Bible in a Year 2014

Bible in a Year


With a fresh year ahead of me, I pray that this will be the year I read the Bible all the way through and hope to grow closer to God and learn more about Him and my role in His kingdom in the process.  Using a plan from BibleGateway, I am once again going to attempt to read the Bible in a year (BiaY). The link above goes to the plan I've attempted in the past that remains an easy-to-follow and much used plan for many.

Two years ago I started out really well until I started missing a day here and there and trying to catch myself up before missing a few days.  Before long I had missed whole books and then abandoned the effort entirely, going right back to where I started. Then last year my Bible app which had an automatic reading plan tracking stopped working and I lost track of where I left off for a long time; then my phone died and I had to replace it. Excuses, excuses . . . .

At the top of my sidebar on top of the rest of my reading challenges this year is my tracker for the BiaY.  I am tracking it by number of chapters read (out of a total of 1189 chapters in the King James Version).  Fortunately the ubiquity of the Bible in many places makes missing a reading difficult to accomplish: I have used my pocket Bible, BibleGateway, the Bible reading plan website, and smartphone app to catch up on my reading in the past.  So, admittedly, I have no excuse to not do this.

Feel free to join in with me, too.  I need the extra accountability and support.

Law
Genesis
50 / 50 chapters. 100% finished!
Exodus
40 / 40 chapters. 100% finished!
Leviticus
27 / 27 chapters. 100% finished!
Numbers
36 / 36 chapters. 100% finished!
Deuteronomy
34 / 34 chapters. 100% finished!

History
Joshua
24 / 24 chapters. 100% finished!
Judges
21 / 21 chapters. 100% finished!
Ruth
4 / 4 chapters. 100% finished!
I Samuel
16 / 31 chapters. 51.6% finished!
II Samuel
0 / 24 chapters. 0% finished!
I Kings
0 / 22 chapters. 0% finished!
II Kings
0 / 25 chapters. 0% finished!
I Chronicles
0 / 29 chapters. 0% finished!
II Chronicles
0 / 36 chapters. 0% finished!
Ezra
0 / 10 chapters. 0% finished!
Nehemiah
0 / 13 chapters. 0% finished!
Esther
0 / 10 chapters. 0% finished!

Poetry
Job
0 / 42 chapters. 0% finished!
Psalms
0 / 150 chapters. 0% finished!
Proverbs
0 / 31 chapters. 0% finished!
Ecclesiastes
0 / 12 chapters. 0% finished!
Song of Solomon
0 / 8 chapters. 0% finished!

Major Prophets
Isaiah
0 / 66 chapters. 0% finished!
Jeremiah
0 / 52 chapters. 0% finished!
Lamentations
0 / 5 chapters. 0% finished!
Ezekiel
0 / 48 chapters. 0% finished!
Daniel
0 / 12 chapters. 0% finished!

Minor Prophets
Hosea
0 / 14 chapters. 0% finished!
Joel
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
Amos
0 / 9 chapters. 0% finished!
Obadiah
0 / 1 chapter. 0% finished!
Jonah
0 / 4 chapters. 0% finished!
Micah
0 / 7 chapters. 0% finished!
Nahum
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
Habakkuk
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
Zephaniah
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
Haggai
0 / 2 chapters. 0% finished!
Zechariah
0 / 14 chapters. 0% finished!
Malachi
0 / 4 chapters. 0% finished!

Gospels
Matthew
28 / 28 chapters. 100% finished!
Mark
16 / 16 chapters. 100% finished!
Luke
9 / 24 chapters. 37.5% finished!
John
0 / 21 chapters. 0% finished!
Acts
0 / 28 chapters. 0% finished!

Pauline Epistles
Romans
0 / 16 chapters. 0% finished!
I Corinthians
0 / 16 chapters. 0% finished!
II Corinthians
0 / 13 chapters. 0% finished!
Galatians
0 / 6 chapters. 0% finished!
Ephesians
0 / 6 chapters. 0% finished!
Philippians
0 / 4 chapters. 0% finished!
Colossians
0 / 4 chapters. 0% finished!
I Thessalonians
0 / 5 chapters. 0% finished!
II Thessalonians
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
I Timothy
0 / 6 chapters. 0% finished!
II Timothy
0 / 4 chapters. 0% finished!
Titus
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
Philemon
0 / 1 chapter. 0% finished!

General Epistles
Hebrews
0 / 13 chapters. 0% finished!
James
0 / 5 chapters. 0% finished!
I Peter
0 / 5 chapters. 0% finished!
II Peter
0 / 3 chapters. 0% finished!
I John
0 / 5 chapters. 0% finished!
0II John
0 / 1 chapter. 0% finished!
III John
0 / 1 chapter. 0% finished!
Jude
0 / 1 chapter. 0% finished!

Apocalypse
Revelation
0 / 22 chapters. 0% finished!

