Qoheleth

I'm back!

I'm trying to reestablish my presence on the "blogosphere" (whatever that is).  A little while back, I used to blog quite regularly, but several months ago, I kinda ran out of steam.  Anyhoo...

I really have to organize my Bible collection.  I won't post a picture of our office/library, but suffice it to say that there are stacks of books (including Bibles) all over the place.  I'm not sure how up to date my Bible collection spreadsheet is, as I decided to get rid of a few volumes to make some more space.  I'm pretty sure I still have well over 200 in my collection, but said collection is a MESS.  So, first item on my to-do list: tame the beast!

Meanwhile, some time this year the CEB Study Bible is supposed to be released, so I'll be curious to see how that turns out.  We'll see if they can give the NIV, ESV, NLT and HCSB folks a run for their money.

Just to kick things off again on this blog, I'm including the most recent Bible Bestsellers chart from Christian Booksellers Association below:

Bible_Translations.pdf Download this file

Sadly, I see that the above mentioned CEB has dropped off the list completely!  And they had been doing so well last time I checked (over four months ago...).  I don't think any translation in the near future is going to knock the NIV out of its #1 spot.  And I'll be darned if that KJV doesn't keep on selling like hotcakes!

So if anyone's still reading this blog, thanks. If not...well, there's got to be some way to promote it.  Feel free to comment.

Posted via email from CORYBANTER: babble and banter, bypassing banality

Wow. It's been a long time.

I see that my last blog post was September 17, 2012, over FOUR MONTHS AGO.  I've been a bad, bad blogger.  For a little while, a long time ago, I was really rolling.  What went wrong?

Anyway, I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog, but I am hoping that I can get back into it.  I think I still have ideas to share, observations to make, etc.

What has happened since my last post?  Barack Obama was reelected, and sworn in for his second term as POTUS.  (I'm really not mentioning that as any sort of political statement; I'm just trying to remember big events as well as I can.)  December 20, 2012, came and went, without any pesky apocalypse, Mayan or otherwise.  My older daughter celebrated her 100th day of kindergarten...awesome!  I'm sure all kinds of other stuff happened, but I don't remember anything huge and earthshaking.

I'm on my fourth Kindle ereader now.  What with one of them getting stepped on, and a replacement Kindle having battery problems, my current device is the fourth one I've owned.  I'm hoping this one will last for a little while longer, because it's kind of a pain re-downloading the books from my Archives.  What have I been reading on my Kindle?  For the past several months, mostly George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I'm taking a little break from that at the moment, as it gets to be a bit much.  I reread Tom Robbins's Still Life With Woodpecker, and enjoyed it almost as much as the first time I read it back in the early 1990s.

For the past week or so, I've been on a bit of a Mormon kick.  Wait, before you think that I've lost my mind and converted, let me explain!  I've long been a bit of a "Mormonophile"; I find the Book of Mormon and LDS culture to be fascinating.  Having read some pretty large chunks of the B of M, though, I can confidently say that I'm not convinced in any way that Joseph Smith was inspired or anything.  In fact, I think he was a con man, albeit a rather brilliant one.  That being said, I have much more respect for Mormons, somehow, than I do for followers of other famous con men (Scientologists, I'm looking in your direction).  They are hard-working, sincerely devout people, at least the ones I've met personally.  And whereas I believe that the LDS movement may have started out as a cult movement, I disagree strongly with those who would call them a cult today.  I would probably label them as a heterodox Christian sect, much like Jehovah's Witnesses and Oneness Pentecostals, and probably quite a few other non-denominational Christian churches.  'Nuff said about Mormons for now, I think...

Hmmm, what else?  I think that's enough for the time being.  As I said above, I shall try to be a bit more regular in my blogging from here on out.  Thanks for reading.

Posted via email from CORYBANTER: babble and banter, bypassing banality