1twentyeight — Brad Hamilton

In the past few months I’ve tried to increase the amount (number of books) I read. One, it helps with this problem. Two, it increases knowledge – both specific and general. And three, it gives me something to talk about with others.

I thought I would share with you the books I’ve read. I recommend all of them, otherwise I probably wouldn’t share them with you. But obviously I recommend some more than others, so I’m including the official 128 Star (★) Rating. One ★ means you might not want to read it unless you’re just really bored. Five ★’s means “Don’t miss this. Go buy it right now.”

In no particular order:

• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years — Donald Miller. ★★★★
• Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell. ★★★★★
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — Malcolm Gladwell. ★★★
• Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit — Francis Chan. ★★★
• Counterfeit Gods — Tim Keller. ★★★★
• The Prodigal God — Tim Keller. ★★★
• Seeing God in the Ordinary — Michael Frost. ★★★
• HTML5 for Web Designers — Jeremy Keith. ★★★

Outliers is a game changer. It will cause you to look at the world around you very differently. The HTML5 book has a limited audience, but the others are suitable to anyone really and can be found on Amazon.

My Kindle arrived yesterday afternoon and I’ve spent the last 24 hours trying it out. The packing was overly simplistic. In fact I was a little surprised…just a standard Amazon cardboard box and a protective liner on the front screen.

After plugging it in and getting a little battery power I began to put it to use. Since I purchased it for myself it was already linked to my Amazon account. In the last 24 hours I’ve ordered 4 books. The purchasing and downloading was straight forward. The Kindle did lock up while downloading the ESV Study Bible. I’m not sure how big the dowload was but it choked and I had to turn the Kindle off and on again to get things back to normal. Other than that minor hiccup everything else has been performed as expected.

Pros:
- Unbelievably easy on the eyes. The E-ink screen is really nice. I had read other reviews and didn’t really believe them, but it is just like looking at the pages of a real book. The screen is the biggest plus for me.
- Easy purchasing capability. You simply choose the Amazon Store from the menu, type the book you want in the search bar and choose Purchase. That’s it. In under 1-2 minutes you have the book on your Kindle and can start reading.
- Bookmarks and Highlights. While you’re reading you simply click the little joystick which starts a highlight, move the joystick right and/or down and then click again to end the highlight. It’s then added to your list of highlights for that book, which can be found under the Menu in the “My Marks” section.

Cons:
- I don’t really care for the keyboard. The buttons have a funny shape with a slightly raised center. It doesn’t feel natural at all. And while I know how to type I felt the need to search for keys instead of intuitively finding them.
- The little joystick seems like it could break easy.
- No backlight. While I appreciate that this greatly improves battery life it would be nice to have.
- Navigation seems to lag a little. As you’re reading if you push down on the joystick it places your cursor at the top of the page. With every downward push of the joystick it moves your cursor down a line, naturally. It just seems to me it could be a little more responsive. I have found myself wanting to touch the screen at the location I wanted to place the cursor.

One other thing I’ve tried, which worked well. I have had a book in PDF form sitting on my computer for quite a while. I emailed the PDF to my Kindle email which converted the PDF to the Kindle format and emailed me back a download link. I downloaded the file, connected my Kindle and simply dropped the PDF in the Documents folder of the Kindle. The PDF is now listed along with my other books for me to read. Pretty cool.

The first 24 hours have been great. I’m looking forward to trying it out in “real-life” scenarios…flights, doctors offices, while driving, etc.

*Full Disclosure: the links to Amazon are through my Affiliate account. Purchases made through my account go towards the projects and work we do through our charity, CommunityOne.

Let me start by saying I’m a huge U2 fan. It would hard for them to disappoint. I’ve been a fan since the age of 11 in 1986…you can do the math. Having said that, of the five times I’ve seen U2 last night’s concert in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington (Dallas) was not my favorite. In fact, last night’s show would come in 3rd or 4th depending on which day you ask me.

The song selection last night did not disappoint. And to be honest, the music was quality as well. The Edge was on fire. He sounded better last night than any other time I’ve heard him. Bono’s voice seemed weak and a little off. I’d like to blame it on the stadium, which I’ll cover in a minute, but he wasn’t on the top of his game. Larry Mullen Jr. absolutely brought his A game in songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday with a hard, tight, pounding drum line. They played the favorites and played them well, including Elevation, Vertigo, and Beautiful Day. Highlights for me included I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, with a snippet of Stand By Me, which they did in the 1997 Pop Mart tour, One, with a snippet of Amazing Grace, and Where The Streets Have No Name. They played MLK which I can’t remember hearing in another tour, but I’d have to check the setlist to be sure.

On the negative side, the stage was too big. The band, at times, seem disconnected from the audience and from each other. This type of setup is not conducive to Adam Clayton. He looked lost and awkward as he wondered the stage during songs. Larry looked like a rotating duck in the middle as they appeased the crowd by spinning him around for everyone to get a front side shot of him. Bono and the Edge looked at home wondering around, but it was too much space to cover. I really missed the more intimate stage setup from Elevation and Vertigo tours. I also missed the more intimate venue as well. Watching U2 in the old Reunion Arena and in the American Airlines Center were as close to true worship experiences as I’ve been to, but that was completely lost in the big stadium. I know that U2 are big enough to carry big stadiums, but it didn’t work last night at the Cowboys Stadium. That stadium is too big. And the acoustics suffer because of it. The roof was closed and I wonder it that hurt the sound even more. I’ve heard from others that sat up in the top levels that the sound was terrible, with some leaving before the show was over. It would be interesting to see this concert in an open stadium. I could only hope that it sounds better. I don’t go to many concerts but I won’t be going to one at the Cowboys Stadium. It may be great for football, but it’s not a concert friendly stadium. Just a side note, Muse sounded horrible. I do know a few of their songs but I couldn’t make out a single word. Complete mush mouth. Again, I’d like to blame this squarely on the stadium and it’s acoustics, but since I’ve never heard them I can’t be sure that it wasn’t their, or their sound engineers, fault. The “space” concept for U2 didn’t work for me. Bono kept making vague references to “taking off” and it just didn’t go over well.

Overall I enjoyed the show. Like I said, it’s U2 and I just can’t come away disappointed with them. I did come away disappointed with how the stadium played and the concert concept.  If you’re a star kind of ranker, I’d give last night a 3.9 out of 5. Here’s the setlist from last night’s show.

Setlist:
Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways / Sweet Lord (Snippet)
Beautiful Day / Blackbird (Snippet)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Stand By Me (Snippet)
Stuck In A Moment You Cant Get Out Of
No Line On The Horizon
Elevation
Until The End Of The World
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On

Encore:
One / Amazing Grace (Snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name

Encore:
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender