Friday morning seems like a good time to provide some updates on what I’ve been up to lately, and especially what I’ve been up to in relation to my writing. The Next Story Yesterday morning was a big day: After eight months of work I finally submitted the manuscript for The Next Story: Life and…
On Tuesday I offered you 5 Reasons Books are Better Than E-Books and on Wednesday 5 Reasons E-Books Are Better Than Books. Today I want to tie up those two posts with a few thoughts on why we need to be very, very careful about moving from the book to the e-book. Media and Messages…
I am often asked about my reading habits and, in particular, whether I now prefer to read e-books or plain, old-fashioned “real” books (of the printed variety). For a time I went back-and-forth on this question, sometimes preferirng to read on a device and sometimes preferring to read a book. But at this point my…
While I was on vacation I did a lot of reading about Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a man I’ve long been intrigued by but one I had barely gotten to know. Having returned home, I turned to a biography of his contemporary, Robert E. Lee. In the foreword to this particular biography, author Emory Thomas has…
It is July 1 today, which makes it Canada Day in my home and native land. Technically the day marks the anniversary of the unification of the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces. At this time what had previously been the Province of…
What a field-day for the heatA thousand people in the streetSinging songs and carrying signsMostly saying, hooray for our sideIt’s time we stop, hey, what’s that soundEverybody look what’s going down– From “For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills Every so often I’ve contemplated what a Saturday Night Live type of variety program might look…
Every now and again I like to give you a snippet of Canadiana in a series I call “It’s a Fact, eh?” Let me do so again today. Yesterday I had to drive down to Buffalo to pick up my sister and my niece who are up here for a short visit. I pulled onto…
Yesterday audio and today video. No one is more surprised than I am to see me branching out into media other than the written word! Since the launch of the iPad, and the Kindle before it, I’ve received a lot of questions about how the devices work and, of course, which one is the better…
Last week I found myself thinking about how and why and where we all buy our Christian books. I started with the question, “Why do people shop at one e-commerce store and not another.” And from there I just found more and more questions that were begging for answers. Before I long I had put…
Back in January when Steve Jobs took the wraps off the iPad, I declared it The Greatest Disappointment in Human History. Obviously I did so tongue-in-cheek but really I wanted to make a point–that the device was clearly not what it could have been and clearly not what it will be in a generation or…
Last week I encouraged you to Read More and Read Better. Then I got both busy and distracted and didn’t give you the second part. So let me do that today. Let me tell you how I read a book. Overview Before I do anything else, I want to get an overview of the book.…
So John Piper has asked Rick Warren to speak at this year’s Desiring God National Conference, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. You may have heard about this, either through buzz in the blogosphere or even from Piper himself in his recent Ask Pastor John session. I have known this…
Every Easter Saturday, that day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I find myself pondering what it must have been like for Jesus’ followers on that day. What did they do? What were they thinking? How did they spend their day? What thoughts were running through their heads? Their leader was dead; their Messiah had…
There are many who consider Janet Leigh’s murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to be the most terrifying scene in the history of film. The setting, the mood, the music and the camera work combine to create a scene of absolute terror. Her screams were impressed upon the memories of many who watched her macabre death…
More than any other question that comes in via email, I’m asked this one: “How do you read so much?” While granting that I do read a lot, I think it bears mention that there are lots of people who read as much as I do or a lot more. The difference is that I…
This morning I’ve got Whitefield and Wesley on my mind. This morning I was thinking about John Wesley’s infamous and divisive sermon called Free Grace and went looking for what I had written on it in the past. This was the sermon that began a significant rift between Whitefield and the Wesleys, for not only…
This little reflection, which I wrote yesterday while researching my book, seemed appropriate to post this morning, one day after the 199th anniversary of the birth of Luddism and the very day that the next great technology, the iPad, goes on sale. Luddites have gotten a bad rap. Synonymous with irrational suspicion toward technology, Luddites…
I have been introducing you to the team who will help make my next book a reality. First you met Ryan the Editor and then Chris Fann the Marketing Man. Today I want to introduce you to Agent Andrew (known to some as Andrew Wolgemuth). He is, as you may have guessed, my agent. His…
Earlier this week I began introducing you to the people who will be involved behind-the-scenes in bringing you my book The Next Story. First I introduced you to Ryan the Editor who will (obviously) be responsible for editing the book. And today I’d like you to meet Chris Fann the Marketing Man. His job is…
Writing a book is a team effort. Of course I’m the one who has to spend endless hours hunched over an endless success of books, tapping away on a keyboard and staring pensively out the window. So let’s be honest–I do most of the work. But still, there are lots of other people involved. I…