So I picked 25 books to take to Canada (I was planning on 20, but a successful lobby by a certain group of books persuaded me to increase my limit), and I thought I would share. However, in an effort to make it more interesting than just a list of books, I’ve decided to make it a game. Unfortunately, I don’t have any prizes to give away.

Here’s how it works, below I have blanks representing the letters in the titles of books and the last name of the primary author or editor. You may guess titles, author/editors, or both by leaving comments. As correct guesses are made, I will replace the blanks with answers, the person who made the guess, and affiliate links where appropriate. Hints may be provided as the game progresses.

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In the new book Getting Organized in the Google Era, former Google CIO Douglas Merrill and his co-author James Martin attempt to share ideas for better organizing information, frequently incorporating technology.

In general I thought the content was decent. Most of the content was either questioning obsolete paradigms (why do we have a 9-5 workday?) or applying common principles (don’t multitask or have frequent context-switches, so check e-mail at a break rather than having it interrupt you). I appreciated the emphasis on goals. I also think it had some reasonable information on skills that aren’t commonly communicated but should be: like how to use tagging and do better searches.

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When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (with Fikkert being the primary writer) presents thought-provoking information and ideas aimed at helping the church truly help those in poverty.

I enjoyed the theological groundings and challenging ideas, but I felt frustrated by unanswered questions. Overall, I would recommend it to most Christians.

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I may be in a minority among book worms, but I don’t generally write directly in my books. For some reads, I don’t take notes at all, but notes are almost essential if I’m going to review the book. I’ve tried various systems for taking notes, paper and pen, a text file on the computer, but the best way I’ve found for taking notes is using sticky notes.

In general, I don’t like writing in my books for a few reasons. I find it distracting to read notes in the books, whether the notes are mine or, worse, someone else’s. Perhaps it is an indication that my reading is too easily interrupted as also seen in that I don’t like it when a snippet of the book is stuffed in a box, breaking up the flow of the text, as if the person responsible doubts my ability to read it in the paragraph.

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Accused of being antisocial, labelled as shy, I learned at an early age that I am an introvert, which has been confirmed with each personality test I’ve been administered. As I was growing up, I also learned to love the church, earning rug burns swinging around the carpeted poles in Fellowship Hall with friends, adoring stained-glass windows in the sanctuary, meeting and celebrating Jesus, crying about fractures which formed within this family of believers. When I went to college, I found my new church to be the source of most of my friendships, but I felt awkward attempting finding my place, frequently feeling invisible, struggling to make smalltalk, expected to lead but hardly able to relate to the girls in my group, finally learning to bribe friends with food. The topic of Introverts in the Church is obviously of interest to me, so I requested a copy of Adam McHugh’s book from our public library after seeing it positively reviewed.

Characterizing introverts by being "engergized by solitude" (page 35), using "internal processing" (page 37), and having a "preference for depth over breadth" (page 41), McHugh, an introvert, combines his personal experience in ministry with research to present the strengths of introverts, some challenges they face, and potential ways to help introverts be part of the church community without requiring them to turn into extroverts.

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