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Thursday June 19, 2008

Contest Wrap-Up

Two days, two contests. Both were a lot of fun, I think, and I hope to do a few more in the same vein. I started doing a bit of research yesterday on one that I’m sure is going to be unique and hopefully a little more difficult than the last ones.

Book Cover Contest

I thought I was being tricky yesterday with the “Book Cover” contest, but it seems that many people had little difficulty correctly identifying each of the book covers. Fully 54 people submitted a correct list. Those who got tripped up, tended to miss #2 or #19. Of those who got them all correct, I randomly selected Brett Maragni as the winner of the gift certificate.

Here are the answers:

  1. Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
  2. Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey
  3. Truth War by John MacArthur
  4. The Gagging of God by DA Carson
  5. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
  6. George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore
  7. Reason for God by Tim Keller
  8. Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris
  9. Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll
  10. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
  11. Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen
  12. The Shack by William P. Young
  13. Do Hard Things by Alex Harris, Bret Harris and Chuck Norris
  14. 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever
  15. The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Clairborne
  16. The Cross-Centered Life by CJ Mahaney
  17. Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George Marsden
  18. The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge
  19. Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren
  20. Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur

Bonus 1. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
Bonus 2. God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
Bonus 3. The God Delusion by Richard Hawkins

First Three Lines

Here are the answers for the “First Three Lines” contest in case you didn’t notice that I posted them in a comment. Derek Brown was selected as the winner, one of 34 people who answered all of them correctly.

  1. The Cross of Christ, John R. W. Stott
  2. Knowing God, J. I. Packer
  3. Desiring God, John Piper
  4. The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges
  5. Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
  6. Wild At Heart, John Eldredge
  7. True Spirituality, Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer
  8. Ashamed of the Gospel, John MacArthur
  9. Humility: True Greatness, C. J. Mahaney
  10. I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris
  11. Heaven, Randy Alcorn
  12. 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper
  13. Chosen By God, R. C. Sproul
  14. Decision Making and the Will of God, Garry Friesen
  15. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, Rob Bell

Comments (7) »

1. David Ketter
June 19, 2008
10:12 AM

I’m somewhat comforted with the reality that I missed books that I’ve never physically seen. :)

2. Paul
June 19, 2008
10:16 AM

Great contests Tim, thanks! Although, I can’t help but notice that #16 is clearly “Living the Cross Centered Life” and not “The Cross Centered Life” as you listed above. The covers are quite different. I’m just giving you a hard time because I am sore loser:-) Thanks again!

3. Jeremy Weaver
June 19, 2008
12:53 PM

I demand a recount! Hanging and/or pregnant chads!

Next contest can be identifying the books by the UPC with the numbers blurred out.

4. Staci at Writing and Living
June 19, 2008
1:04 PM

I only missed five. How irritating to learn that the answer to #2 is a book that is sitting on my nightstand.

I guessed that there was at least one DA Carson book in there, but I couldn’t come up with anything. I also wondered if you had included something by John Eldredge, but missed that one, too.

Good contest, though!

5. Simple Mann
June 19, 2008
1:13 PM

With a little bit of help from DiscerningReader and Amazon, I was able to identify some of the ones I didn’t recognize right off. But I must admit #2 and #18 (Total Truth and Sacred Romance) probably stole about three hours of my life yesterday. Sheesh. I actually loaded a dictionary file and did a word search for anything with “IVITY”, and although I pulled up Total Truth three or four times when searching Amazon for the word “Captivity”, it wasn’t until continuing to search for another couple hours that I finally made it large enough that I “saw it”. GRRrrrr… And I was lucky enough to find Sacred Romance on DiscerningReader, but woe is me. I’m *still* a Loser!

Lots of fun, Tim. I don’t know if I’ll be to participate in the next challenge. I might lose my job if I keep working on this stuff at work! :)

Peace and Blessings,
Simple Mann

6. Jeri
June 19, 2008
3:34 PM

“I started doing a bit of research yesterday on one that I’m sure is going to be unique and hopefully a little more difficult than the last ones.”

Great.

7. Brett Maragni
June 19, 2008
10:11 PM

First of all, I’d like to thank the academy…oops, I mean Tim…for randomly selecting me among so many worthy opponents.

Next, I have to thank my wife for putting up with my book obsession, and also for joining a ladies’ discussion group on the book by Nancy Pearcey (#2).

Third, I’d like to thank everyone out there who always told me, “Dream big dreams, and you never know, someday they may come true.” Today that dream has come true.

Finally, I’d like to thank Google. Yes the good folks out there in Mountain View, CA, who saw fit to make available a blog reader, one that enabled me to see this contest before I went to bed last night and submit the winning entry. Without my blog reader, I probably never would have known about this contest in time to participate.

There are so many other people I need to thank, but they’re telling me I’m out of time. Thanks, again, everyone! I love you!