Entire Bible
305 / 1189 chapters. 25.7% finished!

Wrap-Up:

I did not complete the whole Bible again this year, but I'm going to keep trying. I may have the Pentateuch memorized whenever I actually accomplish this, but I'll be better for it in the long run.

Reviews

In an attempt to increase my reading comprehension and enjoyment of the books I am reading, I plan on reviewing the books I read. Then, I shall post my reviews and recommendations here to share my enjoyment with you.

I'm building a basic format for the reviews that will probably evolve over time as I get a little more used to the whole process. For now, the format is as such:

• An image of the item I am reviewing either
• a scan of the actual item in hand or
• a stock photo provided by an online store.
• Basic information of the item, including
• Title
• Author/Artist
• Publisher/Producer
• Release Date
• ISBN
• Format
• Length
• Genre
• Time it took for me to read it (estimated reading time)
• Source (where I obtained it)
• aStore Link (see the book in my Amazon Store)
• Rating based on a Likert-type scale (see Rating System page)
• Synopsis/Summary
• Review
• Where to find more information on this book
• Official website of the book (if available)
• A link to the book on Amazon (with an affiliate referral code)
• A link for the book on GoodReads

Each of the affiliate links to Amazon in my reviews rewards me with a small compensation from every purchase made. This does not affect the price on any of the items. Amazon just appoints a portion of its profits gained from selling my referred books to the affiliate code I provide in the URL for the links I provide.

Restarting This Blog

Well, another year has come and gone. It's finally 2014. By May, I will have been out of college for 10 years. August will be our son's fourth birthday. October will mark my seventh year of working for my employer. In November my wife and I will have been married for six years.

Time is so fleeting and fast.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to take a few paragraphs to explain what you see on this blog: LeviSamJuno Reads.

I started this particular blog to separate all of my reading-related posts from my everyday stuff (the latter of which are located on my original blog that also has not been updated for many months). I wanted to have a place where I could sign up for and track reading challenges and book reviews in an uncluttered fashion.

Unfortunately with all the many things going on (the bulk of which is marriage and parenthood), I never really followed through with a lot of that. So I have decided to revamp the whole blog atmosphere. I was never really satisfied with the formats I had for my reviews, and some weird things happened with the formatting when I tried to copy them over here. Part of the revamp involves fixing those formatting errors.

As a result, you can probably see that things are bare here. That's not to indicate there was nothing ever here; it's just that I'm trying to make them better. In the coming weeks some of the book reviews I had will begin popping back up in all their newly reformatted splendor, at which time this particular post will be a bit confusing, I guess.

With this new attempt, here's to the hope of a bigger list of books I have read, challenges I have completed, reviews I have written, and fun stuff accomplished.

Book Review: Micro by Michael Crichton

Micro: A Novel
by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

Publisher: Harper Publishing
Release Date: 2011
ISBN: 9780060873028
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Genre: Science Fiction
Source: Library
Time to read: 1 day
aStore Link (Real Book): Micro: A Novel
aStore Link (Kindle Book): Micro: A Novel

Summary (from Amazon.com)

In a locked Honolulu office building, three men are found dead with no sign of struggle except for the ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly invisible to the human eye.

In the lush forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. Trillions of microorganisms, tens of thousands of bacteria species, are being discovered; they are feeding a search for priceless drugs and applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies dispatches the group to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier. 

But once in the Oahu rain forest, the scientists are thrust into a hostile wilderness that reveals profound and surprising dangers at every turn. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, they find themselves prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. To survive, they must harness the inherent forces of nature itself. 

An instant classic, Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.

My Reaction

Since having to read endless pages of technical and theoretical textbooks for grad school, I've found it extremely difficult to get myself back into reading for fun. Add to that having an extra hour per day to drive to and from work along with a 2.5 year old son, working that into my schedule has become even more complex.  It seems that it took the author who pretty much started my love of reading as a young adult to get my back in the swing.

Michael Crichton's The Lost World was the first adult book I remember reading, ordering it from Scholastic in 9th grade because of my fanaticism with the movie Jurassic Park. It wasn't long before I read all of his books up to that point.

Last week, I took a long overdue visit to our local library and found the newest and posthumously published book from Crichton and borrowed it on impulse.  For the first time in probably a decade I read a book cover to cover within a day, staying up until past midnight to finish.  I couldn't put it down.

I'm not sure if the story was lighter on background information than most of Crichton's other books or if I could breeze through it faster being familiar with the biology of the book's protagonists of nature: insects and creatures of the forest floor. Either way, because I wasn't trying to absorb all the facts and details I was able to get through chapter after chapter like I was reading a Goosebumps book.  It was a very refreshing feeling.

