Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Book Notes

* Talk about the utter foolishness of political-correctness. Check out the "warning label" put on a new edition of Immanuel Kant.

* If you think the new “green advocacy” movie (Noah) plays out anything close to the biblical account, you’ve been munching on too many Colorado brownies. Check it out.

* What's this? A new book by J.R.R. Tolkien? Actually, it's a very old book translated by Tolkien and edited for a new, never before published edition by his son. Less than $20 buys you your own copy of Tolkien's Beowulf right here.

* Ready for a reading challenge? Several friends of Vital Signs have committed to completing one of two reading tracks by the end of the summer. (In fact, some have signed on to both!) The first track is the seven short books of The Chronicles of Narnia. The second involves three books: Heaven by Randy Alcorn, The Heart of Prayer by Jarram Barrs, and Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks. Those involved in each project can “talk” about their reading with others on Facebook or, from time to time, talk in person over coffee at the gatherings we will announce. Also, come August, Denny & Claire will host a barbecue dinner at their house for everyone who was involved in either project. Let us know if you are interested.

* And speaking of old books, did you ever get round to reading Ben Shapiro's Primetime Propaganda? Mark Levin says of it, “Vitally important, devastatingly thorough, and shockingly revealing. After reading Primetime Propaganda, you’ll never watch TV the same way again.” It's going really cheap these days.

* The Associated Press reports on a major fraud in which consumers paid artificially inflated prices for e-books published by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon& Schuster, Penguin Group and Holtzbrinck doing business as Macmillan. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday. "Companies engaging in such anticompetitive conduct will be punished, and starting today those injured by their actions will start to receive full and fair compensation." The goal amount is $166 million. Yipes. Here’s the story.

* “An interview with Paul Kengor, Reagan biographer and author of 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative (Benjamin Weingarten, The Blaze)

* Beginning at 7 o’clock on Monday evening, April 7th, Denny & Claire will be hosting the first of  four L’Abri evenings, featuring the four lectures of the recent L’Abri conference in Rochester, Minnesota that Denny & Claire thought the best. April 7th will be “The Biblical Basis for True Spirituality” by Jerram Barrs. On April 14th, we will listen to “Spirituality According to Francis Schaeffer” by Bill Edgar. “Three Theories of Everything” by Ellis Potter is the lecture for April 21st. And we will finish off on April 28th with “The Christian Life: An Other-Centered Walk” by Dick Keyes. They are all stimulating, illuminating and inspirational. We hope you can come.

* Here's an article that purports to have found the best book store in America. In Wichita, Kansas, no less. Very interesting.

* And finally, the Quotation of the Day for today at "Into the Wardrobe (A C.S. Lewis Site)" is one quite relevant to Facebook users.

“I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of.” (C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy.)