The Wealth of Nations – FINISHED!

Events in the year 1776 were to be ones that changed the political face of the world for the rest of history. The fledgling United States of America was embroiled in its fight for independence from the British Empire, what was perhaps at that time the greatest power in the world. In July, the Declaration of Independence, authored principally by Thomas Jefferson was adopted by the United States, officially announcing its independence from the British Empire.

There was another document published that year, albeit one that was not quite as important and monumental as the Declaration of Independence. On March 9, 1776 Adam Smith published what was to become one of the greatest works in the field of economics and would help to change both the political and economic understanding of nations from that time on. The Wealth of Nations is “widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics…and the first comprehensive defense of free market policies.” (Wikipedia)

I am very pleased to announce that I have finally finished recording an unabridged audio version of Adam Smith’s seminal work.  This is perhaps one of the longest personal projects I’ve ever undertaken and I’m very glad to have it finally completed.  As far as I can tell, this is the only unabridged, human-read FREE version of this book you’ll find anywhere.

I started the project over 3 years ago, in January 2008.  To put that into perspective, Sarah was 7 months pregnant with Ben when I began this recording.  I used three different microphones (in increasing levels of quality) to record more than 370,000 words.  Total finished recording time is just over 36 hours.  Taking an average time on recording, proofing and editing at about 3 minutes for every 1 minute of finished recording comes out to about 108 hours total of time spent recording the book.

In between recording the five books that make up The Wealth of Nations, I made some other recordings, including John Bunyan’s autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and John Owen’s excellent book, The Mortification of Sin, both of which can also be downloaded for free.  What’s next?  Well, definitely something smaller, that’s for sure.  I’m considering working on C.H. Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students, but haven’t quite decided yet.

If you enjoy audio books and would like to listen to what is continually listed in the top 100 books of all time, follow this link to download the free, unabridged audiobook of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed reading.

Free Audio of The Mortification of Sin

Last year, when my pastor and I began reading John Owen’s “The Mortification of Sin,” I had no idea that such a small book would have such a massive impact on my life. This being the first Puritan-authored book I’ve ever read, I thought I was in for a lot of dry, heavy-on-the-theoretical-light-on-the-practical kind of stuff. I was proven very, very wrong

This is the kind of book that so convicts, moves, and encourages you that not to share it with others would be doing them, the author and the book’s subject a great injustice. There are several free online books available, most notably of which is “Overcoming Sin and Temptation,” a recently published compilation of three of Owen’s works including The Mortification of Sin. However, to my surprise, I discovered that there are very few audio recordings of The Mortification of Sin and even fewer that are free. And so began a project to record this great book. I’m very glad to report that the recording of The Mortification of Sin is now complete and may be downloaded for free in mp3 format. (Please note that the text used for the recording is not from the above mentioned book, but rather was made from a published copy that is no longer under copyright.)

Here is what John Piper has to say about Owen’s book:

“What Owen offers is not quick relief, but long-term, deep growth in grace that can make strong, healthy trees where there was once a fragile sapling. I pray that thousands—especially teachers and pastors and other leaders—will choose the harder, long-term path of growth, not the easier, short-term path of circumstantial relief.

“Owen is especially worthy of our attention because he is shocking in his insights. That is my impression again and again. He shocks me out of my platitudinous ways of thinking about God and man. Here are a few random recollections from what you are (I hope) about to read. You will find others on your own.

“‘There is no death of sin without the death of Christ’ (Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, chapter 7). Owen loves the cross and knows what happened there better than anyone I have read. The battle with sin that you are about to read about is no superficial technique of behavior modification. It is a profound dealing with what was accomplished on the cross in relation to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the deep and wonderful mysteries of faith.

“‘To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live’ (chapter 7). Oh, the pastoral insights that emerge from Owen! As here: If you are fighting sin, you are alive. Take heart. But if sin holds sway unopposed, you are dead no matter how lively this sin makes you feel. Take heart, embattled saint!

“‘God says, “Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost”’ (chapter 8). Astonishing! God ordains to leave a lust with me till I become the sort of warrior who will still seek his aid when this victory is won. God knows when we can bear the triumphs of his grace.

“The list could go on and on. For me, to read Owen is to wake up to ways of seeing that are so clearly biblical that I wonder how I could have been so blind. May that be your joyful experience as well.”

As Piper states, whether you read the book or listen to this recording, I hope that the truths, challenges, and convictions you find bring you closer to the joys found only in glorifying God!

