Daily Links 11-6-13

David Suchet bids Poirot "Adieu", John Cleese lectures on creativity, things I will not regret doing with my wife, and much more in today's roundup of links.

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After 25 years portraying Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, David Suchet will make his final appearance when Curtain airs in the UK next week. American audiences will have to wait until next year to see the final films. The Telegraph has a wide-ranging interview with Suchet about the role that made him famous that is a must read.

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John Cleese is arguably one of the funniest men in show business. But he also has some great insights into fostering creativity from this lecture from 1991. Take the time to watch this excerpt:




Hat tip: Brain Pickings

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Duck Dynasty has been a huge hit for A&E. It's also not without a little bit of controversy over what's getting edited out of the show. R. J. Moeller argues that Duck Dynasty's values don't need editing.

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I bet you didn't know that it was a little girl who inspired Abraham Lincoln to grow out his beard.

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Tim Challies shares 18 things he won't regret doing with his wife. He also shared 18 things he won't regret doing with his kids. Both are worth reading.

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Trying to decide how many kids to have? Consider reading this first. These are some good things to consider when determining how large a family to have.

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