Blades upon Books - Traditionals

[5K Qs]

I read this book earlier this month, and thought I ought to post it now since it's Christmas-themed. As is usually the case when I've read books written by Keller, I enjoyed interesting discussions and encountered thought-provoking ideas about what the Bible says (in this case about Jesus' birth). Here are the chapter titles from this 160-page (relatively small pages) book:

Table of Contents:​

1. A Light Has Dawned
2. The Mothers of Jesus
3. The Fathers of Jesus
4. Where is the King?
5. Mary’s Faith
6. The Shepherds’ Faith
7. A Sword in the Soul
8. The Doctrine of Christmas

Chapters 2 and 3 pointed out fascinating things about the genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; Chapter 4 discussed the Wise Men and Herod; Chapters 5 and 6 presented thoughtful discussions of the nature of the faith of Mary and of the shepherds; and Chapter 7 addressed the harsh comments of old man Simeon in the temple rejoicing that he was able to witness the coming of God's Anointed One.



- GT

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[5K Qs]

I recently read this book on pocketknife repair. I learned a lot of "theoretical" knowledge about fixing various problems. But my problem is I "know" how lots of things are supposed to be done, but I don't have the practical skills to actually DO them.


The book is a "quick read", since most pages have large photos and not very much text:


- GT

 

[dantzk8]

Chess fundamentals.

José Raúl Capablanca was a genius of Chess. World Champion from 1921 to 1927. He wrote this book in 1924. In it, he defines his conception of the fundamental principles of the game in a clear, concise and elegant style. His conception of the game has sometimes been described as "simplistic". Which tends to prove that he was a genius.

Dan.

 

[mckgreg]

A Pair of Real Old Timers. If you date the knife you will date the dictionary too.
They're both from St. Louis.
Greg

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[5K Qs]

Here's a book I gave my wife for Christmas a couple of months ago. It was written by a communications prof at the same school where I taught (although I really don't know him, other than to recognize him by sight). The college used to have a January "interim term" between fall and spring semesters. During that interim term, students would take a single class, usually meeting for 3 hours per day (morning or afternoon) for 17 days. The courses were usually not the sort of classes offered during the regular semester, but instead many were based on "special topics" such as the Holocaust, Sherlock Holmes, using statistics to determine optimal strategies in sports, classical mythology, media and the Vietnam War, etc. The author of the book posted here offered a course on story-telling and somehow he convinced Jean Shepherd, the storyteller/humorist/author on whose stories the film "A Christmas Story" is based, to help him teach the course. The prof recently published this book in which he discusses some of what he learned from Shepherd about the film.

Ironically, although watching the movie has been a Christmas tradition in our house for years, we didn't watch it for Christmas this past December, even though we now had a book to go with it!

- GT

 

[5K Qs]

Here's a novel I read near last Thanksgiving. I've read many of Connelly's books, including all those featuring Harry Bosch and most featuring Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, and Harry's long-lost half-brother. I tend to prefer the Bosch books. But the one shown below has Haller and Bosch cooperating on a case in which Haller is trying to show that a woman was wrongly convicted of her husband's murder. I thought it was pretty good recreational reading.

- GT

 

[EJM73]

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[5K Qs]

I recently read this novel by G. K. Chesterton, published in 1908. It's a story about a British policeman who goes undercover to infiltrate Europe's Central Anarchist Council, whose members use days of the week as aliases, hence the title. Apparently, back at that time, anarchists were seen as as big a threat to society/civilization as terrorists are in today's world. I thought it was an interesting book, although very strange. "Experts" claim the book was very influential on subsequent literary efforts featuring surrealism, such as the work of Kafka. Chesterton is famous for using Christian allegory in his writing, but I couldn't really figure out how that was used in this book. (Chesterton also wrote the popular Father Brown stories.) I thought what the book had to say about how all real anarchists are rich people was quite interesting, and could be applied to current events.

- GT

 

[5K Qs]

View attachment 2746868

Chess fundamentals.

José Raúl Capablanca was a genius of Chess. World Champion from 1921 to 1927. He wrote this book in 1924. In it, he defines his conception of the fundamental principles of the game in a clear, concise and elegant style. His conception of the game has sometimes been described as "simplistic". Which tends to prove that he was a genius.

Dan.

This post inspired me to start reading some chess books again. In the past, I've read several beginner/intermediate level books on chess that I enjoyed, even though I'm not a good player. So this month I've re-read, or worked through, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. The book doesn't attempt to teach very much chess; it concentrates on mating patterns, mostly related to mates on the back rank with the enemy King in castled position.

