My book – free!

Ok, so yesterday I claimed that you could buy my new book for free, and it turns out I was lying…but I’m not now, I checked!

So here’s the deal – head over to Teaming with Geese on Amazon and get it for free, and please leave me a review (I’d love five stars but I’d prefer honesty, so go with what you think). Apart from a free book, what’s in it for you?

Well, I’m planning on publishing another two books in the Teaming with Geese series, and would love to give them away for free as well; I’ll send advanced copies to the first five people who leave a review on Amazon and let me know they want them. And so as not to favour the fastest readers/typers, I’ll also give free copies away to the five people who do more of the following than anyone else:

• tell their friends on Twitter
• tell their friends on Facebook
• use your own blog to review it and link to the Amazon page
• send an e-mail to your friends about it

So there you go…happy advertising!

Related articles

• I published a book! (samisaacson.wordpress.com)

I published a book!

Probably the most exciting piece news for me in the past week was that a book about teamwork that I wrote, Teaming with Geese, went for sale on Amazon.

The second most exciting piece of news was that at the time of writing, five people have bought it – quids in. Selling at just about £1.50 per copy, that means my royalties are hovering at about a fiver, so I only need that to double to hit Amazon’s minimum amount that I can cash out.

Just so’s you know, it isn’t about the money. And just to prove it, I’m trying to give it away for free! From now right up until Sunday you can ‘buy’ it through Amazon without spending a single penny, and even if you don’t have a Kindle you can read it using the online Kindle reader. And the book really isn’t that long, so you might as well!

[EDIT: Sorry, it's actually not free until tomorrow - I'll update you then!]

But I’d like to ask you a favour please. Please do as many of the following as you can:

• I have a ready-made tweet for you, just click here and it will give you a nice prompt
• Use Facebook to tell all your friends about the book
• Please leave a review on the Amazon page
• Please review the book at your blog if you have one

So you can get it for free here. Enjoy it! If you like it, tell your friends; if you don’t like it, tell me!

Do you want to read or understand?

The 9 first verses of Homer’s Odyssey. Español: Los 9 primeros versos de la Odisea de Homero. Français : Les 9 premiers vers de L’Odyssée d’Homère. Italiano: I primi 9 versi dell’ Odissea di Omero. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other day a hotel in Newcastle announced that instead of including a Gideon Bible in their hotel rooms, they were going to include a Kindle pre-loaded with a Bible. The full story’s over here.

And one commenter made probably the most important observation:

I just hope that the hotel is prepared to deal with low batteries, user errors, porn added to a machine and then not deleted, and theft of the Kindles.

Yes, indeed. Not really a worry when it comes to those little red books.

But some other commenter said something a bit off the wall:

**Sigh**
Reading the bible is not nearly as important as understanding it properly.

Ok. Firstly, what’s that **sigh** all about?! And secondly, I don’t really get it. Is it more important to read the Bible or to understand it? (And thirdly, why didn’t you give ‘Bible’ a capital ‘B’?!)

Of course, reading something without understanding it is a bit of a waste of time. I could spend an hour every day reading Homer’s Odyssey in Ancient Greek but without an understanding of the language it wouldn’t really add anything to my life. But I’m not convinced that the other way round is any better; if I were to understand the Odyssey but never read it, I’d be missing out on a historical masterpiece!

I think the same’s true of the Bible. Read the Bible every day and there’s a chance that over time I’m going to understand it more and more, and let’s not forget that it’s the Word of God. And reading Bible commentaries and listening to sermons is all very well and good (and both are a wonderful accompaniment to regular Bible reading), but without actually reading the Bible you might as well listen to anyone saying anything! The whole power of Bible teaching is that it comes from the Bible!

So, commenter number two, I know where you’re coming from but respectfully I think you’re wrong. I’d rather lean not on man’s understanding but on God’s revealed Word.

Thoughts from Oliver Twist

Just like the rest of the UK I got caught up in Dickens Mania around Christmastime, and started reading Oliver Twist for the first time, using a Kindle app on my phone. As I read it, I highlighted sections which I found interesting, and I thought I’d share them here. Some are funny, some more poignant…enjoy:

If he were really not in the habit of drinking rather more than was exactly good for him, he might have brought action against his countenance for libel, and have recovered heavy damages.

The poor people were so neat and clean, and knelt so reverently in prayer, that it seemed a pleasure, not a tedious duty, their assembling there together; and though the singing might be rude, it was real, and sounded more musical (to Oliver’s ears at least) than he had ever heard in church before.

We need be careful how we deal with those about us, when every death carries to some small circle of survivors, thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done – of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired!

Strip the bishop of his apron, or the beadle of his hat and lace; what are they? Men. Mere men. Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

‘When ladies as young, and good, and beautiful as you are,’ replied the girl steadily, ‘give away your hearts, love will carry you all lengths – even such as you, who have home, friends, other admirers, everything, to fill them. When such as I, who have no certain roof but the coffinlid, and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital nurse, set our rotten hearts on any man, and let him fill the place that has been a blank through all our wretched lives, who can hope to cure us? Pity us, lady – pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left, and for having that turned, by a heavy judgment, from a comfort and a pride, into a new means of violence and suffering.’

When a man’s his own enemy, it’s only because he’s too much his own friend; not because he’s careful for everybody but himself.

Without strong affection and humanity of heart, and gratitude to that Being whose code is Mercy, and whose great attribute is Benevolence to all things that breathe, happiness can never be attained.