I’ve read several books recently you might be interested in reading, and some you might not be.  I won’t differentiate which ones are which, allowing you to choose, but you might find a clear distinction.

In order of reading: (since October)

Tribes by Seth Godin

The Stranger on the road to Emmaus by John Cross

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

The Shack by William Paul Young

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Too busy not to pray by Bill Hybels

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

The Cross of Christ by John Stott

Axioms by Bill Hybels

I’m finding that the books I’m enjoying more these days are novels that try to teach a big picture lesson, and preferably have a sequel or two.  I also love leadership books and first person stories which deal in the world of philosophy.

You can check out more books I’ve read if you befriend me on Shelfari, a literary social networking site.  You can find me under Marty H.  Now as far as books…  

would you suggest that I read any particular books that you’ve enjoyed recently?

In 2008, I was able to:

Share life with this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy.

Enhance my vision because of Jason.

Reconnect with an old friend and learn so much from Brian.

once again be enamored by the art of my college friend Bart.

Meet and be influenced by wonderful pastors in my area like  Mike, Matt, and Josh.

Read the Hilarity of Don Miller on a regular basis.

Peer into the life and ideas of a CEO who follows Christ.

Be mentored by two of the greatest ideators in our world today, Seth & Ben (in my humble opinion)

Be inspired by the courage of Jenn.

Realize that more people blog in New England than I had previously thought.  Thanks Kevin and Erin (are you related or what?)

Combine my love for sports with my love for blogging under the genius blog of prayers for blowouts!

and read the Bible every day for a year via rss because of the great ideas of Life Church and their Bible site.

I was also able to reconnect with friends from my childhood, mentors from high school and college days, read from some of the greatest pastors in our world today on a regular basis, meet two of the most amazing brothers from Oklahoma and Virginia I probably will ever meet (Steven and Michael Harrison) and experience some of the truly great writing and thoughts of people right here in my own church.

Yep, I would suggest that you blog.

Here are some Blog posts I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks.

Seth chats about failure.

Jake gives his fresh new music likes.  I trust him.

Pete shares this amazing truth/comic piece.

Chad hit me in the face with this quote.

Vince shared his small group philosophy and I liked it.

Mark Cuban is…well, Mark Cuban is a genius.

Brian is a genius too,and his friends, myself included, couldn’t wait to hear this news.

What are you reading these days?

Tonight I’m tired.

I learned a lot from the speakers, the friends I’ve caught up with, and the all around Catalyst experience.  I was thinking about giving you our schedule for the day, but since I like to highligt relationships, I’ll share the people I saw speak/met/reconnected with.  It’s a great list.

Speakers @ Catalyst on day 1:

Andy Stanley (Once again. he would not let me wash his feet with my hair)
William Paul Young (author of “The Shack”)
Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great”)
Brenda Salter McNeil (author of “A Credible Witness”)
Steven Furtick (amazing pastor!)
Seth Godin (One of the best bloggers out there)
Craig Groeschel (founder of “One Prayer“)

People with whom I reconnected:

Dave Huey & Cherie Rector (Dave and I go way back to PCC days)
Tim Payne (doing a great job as the life groups pastor at this church)
Shane Kenney (Saw him from ’93-’97 at PCC and never talked to him until this conference)

People I’ve met:

Vince Antonucci (author of “I became a christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt“)
Hank Wilson (planted a church in Boston)
Pete Wilson (No relation, but it was an honor to meet this great pastor/blogger)
Tim J Chambers (great to finally meet this pastor from New Jersey)
Steve Harrison (invited me to dinner with him and the remainder of this list; capped off a super day)
Michael Harrison (pastor in VA and brother of aforementioned new friend)
Aaron Swensen (Life group pastor of Lifechurch.tv Tulsa Campus and hater of Sonnys BBQ ribs)
Jay Stevenson (self professed bum who will someday find a job, and a nice guy)

I love Catalyst and seeing all of my new and old friends!  And Billy, Bramlett, and Al loved seeing Robbie Seay Band and Jon Foreman play an acoustic concert tonight.

They were on the front row.