The book was published in 1966, six years before Fischer became World Champion, and some claim it's the best-selling chess book of all time. There is disagreement about how much Fischer actually contributed to the book, although he's listed as one of 3 co-authors:

What I find interesting is that the other 2 authors worked for an educational design company, and were strong proponents of "programmed learning", a behaviorist approach to designing materials to optimize learning that was quite popular for awhile in the 1960s. The layout of the book reflects this approach. The reader is expected to read only the right-hand page of the open book, which usually presents, at the top of the page, the answer to a chess problem from the bottom of the previous right-hand page, as well as presenting a new problem at the bottom of the page (to be answered, of course, at the top of the next right-hand page. Once the reader completes all the right-hand pages, he rotates the book 180 degrees and starts working through the right-hand pages (that had been upside down left-hand pages originally) from the back of the book to the front! Here's a sample:

I guess the idea is that you'll never get a problem and its answer on facing pages, so you won't be tempted to peek at the answer before trying to solve the problem yourself.

The book is very limited in scope, but I like it because I can figure out most of the problems.

- GT

 

[5K Qs]

I probably read quite a few more books (and take photos of them with knives) than the ones I end up posting here. So I always have a big backlog of photos that I could/might post in this thread. After I post a book here, I usually try to wait for other BF members to post books before I post another one, so I don't have 2 or more consecutive posts. But what the heck - I'll do 3 in a row!

This book, Out on Good Behavior, is written by a man who retired from a career in environmental engineering IIRC and went back to school to get a teaching certificate to teach math in middle school, I think in California. After completing his course work and internship, he still had to complete a probationary period during his first 2 years of classroom teaching. During that time, he worked with mentor teachers whose role was to help him "learn the ropes" of teaching as efficiently and effectively as possible. (The mentors are who he's looking over his shoulder at, as described in the book's subtitle.) Interesting book to me, since I spent my career teaching math at lots of different levels. The author seems like a pretty self-confident, cocky guy who thinks that, when it comes to teaching math, he knows better than "the educational establishment".

- GT

 

[screened porch]

This post inspired me to start reading some chess books again. In the past, I've read several beginner/intermediate level books on chess that I enjoyed, even though I'm not a good player. So this month I've re-read, or worked through, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. The book doesn't attempt to teach very much chess; it concentrates on mating patterns, mostly related to mates on the back rank with the enemy King in castled position.

The book was published in 1966, six years before Fischer became World Champion, and some claim it's the best-selling chess book of all time. There is disagreement about how much Fischer actually contributed to the book, although he's listed as one of 3 co-authors:

What I find interesting is that the other 2 authors worked for an educational design company, and were strong proponents of "programmed learning", a behaviorist approach to designing materials to optimize learning that was quite popular for awhile in the 1960s. The layout of the book reflects this approach. The reader is expected to read only the right-hand page of the open book, which usually presents, at the top of the page, the answer to a chess problem from the bottom of the previous right-hand page, as well as presenting a new problem at the bottom of the page (to be answered, of course, at the top of the next right-hand page. Once the reader completes all the right-hand pages, he rotates the book 180 degrees and starts working through the right-hand pages (that had been upside down left-hand pages originally) from the back of the book to the front! Here's a sample:

I guess the idea is that you'll never get a problem and its answer on facing pages, so you won't be tempted to peek at the answer before trying to solve the problem yourself.

The book is very limited in scope, but I like it because I can figure out most of the problems.

- GT

I remember those programmed books. Very irritating as textbooks because hard to skim. Your answers would lead to different pages depending on whether you got them right, or how you got them wrong.

 

[5K Qs]

I remember those programmed books. Very irritating as textbooks because hard to skim. Your answers would lead to different pages depending on whether you got them right, or how you got them wrong.

I don't remember ever using books like that except in an educational psychology class in the early 1970s. The prof probably felt compelled to keep up with all the latest fads in education (although by that time I'll bet there was substantial backlash against the Skinnerian principles underlying the programmed learning).

- GT

 

[Pt-Luso]

 

[peanutsxx]

 

[5K Qs]

This book, James, is a recent award-winner that retells the stories of Twain's Huckleberry Finn from the slave Jim's perspective. As usual, I got it from the public library, but I put it "on hold" several months ago and didn't get one of the library system's 12 copies until last week because it was in such demand among library patrons. It was an engaging read, but didn't meet the high expectations I had, given the critical acclaim and public popularity of the novel. It was certainly no To Kill a Mockingbird IMHO. I probably should have reread Twain's version (which I last read at least 15 years ago) before reading James so that I'd have been better able to see the similarities and differences between the two stories.

- GT

 

[jlauffer]