith - Elgin L. Hushbeck, Jr.
Coping with Difficult People - Robert M. Bramson, Ph.D.
Dead Sea Scrolls - William Yarchin
Death by Meeting - Patrick Lencioni
Diary - a Novel - Chuck Palahniuk
Diaries of Adam & Eve, The - Mark Twain
Die Broke - Stephen M. Pollan
Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution - Robert C. Atkins, M.D.
Dr. Deming, The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality - Rafael Aguayo
E Myth Revisited, The - Michael E. Gerber
Einstein, His Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson
Experiencing God - Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King
Extraordinary Relationships - Roberta M. Gilbert, M.D.
Faith at the Edge - A Book for Doubters - Robert N. Wennberg, 10/27/11
First Man - James R. Hansen
Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The - Patrick Lencioni
From Eternity to Here - Sean Carroll, 11/27/13
Gil, A Collection of Classic Cartoons from QST

Gift of Pain, The - Paul Brand, 12/13
Giver, The - Lois Lowry
God and Race in American Politics - A Short History - Mark A. Noll, 9/22/12

Great Crescenta Valley Flood - New Year's Day 1934 - Art Cobery, 7/14
Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Great Plains, The - Walter Prescott Webb
Grief Observed, A - C. S. Lewis
High Frontier, The - Gerard K. O'Neill
History of La Canada Flintridge, The - Don Mazen
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The - Douglas Adams
Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth - Jeffrey Satinover, M.D.
HP35s Scientific Calculator User’s Guide
Icehenge - Kim Stanley Robinson
In the Image of God - Hyatt Moore and Artists of Wycliffer Bible Translators
In the Name of Jesus - Henri J. M. Nouwen
Into Thin Air - John Krakauer
In Two Minds - Os Guinness
Ishi In Two Worlds - Theodora Kroeber
Jesus I Never Knew, The - Philip Yancey
Kite Runner, The - Khaled Hosseini, 3/12/12

Language of God, The - Francis S. Collins, 11/14
Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
Last Call - The Rise and Fall of Prohibition - Daniel Okrent, 2/10/12
Last Train to Blanket - Harry Marlin
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Lesson Before Dying, A - Ernest J. Gaines
Life, The Universe, and Everything - Douglas Adams

Life Together - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 7/14
Longitude, The Illustrated - Dava Sobel and William J. H. Andrewes
Long Walk - Slavomir Rawicz, 2011
Man's Search for Meaning - Victor E. Frankl
Margin - Richard A. Swenson
Mars Project, The - Wernher von Braun
Matter of the Casket, The - Thom Ward
Men at the Crossroads, Beyond Traditional Roles & Modern Options - Jack Balswick
Mercury 13, The - Martha Ackmann
Mind at a Time, A - Mel Levine, M.D.
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory - Randall Balmer
Mining the Sky - John S. Lewis
Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) - Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
Mom, Dad.  I'm Gay.  How Families Negotiate Coming Out  - Ritch C. Savin-Williams, 2/2/13
Morse Code: Breaking the Barrier - Dave Finley, N1IRZ

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan, 2/14
Nation of Behavers, A - Martin E. Marty
New Kind of Christian, A - Brian D. McLaren
New Tolerance, The - Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler
Night - Elie Wiesel, 1/9/14
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Freeing Your Child From - Tamar E. Chansky, Ph.D.
Ordination of Women, The - Paul King Jewett

Orphan Master's Son, The - Adam Johnson, 8/14
Out of Gas - David Goodstein
Out of The Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis, 10/13
People of the Book:  A Novel - Geraldine Brooks, 8/13
Place at the Table, A - 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor - Chris Seay, 4/8/12
Ptarmigan Telegraph, The -- Greg Asimakoupoulos
Radio Nature - Renato Romero, 3/18/13
Raging Horomones - Judith & Jack Balswick
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
ReImagining Evangelism - Rick Richardson
Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The - Douglas Adams
Revolt in 2100 - Robert A. Heinlein
River of Doubt:  Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey - Candice Millard, 2010
Roads to Space - Peter Berlin, John Rhea
Rocheworld - Robert L. Forward
Same Kind of Different as Me - Ron Hall & Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent
Santa Biblia - The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes - Justo L. Gonzalez
Screwtape Letters, The - C.S. Lewis, 2/9/13
Secret Gift, A:  How one Man's Kindeness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression - Ted Gup, 10/2012
Secret Lives of Boys, The -- Malina Saval
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The - Stephen R. Covey

Seven Men: And the Secret of Greatness - Eric Metaxas, 12/14
She Said Yes - Misty Bernall
Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern, 11/2/11
Speaking of Pianists - Abram Chasins
Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women - Joe Quirk
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish. - Douglas Adams
South, The Endurance Expedition - Ernest Shackleton
South Padre Island - Dr. Alan C. Tibbetts
Stages - Richard J. Doyle, 7/13
Starship and the Canoe, The - Kenneth Brower
Stones for Ibarra - Harriet Doerr, 5/13/12
Stones into Schools - Greg Mortenson
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Susanna Mother of the Wesleys - Rebecca Lamar Harmon
Teammates, The:  A Portrait of Friendship, the story of Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pseky, and Bobby Doerr - David Halberstam, 4/13
Texan Looks at Lyndon, A - A Study in Illegitimate Power - J. Evetts Haley, 3/6/12
Texas - James Michener

Tipping Point, The - Malcolm Gladwell, 4/14
True Notebooks:  A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall - Mark Salzman, 2011
Twelve Mighty Orphans - Jim Dent
Unbroken - A World War II Story of SUrvival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand, 9/23/11
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce, 9/13
Warden, The - Anthony Trollope, 6/5/11
What Color Is Your Parachute? (1999) - Richard Nelson Bolles
What Do We Believe? The Stance of Religion in America - Martin E. Marty, Stuart E. Rosenberg, and Andrew M. Greeley
What Jesus Meant - Garry Wills, 2/18/13
Where Is Everybody? -- Stephen Webb
Where Is God When It Hurts - Philip Yancey
whose names are unknown -- Sanora Babb
Why Men Hate Going to Church - Dave Murrow
William H. Pickering, America's Deep Space Pioneer - Doublas J. Mudgway
William Kapell - Tim Page  (also see Music)
Windows on the World of Jesus -- Bruce J. Malina

Winning 42: Revised Edition - Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas - Dennis Roberson, 9/13
Worst Hard Time, The -- Timothy Egan

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - Geraldine Brookes 1/15
Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Zero to One - Peter Thiel, scanned the first 50 pages 12/18/14