Daily Links 10-16-13

Defending amateur book reviews, obstacles to daily devotions, a collection of cool bookshelves, and more in today's roundup of links.

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Some authors have an issue with amateur book reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads. But there is a case to be made for amateur reviews. As one who has done a few reviews I'm glad to see someone appreciates what those of us who take the time to carefully review a book and comment on it have to say.

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A website devoted to showing off great bookshelves? Yes, please!

Hat tip: Huckberry

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Where passion and creativity come from.

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The importance of establishing family traditions.

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The virtues of writing by hand:

Writing manuscripts by hand has several practical advantages — no need to carry a laptop around, no risk of batteries going dead — but the one I’m most fond of is this: writing by hand forces a built-in revision stage, since I never manage to type up my pages without improving and tightening the prose. While I have no plans to ditch my computer, I find myself resorting to longhand more and more during early drafts. I have always taken notes by hand (the tech-assisted alternatives still seem too clunky to me) but I haven’t written out drafts like this in years.

Hat tip: Blogging Theologically

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Five questions to ask your wife each week:

I have not been married very long, but something I have picked up is just how huge communication is. It’s a big deal. Regardless of however long you’ve been married, you can probably agree with me on this. In our culture where everything is going on at a million miles per second (and that is not even including having a family), Joelle and I have to be incredibly intentional for communication to take place within our marriage, otherwise it just won’t happen.

That being said, we decided to make a commitment to meet each week and discuss these 5 questions. It felt a little strange at first, but over time it became part of our regular rhythm and it has paid off in huge ways for us personally. I would suggest these questions to anyone who is married to improve communication and the quality of your relationship with each other. 

Hat tip: Thom Rainer