8th
May
2007
Google continues to surprise me with it’s innovative services.
A few minutes ago, after getting a bit of a heart wrenching email about Africa, I was searching for a book on Amazon - the Manual of Tropical Pediatrics. Sadly the book is out of print (even though it was only published in 2000) and they only have 1 copy for US$130. So I did a quick Google, and found it only the publisher’s site for A$275!! But then I looked again and found that they actually have a scanned copy of the book in Google books, a service I haven’t seriously looked at before. Unfortunately not all of the book is available to view, but there’s a useable chunk of it there.
And then I discovered another Google service I hadn’t seen before - Google Product search, which scans a bunch of shopping websites to find what you want at the best price. The results are here, sadly the cheapest is still US$120 which is still too expensive for a single book, but I liked the idea of the site and it works really well.
So Google Books will keep me busy for now and I’ll keep scouring to find a cheaper copy of this book somewhere. It’s somewhat disconcerting however, that this seems to be the only book on tropical paediatric medicine, and that even this is out of print. A sad indictment on the priorities of the medical community and broader western scoiety overall - or maybe I’m extrapolating too much. Either way that’s how it makes me feel.
Categories : Africa, Medicine, Personal, books |
8th
May
2007
One of my favourite authors is Tom Wright (as in N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham) - when I saw this book, Hospital for Sinners, suggested on my amazon front page I was immediately interested. Although the subject matter of taking American religious leaders to task over “fleecing the sheep” seemed an usual topic for Tom, I was interested to see what he might have to say…
Unfortunately I was mistaken. This is a different Tom Wright, who was a Baptist prison chaplain in Virginia. And in contrast to the well thought out, well resourced and referenced writings of the “real” Tom Wright, this book is a scattered polemic against virtually anyone who’s anyone in American religious public life. Some of the critique I don’t disagree with, especially when he targets the televangelists, Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Pat Robertson etc. However he broadens his focus to attack more mainstream leaders such as Rick Warren, Willow Creek church and just about anyone who has been the slightest bit successful, and much of his critique is narrow-minded fundamentalism. According to him 99% of “Christian” rock music is evil.
Amidst this confused mass of negativity (some warranted, some not) it’s hard to find anyone that Mr Wright actually likes. I finally did when he favourably mentioned some charities working against poverty in the US and internationally. I agree with the idea that we Christians should be using our wealth constructively and doing as much as we can to fight poverty, disease, and injustice, however sowing negativity against anyone and everyone is not going to contribute to that.
SO buyer beware. I will definitely look a bit more carefully when I order my next “Tom Wright” book.
Categories : Personal, books |
