paulthinkingoutloud
17p9 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0
10 years ago @ Julian Freeman - Some Reflections on My... · 0 replies · +2 points
(Pause while I wait to send this lest I am being reactionary!)
12 years ago @ Ron Edmondson - Which Version of the B... · 1 reply · +1 points
I say all this because I had a linguist tell me that they don't use the word 'paraphrase,' that any rendering of text 'X" for people group 'B' is translation. I think Evangelicals started using the p-word when the old Living Bible came out, but it was based on the Revised Standard Version, and was simply one man's retelling of that text to his children. But then the word took on a pejorative meaning among Christians, eventually giving rise to the need to 'bring the house up to the building code' resulting in the NLT, where the translators worked from original languages.
I know The Message is a wild translation ride, but I think the use of 'paraphrase' is too dismissive.
12 years ago @ Captain's Blog - Apparently My Book Rev... · 0 replies · +1 points
I don't do as many as you do simply because if the book is a waste of time, I probably never requested a review copy in the first place. I try to look for similarities and differences. Similarities are easy. I've currently done an aggressive push on my blog for Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman, because I know people who read Radical and Crazy Love will also enjoy it. Differences can be easy, too; especially if the book has some unique feature; but some books simply don't stand out from the rest of the herd.
I think generally, Christians tend to be less critical and more charitable toward not-so-great titles, and that can be a problem. If the book is really bad, I'll look for a picture of a cat doing something cute and post that instead, because if you say the book is weak or flawed, you get everyone telling you how judgmental you are.
13 years ago @ Jenni Catron - Catalyst Pondering · 0 replies · +1 points
13 years ago @ LetsMoveToTheMoon - On Modifying Live Webs... · 0 replies · +1 points
I see things could be a lot worse.
13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - What are you reading? ... · 0 replies · +1 points
Radical - David Platt (non-fiction)
13 years ago @ Michael Hyatt Blog - How to Keep Your Blog ... · 1 reply · +2 points
Another strategy is to make sure that each item is sufficiently tagged, including words which help define what's written, but don't necessarily appear in the post itself. (Sometimes these can be too obvious: If the article uses the word "church" a dozen times, try using the tag "churches.") The more unusual the word, or the more selective the subject, the longer it will rank high in various types of search engines. I have some posts that refuse to die because not many other bloggers covered the same items.
13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - We moved to Nashville. · 0 replies · +2 points
13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - What are the best Chri... · 0 replies · +1 points
The challenge however, is that once you find a few you like you kinda wonder what other ones they might recommend, and here's where it gets complicated, because the biggest and most successful blogs don't do blogrolls. (Though you can always click the links on comments, especially on subjects you really like, or you agree with the take of the comment.)
If you click my link (paulthinkingoutloud) with this comment, I do work hard to maintain a very current blogroll, and also include links to Christian blog aggregators (such as Alltop, which Stuff Christians Like is part of) where you can have a peek at the 5 most recent posts from a number of good blogs.