Various books I’ve read
Driver: “I hope you’re right.”
Moss: “Trust me”, Moss said.
Driver: “I hate hearin them words”, the driver said. “I always did.”
Moss: “Have you ever said them?”
Driver: “Yeah. I’ve said em. That’s how come I know what they’re worth.”
Ed Tom: You got a dog in this hunt?
Sheriff Bell: Not really. A couple of kids from my county that might be sort of involved that ought not to be.
Ed Tom: Sort of involved
Sheriff Bell: Yeah
Ed Tom: Are we talkin kin?
Sheriff Bell: No. Just people from my county. People I’m supposed to be lookin after.
I was recently listening to the audiobook No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and this line hit me.
In this part of the story, Sheriff Bell is following the trail of bodies left behind by killers on the search for Llewelyn Moss who is a blue collar local that stumbled across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry. He ended up with a satchel of money and is on the run from the drug dealers and psychopathic killer Chigurh trying to get the money back.
Bell is concerned about Llewelyn and trying to genuinely help him – going the extra mile to keep following the case even though it’s far beyond his jurisdiction. Bell often narrates parts of the story and talks about how he comes from a long line of law enforcement officers in the hard desert country. He talks about they saw themselves as entrusted with the care of the communities they lived and worked in – and the hardships, death, and confusing levels of evil they often faced.
The last part of that quote was something that hit me as to the heart of a Catholic priest. A priest is entrusted with all the souls assigned to his parish boundaries – believers and non-believers alike. I think Sheriff Bell has exactly that kind of concern – a shepherd for all the people in his care. Whether they want it or not.
Do we see our jobs, and those we interact with or work with as coworkers, as in our care as well? Do we have the heart of a shepherd with our children and those we serve? Do we act in ways that demonstrates the truth, love, and compassion that Jesus had for those he interacted with while in our jobs and families? All too often, jobs are seen as just ways to make lots of money, gain power and fame, get accolades and attention, or climb to the top and lord it over others.
This is not what we are called to be as Christians. The call of the world is to become the center of attention – in charge of things, in command, taking power and making lots of money.
Instead, we must turn into servant leadership. We are to become less, so others may become more. We become less, so Christ may carry us unweighted with earthly attachments to heaven. We become less, so God can act more. But we must get ourselves and our egos out of the way. What we are called to can be found in the Litany of Humility:
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
“Harrison Bergeron” is a satirical dystopian science-fiction short story written in 1961 by American author Kurt Vonnegut.
In the year 2081, the Constitution dictates that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, and her agents enforce the equality laws by forcing citizens to wear “handicaps” such as ugly masks for those who are too beautiful, earpiece radios that broadcast irritating noises meant to disrupt thoughts for the intelligent, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic. Examples include things like ballerinas wear grotesque masks and heavy weights to them to make them clumsy and unattractive.
A lot of modern policy is based on the notion of equality – but I think Vonnegut’s story presents a valid discussion point to what equality really means. Living in the extremely liberal town of Portland, I have heard people promote the very ideas in this story as a vision of equality. Does equality mean that all people must be the same?
Articles:
I loved the Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace series. It’s one of the best comedy/mock-u-series shows to come out in the last few years.
But now there is a theory that Garth Marenghi was based on Shaun Hutson. What do you think?
Audible provides a great collection of audiobooks, but you do need to pay for a subscription or buy individual selections. Now, Project Gutenberg, Microsoft, and MIT have worked together to create thousands of free and open audiobooks using new neural text-to-speech technology and Project Gutenberg’s large open-access collection of e-books. The project has been selected as one of the ‘Best Inventions of 2023′ by Time magazine.
Traditionally, AI narrators and voices have limitations. Early generated voices were barely good enough for simple one phrase statements. For longer text, they tend to be very flat/monotone and have bad pacing to the point of being very painful to listen too for any extended period of time. While this is still somewhat the case, this version is much improved.
I personally love combining my workouts/hikes/drives with audiobooks – and having a new free source of good material is great.
The book selection obviously are works in the public domain, but that includes lots of classics – such as some of my favorites: Edwardian and Victorian ghost stories.
You can go to the project’s main page here to learn more, or browse the collection here.
The audiobooks are also hosted on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and the Internet Archive.
