Oh, this is so cool! I haven’t felt this giddy since I walked down the action figure aisle in Toys’R'Us back in the late ’80s, looking at the hundreds upon hundreds of G.I. Joes…
…where was I? Oh yeah. There’s all these plugins… but it ain’t so easy to figure out what folks are using; and without knowing the lingo, it can be hard to figure out what you’re supposed to be searching for. So, here’s the plugins I’m currently running:
So… if you’re on WordPress, which plugins do you use?
I have sold out.
No, I take that back. I haven’t made a single sale yet. 
I’ve opened a CafePress shop and I’ll be starting to stock it with odd things I put together in my spare time. Feel free to look at it as a way of starting the Seitlers’ “our car won’t last forever” fund.
Right now them pickin’s is pretty slim: there’s a shirt likely to appeal only to my immediate family, and then there’s a snarky shirt with a quote from Lincoln about the role of the Judiciary Branch of the United States Federal Government. Maybe I’ll get a “Second MousePad” in there or sumpthin’.
Landon Snow is my kind of kid. He wants to figure things out; to "know the reason why." He’s not content to let things be; no, he is uncomfortable with mystery.
"Landon liked to have reasons for everything. But he tried not to ask too many questions. Instead, he came up with reasons on his own. It felt good to explain things, at least to himself. If he knew the reason for something, he was happy. If not, he was uncomfortable. For instance, even though he would have preferred to sit by a window and even more than that would have liked to ride in his mom�s SUV, he understood the reasons for his current situation. These were that his mom�s car was in need of repair and he had been too slow in remembering to call for a window seat. The first reason wasn�t due to anyone�s fault, really. And he could only blame himself for the second."
I can identify with Landon. Things that don’t make sense bug me… a lot. So needless to say, when I read the above, I was hooked. I’ve never felt so much like I was the character I was reading about.
Landon Snow is a young man who is given two gifts for his eleventh birthday — two gifts which send him on a whirlwind adventure into the "Book of Meanings" much like Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole. As with Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, the places Landon discovers are strange (and sometimes frustrating). It’s a crazy trip, and by the time Landon had met his first Odd, my head was spinning.
That would be my main point of dislike with the Auctor’s Riddle: we spend chapters upon chapters on what seems, in the end, to have simply been the "rabbit hole." Hopefully there will be a return to these landmarks in future books, because there seems to be quite a universe waiting to be fleshed out there; but it felt more like weak editing.
My other "huh?" moment was at the end of the book: I was left unconvinced at how the "Grandpa got hurt" thread got "resolved"; it’s essentially, "I’m back now… and oh yeah, Grandpa was at the hospital. Oh, he’s here now, and we’re going to the library later. Okay, I’m happy."
Even with those gripes, though, I absolutely fell in love with this book! The characters are written well, the plot isn’t corny, and (surprise, surprise) the distinctive Christian elements came across cheese-free! As another blogger noted, it’s like Alice in Wonderland, but with a point. (Shoot! I knew I should have kept that window open. For the life of me, I don’t know who said that! Sorry!)
The theme of the book is coincidence… chance. We so often live as if the universe is guided by chance, but what if there is a God, and He is sovereign over the affairs of the universe (let alone man)? What does that mean when life gets crazy? What does it mean when loved ones are hurt?
As I said in my pre-review, I give Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle 4½ stars. I recommend it for anyone between 10 and 30, and fans of Alice in Wonderland, too.
You can find out more at the official website, or by checking out the author’s profile on Barbour’s web site and the illustrator’s blog.
So now that my recommended books are off the sidebar, my blog’s page load time should only be hindered by TTLB‘s ranking!
Edit (November 16, 2007): I’ve taken it off completely now.
Well, there it is. My PhotoBlogroll is now up (and off the sidebar)! UPDATE: No, it’s not.
Yeah, my sidebar is pretty cluttered… that’s one of the downsides to blogs: there’s so much information that the tendency is to throw everything up there, rather than organize, sift, and weed. This is one attempt I’m making to clean things up here. I’ll probably do something similar with the Book Recommendations and the other blogroll-ish lists over there.
I received a review copy of Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle about a month ago. I can’t recommend it enough, except for one thing: I didn’t take notes when I read it, and Nicole lent it to my little sister, Sarah.
So… I give it 4½ stars, but I’ll have to get back to you on an actual review. (Sorry!)
Really, though, my review will be up soon!
UPDATE: It’s up!
John Piper sends out once a week or so what’s basically an e-mail devotional, called Fresh Words. The one I got today is titled, “Enemies of the Cross and How to Respond to Them,” and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, toward the end of it (yes, I’m spoiling the ending!) Piper says this:
“My greatest longing in response to this enmity is that Christians walk in the way of the cross. Yes, militant Islam is big and threatening. It may even be the true Quranic Islam. There are alarmists whose whole tone seems to awaken political and even militant responses from Christians. My concern is that as the church we distance ourselves from this kind of response and focus on the truth that we will never spread the Christian faith by the sword. Some Muslims may kill to spread their faith. Some Christians have. But it is not the way of Christ. It is not the way of the cross.”
Amen! I’ve also got a new candidate for my e-mail signature: “We will die to make [Christ] known. But we will not kill to make him known.”
Hmm… here’s where I step out of the crowd, wearing a gigantic target on my back.
I would like to preface this by pointing out that I, at present, hold nothing in particular as bearing the weight of Scripture beyond the 66 Old and New Testament books.
That said, I have a question for continuationists: Who says the canon is closed until Christ’s return, and on what authority did they say it?
I’m all for wanting to create some distance between my group and “the heretics,” but I think we argue for the completion of the Canon for the same reason cessationists argue for the ceasing of prophecy, healings and tongues: we’re scared of being stereotyped with “the weirdos.”
If there is a convincing argument for the closing of the canon, I’ve never heard it.
From Wikiquote:
“All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.”
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
It’s a shame Presidential figures today don’t talk like that.