Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian - 496 pages

Last year I read Master and Commander, the first in a 21 (!) book series by Patrick O'Brian.  I loved it.

Post Captain continues the misadventures of captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon friend,  Stephen Maturin.  Picking up right after Master and Commander, it is a brief rare season of peace between England, France, and Spain.  As often happens with sailors with too much time on their hands, they quickly fall into debt and love.  Jack is enraptured with the young heiress Sophia Williams, and Stephen falls for the unconventional widow Diana Villiers.  The first half of the book almost reads like a Jane Austen novel told from the man's (are there any real men in those books?) perspective.
Thankfully, war breaks out and the boys leave land behind to sink, plunder, and generally harass the French enemy.

As usual Patrick O'Brian's distinctive writing style, while taking some getting used to,  takes the breath away and draws the reader in.  The action was bigger, the romance greater, and the development of the often contentious relationship between Aubrey and Maturin was delightful.  I also enjoyed the insights on leadership, as Jack learns to maintain discipline and good morale amongst the crew of his ship.

I can't wait to read the next one!

"It is unjust to provoke a man and then complain he is a satyr if the provocation succeeds."

"How helpless a man is, against direct attack by a woman."

"The sailor, at sea (his proper element), lives in the present.  There is nothing he can do about the past at all; and having regard to the uncertainty of the omnipotent ocean and the weather, very little about the future."

"Ever since I was breeched I have pined to see a narwhal."

Adoniram Judson: How Few There Are That Die So Hard by John Piper - 24 Pages

This short, free ebook is a converted transcript of one of John Piper's biographical sermons that he gave for many years at the annual Desiring God Pastor's Conference.

Though it is short, it packs a punch.  I was expecting more biography and less exhortation, but I was pleasantly surprised and challenged.  Piper weaves in glimpses of Judson's life, suffering, and fruitful death to his call for followers of Jesus to embrace suffering as the God ordained means of bringing the lost nations into the joy of glorifying Christ.  A great read.  I will be handing this out to anyone interested in joining us on the field.

"My question is, if Christ delays his return another two hundred years - a mere fraction of a day in his reckoning - which of you will have suffered and died so that the triumphs of grace will be told about one or two of those 3,500 [unreached groups of] peoples who are in the same condition today that the Karen and Chin and Kachins and Burmese were in 1813?...Most of these hopeless peoples do not want you to come.  At least they think they don't.  They are hostile to Christian missions.  Today this is the final frontier"

"Judson wrote to missionary candidates in 1832:  

Remember, a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land.  Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps. 

The question for us is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit."

The Conviction to Lead by Albert Mohler - 224 Pages

I normally don't like to read books on leadership.  I find that they generally fall into one or more of the following categories: Secular leadership books filled with un-and-anti-Biblical advice, Christian leadership books that are trying to be like the secular ones but with some proof texts sprinkled in, or Biblical leadership books that are solid but are really only applicable to a senior pastor role.

With The Conviction to Lead, Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler has broken the mold, composing a book that is driven and grounded in a high view of Scripture as well as broad enough to speak to Christians in any sphere of leadership, not just the church.

The basic premise is clearly displayed in the book's title - that more than skill, personality, methods, and opportunities, it is the conviction to lead that is preeminent to being a successful, faithful, and Christ-honoring leader.  Stating that "true leadership starts with a purpose, not a plan," Mohler seeks to bring together and empower two groups of people in the Christian leadership world - those who are believers and those who are leaders.  He says,

"If our leaders are not passionately driven by the right beliefs, we are headed for disaster.  At the same time, if believers cannot lead, we are headed nowhere.  My goal is to redefine Christian leadership so that it is inseperable from passionately held beliefs, and to motivate those who are deeply commited to truth to be ready for leadership."

Mohler succeeds brilliantly with his goal, grounding much of his advice and exhortation in his real life experience of turning almost singlehandedly the historic Southern Baptist Seminary from a being a bastion of Liberal theology to being a flagship of Biblical faithfulness that it has now become.

I would put this up there with Oswald Sanders' book as one of the best on Christian leadership.  I look forward to returning to it often and recommending it to others.