Download the complete book copy I scanned here: Download Invasion of the Black Slime and Other Tales of Horror PDF here
When I was a kid, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. At school book fairs, I was always on the lookout for a good deal. There were various copycats series – such as the really excellent Fighting Fantasy series that I discovered in middle school. Which Way Books, however, never really received the accolades of Choose your own Adventure. Most of them were very mediocre to downright terrible. One book from the series, however, really stood head and shoulders above the others.
Invasion of the Black Slime and Other Tales of Horror was honestly one of the best scary books I read as a kid. I always loved adventure mixed with a tinge of the scary or fantastic. The book consisted of 3 main story lines you could choose between. The first storyline was to continue on to the supposedly invaded mountain town of Silverlode. The second involves visiting a lonely doctor. The third was one of the best which involved spending 24 hours in Uncle Harry Crispen’s haunted house to earn a million dollars.
There were some really great illustrations as well:
It is hard to find copies of this book today. The series was never terribly popular, and used copies of this book can run you about $35 – if you can even find one. I have never seen this book online anywhere; so I decided to change that. I bought a copy and scanned the whole thing cover to cover. It’s now here available as a PDF to download and enjoy.
Personally, I found the haunted house path contained some of the most terrifying stuff I read as a kid. Even today as an adult it holds up really well. There’s even a warning that you need to give full attention to the pages you read as you go into Uncle Henry’s house. I remember taking it seriously and going to my room and laying on my bed to read it. It was downright terrifying to 10 year old me.
If you’d like to hear some the book, here’s an audiobook version:
If you read this book as a kid, share your experiences with it. It was definitely one of my favorites.
Which Way Books #10
The Invasion of the Black Slime and Other Tales of Horror
Written by: R.G. Austin (pseudonym used by multiple people) – Gelman, Rita Golden (uncredited); Lamb, Nancy (uncredited)
Illustrator: Smith, Joseph A.
Format: Paperback
Published: January 1, 1983 by Simon Pulse
ISBN : 9780671460204
ISBN-10 : 067146020X
ISBN-13 : 978-0671460204
ASIN : 067146020X
Pages: 118
Download Invasion of the Black Slime and Other Tales of Horror PDF here
Links:
Tsundoku is the Japanese word for the stack(s) of books you’ve purchased but haven’t read. Its morphology combines tsunde-oku (letting things pile up) and dokusho (reading books).
I personally love that I have a pile of books I have bought but not yet read. Probably for the same reason that others have suggested – that it creates a sense of wonder and excitement there is so much more yet to learn:
These shelves of unexplored ideas propel us to continue reading, continue learning, and never be comfortable that we know enough. Jessica Stillman calls this realization intellectual humility.
People who lack this intellectual humility — those without a yearning to acquire new books or visit their local library — may enjoy a sense of pride at having conquered their personal collection, but such a library provides all the use of a wall-mounted trophy. It becomes an “ego-booting appendage” for decoration alone.
Links:
Here are 9 titles that Elon Musk has said were most influential to his development in life. Compiled by Blinkist:
Overdive Media pulled their app for PC Windows 10/11 in February 23, 2022. Unfortunately, their new app, Libby, doesn’t allow you to actually download and listen to the mp3’s on your Windows desktop.
I seemed to have 2 copies of the app and they do seem to still work as of Dec 2022.
Download links:
ODMediaConsoleSetup.msi version 3.6.0 – Copyright 2016 Overdrive, Inc.
ODMediaConsoleSetup.msi version 3.2.0 from software.informer
Links:
I think the 90’s were an amazing time for game books. This is one I’ve not seen before. It was a series of paired game books that have a first-person style play.
You play against another person who is playing at the same time with the companion book. Just like in a real first-person shooter, depending on how you (and your opponent) move around, you can come up behind, in front, or to the side of your enemy as you fight against each other in the dungeon.
How does that work? Questing Beast gives us a tour of how this works with the paired set of White Warlord and Black Baron by Joe Dever and Peter Parr.
Joe Dever has allowed these books to be published on the internet and be downloaded free-of-charge.
Other notable authors such as Rob Adams, Paul Bonner, Gary Chalk, Melvyn Grant, Richard Hook, Peter Andrew Jones, Cyril Julien, Peter Lyon, Peter Parr, Graham Round, and Brian Williams have also generously offered similar permission for their contributions. This includes books from famous series like Lone Wolf, Freeway Warrior, Kai, Grand Master, Magnakai, and even some of the Lone Wolf PC games. Project Aon hosts the books on their free website and gives you free permission to use them.