(If you would like the mp3s in short, 3-4 minute sections for easier bookmarking or burning onto a CD, I have those available also. Simply contact me at: esky@juno.com)

More Progress on The Wealth of Nations

Books 2 and 3 of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations are now completely recorded and available for downloading. And remember, all audio downloads at Librivox are absolutely free! I’ll be starting on Book 4 soon and am also hoping to begin John Owen’s Mortification of Sin as a side project. I’m especially looking forward to recording this one as I have truly enjoyed going through the book with Pastor Tim. Stay tuned.

So Many Books, So Little Time

I have this tendency (not sure if I should necessarily call it a bad habit) to read more than one book at a time. Maybe it’s due to a short attention span. Maybe it’s genetic. Who knows. But it’s a lot better than what it used to be. I used to start reading one book only to get drawn into another book of equal interest. Before long, I’d have a bookmark in 4 or 5 books at a time. Eventually I’d finish one, only to replace it with yet another. Unfortunately, some books didn’t get finished and I’m sure there are several on my bookshelf with some piece of paper stuck in a long forgotten chapter, eagerly awaiting the day when it can see daylight. That is, if books can be eager about anything.

I can now proudly say that I am only reading THREE (3) books right now and am making some headway in each of them. It helps that one of them is an audio book that I get to listen to everyday on my way to work. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s my opinion that audio books are one of the best things in the world. I think I average about one unabridged book a month.

So what am I reading? The audio book is John Adams by David G. McCullough. This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. It is perhaps one of the most fascinating biographies I’ve ever read. Not surprisingly, when it was first published in 2001, Publisher’s Weekly called it “one of the fastest-selling nonfiction titles in history,” and publisher Simon & Schuster said that “the demand for the book ‘is the greatest in the history’ of the publisher.” That’s a pretty high compliment considering Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 and is one of the four largest English language publishers.

I’m also reading John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin with my good friend and pastor, Tim. This has been a very good and very convicting read in the daily battle to “mortify” sin. Owen encourages Christians to “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” The book has a way of cutting to the heart of the matter and leaving no room for excuses for sin.

The third book – Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations – is one that I’ll probably be reading for at least another year because I’m working on narrating/recording the entire thing and making it available through Librivox. I’ve finished Book 1 and am about halfway through Book 2.

And of course, every time I go to the library, I find at least 2 more books to add to my reading list. But this is a good thing.

Edit: well, Sarah has reminded me that I’m reading a fourth book – Great Illustrated Classic’s The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I’m in the process of recording this one as well for the kiddos to listen to in the car when we go on vacation. Speaking of which, dads, this is something that I would highly recommend doing for your kids. I’m sure they already love to have you read to them and making a recording for them will be a great gift. All you need is a microphone (available at most office supply store) and some recording software, such as the freely available Audacity.

Grace Abounding

I have just finished another audio recording, this time of a great Christian classic, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan.

Grace Abounding is the spiritual autobiography of John Bunyan, who also penned Pilgrim’s Progress, perhaps one of the most significant pieces of Christian literature, second only to the Bible. Grace Abounding follows Bunyan’s struggle to find true repentance and forgiveness, his battle with Satan’s temptations of unbelief, his comfort found in the Bible and his overarching victory gotten by the grace of God through Jesus Christ his Son. Readers familiar with Pilgrim’s Progress will recognize that many of the allegorical points in his famous work came out of Bunyan’s own struggles and discoveries, and it has been said that Bunyan could not have written Pilgrim’s Progress without first going through the battles chronicled in Grace Abounding.

If you would like to listen to the unabridged audio book (total run time is just under 4 hours), you can download entirely free by following this link.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

But I had no sooner began to recall to mind my former experience of the goodness of God to my soul, but there came flocking into my mind an innumerable company of my sins and transgressions, amongst which these were at this time most to my affliction, namely, my deadness, dullness, and coldness in holy duties; my wanderings of heart, of my wearisomeness in all good things, my want of love to God, His ways, and people, with this at the end of all, Are these the fruits of Christianity? are these the tokens of a blessed man?

At the apprehension of these things my sickness was doubled upon me, for now was I sick in my inward man, my soul was clogged with guilt; now also was my former experience of God’s goodness to me quite taken out of my mind, and hid as if it had never been, nor seen. Now was my soul greatly pinched between these two considerations. Live I must not, Die I dare not; now I sunk and fell in my spirit; and was giving up all for lost; but as I was walking up and down in the house, as a man in a most woeful state, that word of God took hold of my heart, Ye are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3.24). But oh, what a turn it made upon me!

Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream, and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had heard it thus expounded to me: Sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy sins and infirmities I cannot save thy soul, but behold My Son is by Me, and upon Him I look, and not on thee, and will deal with thee according as I am pleased with Him. At this I was greatly lightened in my mind, and made to understand that God could justify a sinner at any time; it was but His looking upon Christ, and imputing of His benefits to us, and the work was forthwith done.

The Wealth of Nations, Book 1

Events in the year 1776 were to be ones that changed the political face of the world for the rest of history. The fledgling United States of America was embroiled in its fight for independence from the British Empire, what was perhaps at that time the greatest power in the world. In July, the Declaration of Independence, authored principally by Thomas Jefferson was adopted by the United States, officially announcing its independence from the British Empire.

There was another document published that year, albeit one that was not quite as important and monumental as the Declaration of Independence. On March 9, 1776 Adam Smith published what was to become one of the greatest works in the field of economics and would help to change both the political and economic understanding of nations from that time on. The Wealth of Nations is “widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics…and the first comprehensive defense of free market policies.”

Over the past 6 months I have been working on recording Book 1 of The Wealth of Nations in conjunction with Librivox, a volunteer-based web site that offers free audio books of literature that is in the public domain. I am very happy to announce that Book 1 is now complete and available for listening. I am now working on Book 2 and hope to have this one completed by September 2008.

If you enjoy audio books and would like to listen to what is continually listed in the top 100 books of all time, follow this link. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed reading.

Librivox

I like to read, but to be honest more often than not when the opportunity to sit down with a book presents itself, I get distracted by other things. Either that or I feel completely lazy and simply want to sit in front of the TV or computer and do absolutely nothing productive. However, in the past year I discovered a wonderful invention – audio books. Yes, I know they’ve been around for quite some time, but my discovery was fairly recent mainly because my commute got a tad longer at the beginning of 2007. I can’t stand listening to the radio, but with nothing else to occupy the time, I usually ended up channel surfing, listening to nothing in particular.

Enter audio books. Ever since discovering audio books, I’ve listened to six books, both fiction and nonfiction, and am currently on my seventh. That’s seven more than I would have read by now if I had to sit down with book in hand. It’s gotten to the point where I sit in my truck for a few extra minutes just to finish the section or to find out what happens next. I’ve even spent my lunch break listening to a book. When I finish one, I hurry to the library to pick out the next one.

While searching online for audio books, I stumbled across Librivox, a website providing free audio books that are in the public domain, meaning almost anything published before 1923. With over 1,000 titles and many more in the works (all free!), the folks at Librivox are on their way toward their goal of the “acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.” Among the finished works are Pilgrim’s Progress, Little Women, Around the World in 80 Days, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Bible and many others. Here’s the other interesting part (besides the whole “free” thing) – it’s all done by volunteers! Nobody is turned away from contributing, either as a reader or prooflistener. Naturally, this leads to some recordings being better done than others, but that doesn’t matter. Critiquing of someone’s reading style is highly frowned upon simply because volunteers, no matter the talent level, are always welcome. There is technical proofing though, to make sure stumbles, repeats, loud burps, etc are edited out of the finished product. Some books are done as a collaborative effort by multiple readers and some are solo projects with only one reader. The value found in this project (besides the whole “free” thing) is that books the audio publishers wouldn’t find profitable to publish find their way into the acoustical world and made available where they perhaps otherwise wouldn’t.

I’ve been very fascinated by this project and have even begun to volunteer. Let me say that this is perhaps one of the easiest, hardest things I’ve ever done. Easy because, well, how hard can it be to read a book, right? True. It’s also hard because the recording has to be free from the aforementioned stumbles, etc. It usually takes me at least twice as long to edit as it does to record, but I’m enjoying the new hobby immensely. My first project is quite large – I’ve decided to liberate Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. I’m about halfway done with the first book. If you want to do some volunteer reading, all you need is a computer, some free downloadable software, and a microphone (the one I use is a headset combo purchased for about $20). Oh, and your voice of course. And if reading aloud isn’t your thing, listeners are always needed. If this sounds like something that would interest you, follow the link and join the liberation!