I love the blog world.
I held the 2008 Bloggle awards recently here at martyholman.com, and while
I was checking out the nominees for the award “Best Blog Post”, I began
searching through all my favorite posts over the last 6 months.  Google
Reader makes this easy by allowing me to star my favorite posts as I read them.
One thing I learned however is how much of the content of my favorite posts were not original
to the author of the post.
And by the end of looking through my 300 starred posts, I narrowed them down
to about 30 which I thought were absolutely amazing.
But as I scrolled through the 30, I realized that 20 of them were not actually
written by the author, but simply used (no doubt with permission) from another post.
Now I’m glad that this is being done, as it allows me to read posts that I otherwise
would have never read, but it also makes me wonder…

Who’s original?

And now it’s time for the 2nd Bloggle awards, an award ceremony that happens every 6 months here on martyholman.com, giving the common person (like the author) access to some amazing blogs on the web 2.0.  Hopefully, we’ll get some acceptance speeches.

Most focused blog
Nominees:
Ethos: a cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod;  From where I sit by Michael Hyatt; Gotcha by Jake Holman;  History in the making by Ben Arment;  Reluctant Republicans for McCain by Clay Davis
THE WINNER:  History in the making by Ben Arment
Anything this guy writes is gold.  He’s somewhere around brilliant and then some.  His focus is creativity in the church.

Best blog, comedy
Nominees:
Rainy Day Communications by Katie Ferguson; Stuff Christians like by the Prodigal John; Don Miller is by Donald Miller;  Vince Antonucci by Vince Antonnuci
THE WINNER:  Stuff Christians Like by The Prodigal John.  Wildly funny, and will make you laugh out loud in your office every time you dare to read it.

Best blog, story
Nominees:
Trek to the summit by Tom Hogsed;  Scott Hodge by Scott Hodge;  Jenn with 2 n’s by Jenn;  Connecting with Pastor Mike by Mike Laurence
THE WINNER:
Jenn with 2 N’s by Jenn

Best blog, pastor
Nominees:
Velocity by Dave Ferguson; Leading Smart by Tim Stevens;  Life Church.tv:  Swerve by Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald;  Perry Noble dot com by Perry Noble;  Tony Morgan Live by Tony Morgan;  Without Wax by Pete Wilson
THE WINNER:
Life Church.TV:  Swerve by Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald.  This was the hardest to judge.  These blogs are amazing!

Best blog post
Nominees:
“A couple of my rules for startups” by Mark Cuban (March 14, 2008);  “Creating WOW product experiences” by Michael Hyatt (May 17, 2008);  “The Lifetime of an opportunity” by Steven Furtick (July 30, 2008);  “The Secret of the web” by Seth Godin (August 11, 2008);  “The Bible said so” by Winn Collier (September 2, 2008);  “What Complaining says about you”, by Ben Arment (September 9, 2008);  “Palin, Religion, and how Secualrism is out of touch” by Dale Fincher (September 15, 2008)
THE WINNER:
“The Secret of the Web” by Seth Godin (August 11, 2008).  This was not an easy task.  I have so many subscriptions to blogs and highlight very few of them, but very few of so many is still a lot.  These are all excellent posts, written originally by the authors.

Best blog, pictures
Nominees:
It’s all going to change by Kevin and Jen Richardson;  Mark Beeson by Mark Beeson;  Ethos:  A Cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod
THE WINNER:
Ethos:  A Cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod  Randy always helps me to think more artsy than I really am.  He bring out the culture in me, and I don’t use that term scientifically.

Best blog, intellectual
Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk;  Dale Fincher by Dale Fincher;  Jeffs Deep Thoughts by Jeff Campbell;
Jenn with 2 N’s by Jenn;  Winn Collier by Winn Collier
THE WINNER:  Winn Collier by Winn Collier. I’m pretty sure his nominated post for best blog post won him this award.

I wish I knew him or her (no winners, just a list of 3)
Steven Furtick by Steven Furtick
Flowerdust.net by Anne Jackson
Blog Maverick by Mark Cuban

I’m glad I know him or her (no winners, just a list of 3)
Mill Industries by Eric Mill
Brian Howe by Brian Howe
You can know God by Michael Lukaszewski

Thanks for joining me for the 2008 Bloggle awards!  Check back for the acceptance speeches and comments about how wrong I was.  And…

Please vote for your favorite all around blog