Category: Uncategorized

I thought these four posts from December 2010 at the website for the Q Gathering were worth sharing.  

Ten Most Significant Cultural Trends of the Last Decade by Andy Crouch

Crouch is always good.  Having been a trend watcher, author, and thinker since his re:generation quarterly days, there is no one better on this stuff.  

My other favorite culture watcher is Alan Jacobs, an English professor at Wheaton College.  I love his Tumblr account: more than 95 theses where he gives you clippings of stuff he found worth reading and he gives a few comments afterward.

Ten Most Praiseworthy Albums of the Last Decade by Josh Jackson

I don't know much about music but this is all the more reason to check out what Jackson recommends here and either order the albums, get them at the public library, or try them in Pandora.com or Grooveshark.com

 

Ten Most Transcendent Films of the Last Decade by Brett McCraken

See also the Best-of Lists at Christianity Today Movies (which McCraken contributes to).

Ten Most Beautiful Books I Read During the Last Decade by Margaret Feinberg

This is a much harder category because there are many great books but Feinberg picks some good ones here. 

For years I have mining Eugene Peterson's recommendations on what to read in his Take and Read. 

See also these folks on Twitter:

Trends by @ahc, Albums by @joshjackson, Films by @brettmccracken, Books by @mafeinberg; Alan Jacobs @ayjay

I thought Martin Marty's 2004 (reprint 2008) biography of Martin Luther was delightful.  I found it readable, quick-paced, thoughtful and brief.  I would recommend it for those who have seen the 2004 movie Luther and want an introduction to the Reformation through a biography.  Marty is a Lutheran religious scholar who will turn 83 in February 2011.  He taught at University of Chicago Divinity School for many years and wrote regularly for The Christian Century from 1956 to 2010.

In my free time, I have been reading two non-theological books.  Both are thought-provoking. 

The first, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, encourages you to focus on doing less and eliminate distractions.  Tim Ferriss says you should just check email at noon and 4:00 pm.  You should do the one thing you need to do that day before 11:00 am. 

I was inspired to try to get my wife Amy and I to "batch" all of our household chores (like laundry, cleaning and finances) until Saturday except for daily tasks like washing dishes and making meals as opposed to always looking for things to do whenever I have a down minute.  I have changed my home page of my internet browser to google.com because it is not distracting rather than gmail.com  with tabs for igoogle.com and Twitter and Facebook. 

Disclaimer: I need to add that the advice of the author (Timothy Ferriss) should be received with lots of skepticism.  This is self-help literature of the most dubious kind.  See the scathing New York Times review of his newest book: New! Improved! Shape Up Your Life! By DWIGHT GARNER Published: January 6, 2011     

The second book, Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, stresses the importance of relationships and teaches you how to relate well.   It is a generally reputable book that gives an overview of psychiatry literature. 

Both would be worth reading with your spouse.  

Neither encourage blogging.  But I will still see you here from time to time.