Proverbs "Reconstructed"

Author Gus Dallas gets an "A" for effort on this book. I can't imagine taking on this kind of task . . . reorganizing the Book of Proverbs is difficult at best. The author made an incredible effort, but the book just didn't provide what I'd hoped.

For starters, I could not find, anywhere, if this contained the Book of Proverbs in its ENTIRETY. So, I don't know if this is just "some" of Proverbs or ALL of it. Secondly, the categories for Scriptures were, at times, "strange." (For example, "Apple, Ant, Bear, Dog, Ear, Wink, etc.) All of the "expected" categories such as Wisdom, Trials and Tribulations, Sin, Punishment, etc. were included. Sometimes the category would have Love "Good" and Love "Bad." At first, I wasn't sure what this meant, but it clearly shows that it is the "right vs. wrong" way in each topic. Sometimes the formatting separated the "Good" and "Bad" on different categories, sometimes they were in one page, instead of two. There were MANY typos (i.e. "Shepard"). Other reviewers have mentioned this. There were some verses that should have clearly been put in a different category. (i.e. "sparing the rod" shouldn't be categorized under "ROD," but under DISCIPLINE or "intoxicating drink" under "KING.") So, some verses just didn't fit well in the category they were placed in. There were also no Scriptures under the category of LAZY. I will, however, say that the Kindle version was formatted well in that you could click on the category title and then be brought to the appropriate page . . . this had to be a feat in itself to accomplish.

Unfortunately, I just cannot see using this as a reference. I think it is a brilliant idea, it just wasn't executed well. I would have expected Westbow to provide better service to this author who obviously paid a good amount of money to have this published.

* I was provided this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.