"We do not believe in belief any more than we have faith in faith.  We believe the gospel, and we have faith in Christ.  Our beliefs have substance and our faith has an object."

"You can divide all leaders into those who merely hold an office or position and those who hold great convictions" 

The Lamb and the Fuhrer by Ravi Zacharias - 90 Pages

I often listen to master apologist Ravi Zacharias' podcast  and have been meaning to read a book by him.  This short book, with an interesting title and concept seemed like a good place to start.  I'm not so sure.

The concept of the book (and "Great Conversations" series) is simple but intriguing - "what would the conversation between Jesus and Hitler be like at the Final Judgement?

While there were great apologetical points made during the conversation a few things bothered me:

1.  Zacharias' Arminian perspective is evident in some places, and in my view diminish the glory of God.  For example in a section where Hitler asks Jesus why He didn't just make people love Him, Jesus responds, "It's not enough to command love; it must be wooed" (p.81).  Is this to imply that, among other things, that if someone does not fall in love with Christ, it is because Christ is an incompetent wooer?  This seems to contradict Scriptures like  John 10:14-18, John 6:37 and many others that speak of the sovereign, gracious, irresistible call of the Shepherd to His sheep.  If Jesus had never made me love Him, I wouldn't.

2.  For some reason Bonhoeffer shows up as sort of a prosecutor.  This was interesting but unnecessary.  He is given some of the best lines.

3.  There is just something that feels trite about Jesus arguing with Hitler.  Maybe I'm way off but I can't imagine Hitler (or anyone not reconciled to Christ) being able to keep his underwear clean, let alone verbally contending with, the risen, glorified Christ sitting on His throne of judgement.


I still admire and will continue to learn from Ravi Zacharias and his ministry.  But I don't think I will be recommending this book to many people.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - 128 pages

I grew up fascinated by the 1960 adaptation of H.G. Well's The Time Machine, with it's cheesy effects but interesting plot about a victorian era scientist who travels into the future.  I was surprised by two things when I read the original book: 1. the movie (note: the 1960 version not the abomination-that-shall-not-be named made in 2002) followed the book rather closely and 2. The book really isn't very long.

Written in 1895, the plot follows the unnamed Time Traveller, an eccentric London scientist, as he recounts to his skeptical dinner guests how he constructed a machine that is capable of traveling in the fourth dimension - time.  Traveling thousands of years into the future, the Time Traveller encounters a humanity that has been divided into two deformed mutations of what it once was.  One ilk living in ignorant luxury above ground, being raised as human cattle for the more primitive but powerful subterranean Morlocks.  His time machine stolen by the Morlocks, he eventually escapes with not much more than his life, traveling even further (and foolishly in my opinion...what happens when you run out of time?)  into the future to observe the sunset of life on earth...which apparently involves weird crab-like creatures and lots of moss.

Wells' groundbreaking novella provides thought-provoking speculations about the nature and future of mankind, along with a mildly entertaining adventure.

Why 10,000 Pages?

For the last two years I have committed to and managed to read 52 books a year. You can find those books reviewed at MY52books.com 52 books a year was a great exercise and I am glad I did it. I thank Mark and Ron for putting up with my reviews for the last two years and hope to guest post over there from time to time if they will let me. This year I'm going to try a new reading experiment. Over the last two years I found myself reading a few large books at the beginning of the year and then choosing shorter and shorter books to keep up the pace. This year, I'm changing my strategy. Instead of setting a goal of how many books I will read, I am setting a goal to read 10,000 pages. Why 10,000? I averaged out the amount of pages in the 52 books I read last year and they came to about 10,000. So as you can see, although I will probably not read 52 books this year, I will be reading the same amount of pages. The hope is that this strategy will allow me to more freely and wisely choose what I read based not on the size of the book, but the content. Whether I am successful with this experiment or if it explodes in my face, I hope you are encouraged to read more, entertained, and edified by observing it. Thanks for being along on the journey. If you are looking for reasons and ways to increase your reading this year I recommend to you this excellent post by my friend Ron Coia: Thirteen Ways To Read More in 2013