Cool Books

Any literary project reflects the age in which it is written, starts the preface of “The Voice” but sometimes this isn’t true of all biblical translations. The Voice, a scripture project to rediscover the story of the bible by Thomas Nelson and friends does reflect 2010 without compromising on truth. Translations of the bible often carry the relics of years of translation, The Voice is a poetic and beautiful addition to this well esteemed collection of translations and devotionals which doesn’t detract from the mainstream publications of the Holy Bible but it certainly eased itself into this bloggers regular reading pile.

Once more plagiarising The Voice’s preface: there are four key words that describe the vision of the project:

• holistic - considers heart, soul and mind
• beautiful – achieves literary and artistic excellence
• sensitive – respects cultural shifts and the need for accuracy
• balanced – includes theologically diverse writers and scholars

As a bible translated into a modern context, there are three significant additions to this text, outside and in addition to the standard translation which you might find in any bible be it NIV, NLT, WEB etc etc.

1. Screenplay format – in dialogue and monologue this bible uses a screenplay format to capture the dialogue, instead of saying “then Jesus said to John …” it is written like a screenplay, leaving room for your creative mind to build the scene in your head, it actually is a beautiful way of following a story.
2. Additive text in Italics – the original text of the bible was a very different language, not only to English, but especially to 2010 English. So to bridge the gap in a few places the authors have added small amounts of text in italics, so that it reads accurately and is much more understandable.
3. Side notes – as you would be familiar with from study bibles, but these side notes are great! A small example is at the start of the book of John “My name is John. My fathers name was Zebedee. We made …”. The side notes are very contextual, personal and edifying.

The project is beautiful in language and is brimming over with life changing truths. If the language of the bible has lost it’s impact on you then The Voice will re-impress on you the power and the reality of the bible and the stories contained within.

Download the free pdf The Voice: The Book of John or buy it online below.

Buy The Voice New Testament on Amazon.com now.

Graves start appearing in front of local houses and the main character of this free eBook is dragged right into the heart of the matter. Short stories that are gripping in nature are best read in the 15 minutes before you sleep tonight and I highly recommend you apply the same technique here. Justin Cawthorne is an Australian writer and father based in Perth and I’d hate to imagine what he’s reading to his kids if Graves is a god example of his work!

The short story follows a few days in the life of a resident of an island who had left the island and since come back. An acquaintance lives nearby and the resident finds a tombstone in his garden bed. They think nothing of it until he dies!

It’s hard to review a short story without giving the story away, so download this one, it’s free and you can read it on Stanza on your iPhone or in any other format for any other platform including pdf.

Download Graves from Smashwords.com for free!

On a major road on the Gold Coast I once rented a second storey apartment and brushing over the many faults of that cheap apartment, it had one quality feature, a balcony that provided a viewing platform over the major road and it’s footpaths to the tenants, so they could people watch and observe the interesting residents of Labrador.

People watching is a favourite past time of many a freak, including like this blogger. We humans are always interested in how other people are digesting the same information we are or what they think about a certain topic or are their brains as twisted sas ours.

The 500,000 (1,300,000 at the time of posting) followers of David Pogue, writer for the New York Times, have opinions, ideas and some crazy thoughts inside their brains and David has harvested those crazy thoughts and published the fruit of the crop in a very funny and intriguing book called “The World According To Twitter”.

Here’s a few examples of David’s question and answer harvest of his Twitter followers:

• What’s the best prank you’ve ever witnessed? Our boss left for 10 weeks. We made her office up to look like someone had been living in it, complete with empty pizza boxes & clothes.
• Heard any good puns lately? Zen master goes up to the hot dog vendor and says, “Make me one with everything.”
• Redefine an existing word in a punny way. Propaganda: To hold a goose up.
• What’s the best toast you’ve heard? I’d rather be here with you people than with the finest people on earth.
• Make up a concept for a new TV show that’s probably doomed. Survivor, Final Season: Cannibal Edition

As you can see the book is full of some great gags and insights. David Pogue is an excellent question asker (sic. interviewer) and his Twitter followers are plain comedians.

Buy The World According to Twitter online at Amazon.com

Many moons ago I found this book, neglected and forgotten in a flatmate’s bookshelf and it’s possibly the funniest novel I’ve ever read. It brings the hilarity and realism of a 28 year old Australian male’s life a little closer because it’s set in Brisbane, Queensland, a familiar city to the author of this blog and a familiar lifestyle.

The book is wise, funny, honest and filled with very creative ideas and penchants that represent a generation and it’s inability to repair toasters or complete other meaningful tasks.

I fell in love with the book when I was 23 and now I’m 28, the same age as the main character who is living in the house his grandparents built. Written by Nick Earls and now adapted into a play, this is one of those books that the reader feels like it’s his life penned and not someone elses.

Top read for an Aussie bloke!

Buy Zigzag Street from Fishpond.com.au with Free Shipping for orders over $49!

Walker Lamond is a forward thinking, selfless man which is proven in his amazing and very cool release “Rules For My Unborn Son” (and the complimentary blog). Walker has a noble goal to preserve and teach simple, funny and importnat life principles to a new generation.

This generational process of principle could be boring, old fashioned or out-of-date, but after reading one or two rules you’ll be laughing your coffee out of your nose and refusing to put the small book down until you’ve finished. Because not only have you broken half of the rules and regretted it, but you’ve known others that have broken them and you’d really hope your son (present or future) would keep them.

The book is an easy and simple read, written in an easy to digest language, the rules are simple and straight to the point. Walker, and vicariously, his father, pull no punches as they attempt to educate young men on how “it” should be.

This blogger’s personal top 5 rules from this definitely cool book are as follows

• Never push someone off a dock. The view is better when you’re not afraid of who is behind you.
• Don’t personalise your license plates.
• When it’s time to sing in church, SING! It’s a great time to practise.
• Short pants are for little boys. Decide for yourself when you are a man.
• Your best chance at becoming a rock star is learning the bass.

The icing on this published cake is the appendix which includes required reading and required listening for boys. Including the influential tunes of David Bowie, The Pogues and Hall and Oates and the writings of Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell are a small sample from the list.

Any young boy who is equipped with and brought up with this book will certainly be an outstanding member of society and a hipster at that!

Buy Rules for My Unborn Son from Fishpond.com.au with Free Shipping for orders over $49!

Retailing in Australia has become 1/3 struggle, 1/3 copy-cat and 1/3 crazy ideas. Dr Stephen Saunders has 25 years experience as an experienced retailer and a leader in thought and his book Open Wallets will set you on a straight path to retail success.

This eBook is cool because it simply communicates easy measures you can take to improve your retail store. Your shop might not encourage open wallets today, read Stephen’s book and apply what you learn and you’ll see the difference.

Buy the eBook online at Lulu.com

Cool books come in all shapes and sizes and much like movies, some books are written for kids but give the adults a good laugh as well. The name of this book is rather suggestive of it’s content and it’s not hiding anything once you open the front page.

The wimpy kid, Greg, is more like the reader than any reader would care to admit and the comic in a novel style leads yo a real laugh out loud scenario.

Jeff Kinney ensures smiles abide, laughs entail and a reminder that high school was not the end of the world you thought it was keeps you in between the covers.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a cool book and a fun red for all ages, as long as you can crack a smile. (Thanks to @xoxoxoe for the introduction and the gift.)

Check out “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” on Amazon

Recently Windows 7 launched. For a multinational large company Microsoft did a poor job and didn’t really excite anyone. With that standard set I present to you Cool Books!

The goal: to review, reveal and respect the coolest books that have ever chopped down a tree.