The introduction, which typically lasts a couple dozen pages in a Crichton novel, ended abruptly in the middle of the third page with "Michael Crichton, unfinished," which immediately made me sad that my favorite author would no longer be producing new works. Then, the book featured a layout map of the site of the main action of the book and (uncharacteristically of his novels) a cast of characters. I referred back to these several times while reading just to get my bearings and remember which character I was just following.

The novel was completed by Richard Preston, whose work I have never read.  Though I don't know his writing style, I do know Crichton's.  So a little beyond halfway through the book, it almost felt like I walked through a door that led out of Crichton's head and into a different writer's. It was distracting enough to make me aware that the narrative had changed, with some character statements and actions that did not seem Crichton-esque.  This and some rather one-dimensional characters are the main reasons I did not give this a ranking higher than 4.

I would certainly read this book again, especially if I go back and do a Michael Crichton anthology reading marathon, like I used to do in high school.

For more information on this book:

Official Site of Michael Crichton: Micro

Amazon  |  Kindle

Book Review: Grave Descend by John Lange

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

Grave Descend by John Lange

Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Company
Release Date: November 2006

ISBN: 9780843955972
Original Publisher: Constant c Productions; 1970
Format: PaperbackPage: 203
Genre: Mystery
Source: GoodReads swap
Time to Read: 2 hours
aStore Link (Real Book): Grave Descend

aStore Link (Kindle Book): Grave Descend

| Enjoyability: 4 | Readability: E | Characterization: 4 | Overall: A- |
(Traditional Rating: 4 Stars)

Synopsis (from Amazon)

SOMETHING’S GOING DOWN OFF THE COAST OF JAMAICA
Diver James McGregor is used to being hired to explore sunken ships. But there’s something strange about the wreck of the luxury yacht Grave Descend. No one who was aboard tells quite the same story about what happened. Then there’s the matter of the mysterious cargo they were carrying…
In one of the most beautiful places on Earth, a sinister plot is about to unfold. And if McGregor’s not careful, he may find himself in over his head.

Background

My favorite author since adolescence is Michael Crichton ever since I watched Jurassic Park and read The Lost World.  By the time I graduated high school, I had read everything he had printed in his own name to that point.  However, I had only read one of his pseudonymous works and really did not know what else he had written.  Thanks to GoodReads, I was able to get a quick list of everything attributed to Crichton and even put them on a wish list so, when someone was ready to swap out their copy, I would have a chance to get it.

Grave Descend was the first book to become available to swap from another GoodReads reader, and I jumped at the chance. (Unfortunately, the swapping feature of GoodReads has since been discontinued.)  This was a very quick read and pretty easy to follow.  Crichton had written this book while in medical school, and it was published in 1970.  That year it was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. The printing I read was the first reprint ever of the book (from my research), which was published for the Hard Case Crime series.

My Reaction

This was a very quick and enjoyable read. It reactivated that part of my brain that had enjoyed the Hardy Boys stories as I tried to figure out the mystery as it was unfolding. The main characters were easy to cheer on, rather reminiscent of the hero of an action movie.  The antagonists were complex enough to be believable, but still somewhat larger than life. I guess you get that from these stories where espionage and coverup are involved.

There were times when I got a bit confused by some of the action and which character was whom, a problem I think would be somewhat unavoidable in this specific story. I had to read the last chapter twice to figure out what did finally happen to the relationships of the main characters.  Overall, the book was a nice distraction from doing things not related to reading and is something I could easily pick up and read a couple more times.

For more information about this book:

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

Book Review: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co., 7th ed.
Release Date: 1886
Format: e-Book
Pages: 141
Genre: Gothic mystery; Classic
Source: Google Books
Time to Read: 3 hours
aStore Link: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: H | Characterization: 4 | Overall: A+ |

(Traditional Rating: 5 Stars)

Summary

A classic mystery (categorized as a Gothic mystery), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story about Dr. Henry Jekyll, a well-known, upstanding and wealthy citizen.  While handling changes to his will, lawyer John Utterson, Jekyll's dear friend, is disturbed by the naming of the sole recipient of Jekyll's estate upon his death: one Edward Hyde.  Utterson's feeling gets even worse upon hearing about the beneficiary's character through another acquaintance who witnessed Hyde, whom he instantly and inexplicably disliked from the first sight. His friend saw Hyde trample over a child carelessly and then, once confronted, paid the parents off with a check signed by Jekyll himself.  The only explanation Utterson can arrive at is that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll.

The story follows Utterson's attempt at helping Dr. Jekyll get out of the blackmail, investigating Hyde's background only to find that he has no history.  Utterson finally gets a breakthrough when a nobleman is beaten to death in the street and all the evidence points to Hyde.  Now Dr. Jekyll is secluded in his laboratory, isolating himself from his servants and friends, but the staff of Jekyll's estate are certain that Hyde has murdered Jekyll and is hiding out in the lab.  Utterson finds out the truth through sealed letters, which end the last two chapters of the book, only then revealing the mystery that most readers already know.

