Book-Plug Wariness

A reader writes:

I'll admit that I was growing wary of the constant book plugs on your blog. Then, for some reason this morning, as I was reading your site for the first of what will undoubtedly be many times today, the realization dawned on me that I've been missing an obvious point - it's your blog. Post whatever the hell you want on it; your readers are none to complain. If I want straight-up news I'll go to a news site. I come to you for analysis from your point of view, and right now that is heavily influenced by your thoughts from the book. So I say keep doing what you're doing.

Well, to tell the truth, the real reason I keep plugging the book is that everything I am writing on my blog right now - and have written for six years - is better explained in the book. That's why I wrote it. Many of the quick points I make on a blog beg lots of other questions. I'm not easily described as a ' conservative' or 'liberal' or what-have-you in today's climate and I get exhausted explaining myself in emails to readers. So I decided to sit down and actually write out my political and religious beliefs in as coherent and accessible a way as I could. I call these ideas "conservative" in the classical sense. But I've been stunned how many liberals I've met on the tour who have actually read the book say they agree with almost all of it. The times they are a-changing.

In other words: I'm about promoting the ideas I believe in, whatever label you want to put on them. I do this on the blog every day. But the book is a chance to go deeper, to go back to first principles and question them and explain where I'm coming from. I'm sure few will agree with all of it. But I sure hope they will better understand why and where they disagree or agree with it after reading it. I've written it in the same conversational tone as the blog, and although it's about philosophy and, in part, theology, I've really done my best to make my case in the plain English I try and use here.

I don't have much of a pecuniary interest in this. I've already gotten the advance. Most of the money will go to Harper Collins. But I want people to understand the points I'm making and they just cannot be fully elaborated in a blog post. So if this blog has prompted you to rethink your positions - political or religious - the book might do so in a deeper, more interesting way. Hence my plugs. Ideas matter. I really believe that. And today, ideas matter as much as they ever have. Hence my hope you'll read it, and that it prompts you to more thoughts and we can continue that conversation and debate here as the days and months go by. You can buy it online here and here or in any major bookstore.