A Pastor's Annual Reading Plan (Part Two)

I began to blog yesterday about my practice of devising an annual reading plan every New Year's, and shared some of the thought and planning that goes into that list of intended reads. But my reading is not entirely void of spontaneity. The list usually accounts for only thirty or so books; I often read twice that number in a year (I read 69 in 2009). So there’s ample opportunity to read a book on a whim, pick up the latest blockbuster at the mall, or borrow a book from a friend. Nor do I carve my reading plan in granite; I’m free to substitute books or shift my priorities at any time (it’s my plan, after all, not the Ten Commandments). I also keep a record of the books I read each year, a practice which helps me recall the titles and authors of books I want to reread or recommend to friends.

So let’s take a look at my 2010 reading plan as it stands now:

Biography:
Blood and Thunder (Sides)
Alexander Hamilton (Chernow)

Memoir:
LIT: A Memoir (Karr)

Classics
The Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan)
Lorna Doone (Blackmore)
The Forsyte Saga (Galworthy)
A Modern Comedy (Galworthy)

Writing:
Surviving the Writer’s Life (Lipsett)

History:
No Ordinary Time (Goodwin)

New authors:
A Soldier of the Great War (Helprin)
I, Elizabeth (Miles)
Libra (DeLillo)
Cosmopolis (DeLillo)
From Growing Up Pains… (Plass)
The Sacred Diary… (Plass)

Poetry:
Beowulf (Heaney, tr.)
The Book of Hours (Reeves)

Favorites:
The Heritage of the Desert (Grey)
Code of the West (Grey)
The Virginian (Wister)
Catlow (L’Amour)
The Broker (Grisham)
The Brethren (Grisham)
The Jesus Way (Peterson)
The Bookwoman’s Last Fling (Dunning)

Christian/Inspirational:
The End of Religion (Cavey)
Everybody’s Normal Till… (Ortberg)
The Naked Life (Banks)
The Lost Message of Jesus (Chalke/Mann)
Conversations with Jesus (Fickett)
God on Paper (Loritts)

Church Growth/Church Planting/Leadership/Ministry:
Antagonists in the Church (Haugk)
Revival That Reforms (Hull)
The Servant Leader (Blanchard/Hodges)
Derailed (Irwin)
The Power of Loving Your Church (Hansen)
Deep Church (Belcher)
The Pastor as Minor Poet (Barnes)

New discipline/field:
None

Related books; (read in order):
Beowulf (Heaney, tr.)
Grendel (Gardner)

Children’s:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Robinson)

Re-read… International and inter-cultural:
None

Contemplative/Devotional:
Dug Down Deep (Harris)
Praying Through the Bible (Fuller)
The Best of Robert Murray McCheyne (McCheyne)
The Way of Perfection (Teresa of Avila)
The Mystic Way (Underhill)
When the Trees Say Nothing (Merton)

Books about books:
Walking a Literary Labyrinth (Malone)

Mule-choker:
Blood and Thunder (Sides)
Alexander Hamilton (Chernow)
A Soldier of the Great War (Helprin)
I, Elizabeth (Miles)
The Forsyte Saga (Galworthy)
A Modern Comedy (Galworthy)

Other:
Something Rotten (Fforde)
The Wager (Myers)
Just Think (Nordenson)
For the Love of Books (Schwartz)
The One-Day Way (Hobbs)

Eesh! That’s fifty-two books, and SIX mule-chokers!! I usually plan only thirty or so, but there’s a whole lotta books I’ve been waiting to get to! And I can't wait. So I better stop blogging...and start reading!