My Reaction

I have seen many variations of plays, movies, TV shows, and cartoons based on and inspired by Jekyll and Hyde, but this was this first time I had ever read it.  This was also the second book I have read by Stevenson (the first being Treasure Island).  Although it took me a while to get into Treasure Island, I was instantly gripped by J & H, and I think that is mostly because of my familiarity with the subject versus the former book.  When I read the first few pages, it almost felt like an episode of Law & Order, where you see the seemingly unrelated characters who just happened to stumble into the dead body of interest to that particular episode.  Unlike the show, however, I discovered that Utterson was really the central character and point of view for the book.

With that unexpected way of telling the story, I was very curious in how Utterson was involved in the whole reaction to relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Knowing the outcome of the story, the most fun for me was discovering the mystery with Utterson (more like a Columbo episode than Law & Order).  However, the way Stevenson wrote the story, I think it would have been a far more enjoyable read had I not known the twist to the story so well.  Fresh readers in the late 19th century were fortunate in this respect.

An element I was struck by that I must mention is the fluidity with which Stevenson interlaces scriptural references throughout the story.  Using a simple phrase from the Bible, the author instantly paints the picture that may have otherwise taken a paragraph to describe.  This was probably second nature to Stevenson, being the son of a minister (even though by the point of writing this book he was openly rejecting his religious upbringing).  Additionally, the common theme of the duality of the nature of Dr. Jekyll (torn between good and evil and seeking a way to separate them) is a striking allegory to the moral battle everyone faces.

Just as many people have said about Stevenson's other books, the author did not waste a word in the telling of this story.  I was engaged the whole way through and encourage anyone seeking a good classic read to choose Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

For more information on this book:

Reading Challenges:

2011 e-Book Challenge

Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Pictures by W.W. Denslow

Publisher: George M. Hill Company; 1900

e-Book: 264 pages
Genre: Children's/Fairy Tale/Classic
Source: Google Books
Time to Read: 1-1/2 hours
Amazon Link: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: E | Characterization: 4 | Overall: A- |

Summary
The original published version of this classic fairy tale from L. Frank Baum is available as an e-book for free, complete with original illustrations by W.W. Denslow.  Though most famous for its 1939 film adaptation starring Judy Garland, the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz began in this book form as a modern fairy tale for the children of Baum's time.  In his introduction to the book, Baum claims that the old fairy tales could be filed away since moral lessons were now taught in modern schools and that this new tale exists solely for the enjoyment of its intended audience.

The story is familiar, but in its book form there are more adventures that failed to make it to the screen.  Dorothy, complete with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's one-room house and her dog Toto, are swept away by a tornado from gray, rural Kansas to the colorful and strange Land of Oz.  She is met by the Munchkins (here all dressed in blue) and the Good Witch of the North, celebrating the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East, who was smashed flat by Dorothy's house.  The Good Witch gives the little girl the dead witch's silver shoes and asks how she got there.  Dorothy only wants to get back to her aunt and uncle in Kansas, so the Witch of the East helps.

Dorothy is sent to the City of Emeralds on the road paved with yellow brick (I think the aforementioned imagery as it is worded as such in the book brings a fresh picture in mind, avoiding the movie cliché).  There she is to meet the Wizard of Oz, who should be able to help her get home.  Along the way, she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion (all three about whose origins we find more backstory).  Her three comrades all have a need they would like to request from the Wizard. From there, they continue their journey along the road which passes through the several other adventures both before and after visiting the Wizard, who sends them on a quest to kill the Wicked Witch of the West before he honors their requests.

In the end, the three Oz residents in Dorothy's party are granted leadership by the peoples of three different lands within Oz (the Scarecrow becomes ruler of Emerald City, the Tin Woodman over the former Wicked Witch of the West's domain, and the Lion over the animals in the forest).  Glinda the Good Witch of the South (who only just appears near the end of the book) reveals the way for Dorothy to get back home.

My Reaction
I really enjoyed reading this book.  Having seen the movie more times than I can even recollect to count, I at first had the images of the movie in mind.  However, with the assistance of Baum's literary imagery and Denslow's original illustrations present in the e-book, I was able to completely reimagine the story, which turned out to be somewhat different from the movie.  As far as those differences, the characters in the book seemed more well-rounded, especially with the backstory that each of Dorothy's companions gave.

The fantastical land of Oz that Baum laid out was certainly one that children (and even well-imagining adult) readers could visualize and even almost believe while reading.  The way he had the different communities in Oz so markedly unique revealed the imagination the author had.  This is certainly a fairy tale with a good deal of adventure and fantasy that I believe any child would love to hear read over and over and which adults can read and enjoy.

For more information on this book:

Reading Challenges:
2011 e-Book Challenge