A Year in Books

One of my year-end practices for many years has been a review of the books I have read in the previous year. As I've mentioned before on this blog, I assemble a reading plan at the beginning of each year, and that guides roughly fifty percent of my reading through the year. Then, at the end of the year, I look over the books I've enjoyed, looking for balance and patterns, etc.

So here's a quick look back on last year’s reading, sorted by category (an asterisk indicates an audiobook):

Memoir:
Three Against the Wilderness (Collier)
Picking Dandelions (Cunningham)
I Am Hutterite (Kirkby)
Lit (Karr)

Biography:
Alexander Hamilton (Chernow)

Classics:
Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan)
The Virginian (Wister)
Alice in Wonderland (Carroll)
Tarzan of the Apes (Burroughs)
Riders of the Purple Sage (Grey)*
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)
Lorna Doone (Blackmoore)*
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare)

Writing:
BookLife (Vanderemeer)

History:
Blood and Thunder (Sides) *

New authors:
Growing Up Pains (Plass)
Murder Duet (Gur)
Life of Pi (Martel)*
Casino Royale (Fleming)

Poetry:
Beowulf (tr. Heaney)

Favorite Authors:
Catlow (L’Amour)
Reversed Thunder (Peterson)
The Bookwoman’s Last Fling (Dunning)

Christian:
Dug Down Deep (Harris)
A Book of Hours (Reeves)
Wild Goose Chase (Batterson)
The Butterfly Effect (Andrews)
The Blessed Life (Morris)
Outlive Your Life (Lucado)
Sun Stand Still (Furtick)

Ministry/Leadership:
Introverts in the Church (McHugh)
Antagonists in the Church (Haugk)
Derailed (Irvin)
ReWORK (Fried/Hansson)
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect (Maxwell)
The Servant Leader (Blanchard/Hodges)
The Pastor as Minor Poet (Barnes)
Running on Empty (Anderson)
The Power of Loving Your Church (Hansen)
Pastoral Grit (Larson)
Team Leadership in Christian Ministry (Gangel)
The Up the Middle Church (Keller)
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (Laniak)
Deep Church (Belcher)
Blink (Gladwell)
The Tipping Point (Gladwell)

Related books:
None

Books About Books:
Walking a Literary Labyrinth (Malone)

Children’s:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Robinson)
Miles the Crocodile Plays the Colors of Jazz (Blackman/Cunningham)
Axle the Freeway Cat (Hurd)
Fun & Nonsense (Bonte)
A Cool Kid—Like Me (Wilhelm)
Don’t Do That! (Polisar/Clark)
The Big Boasting Battle (Wilhelm)
Tyrone the Horrible (Wilhem)
Art & Max (Wiesner)
When I Am a Princess (Pocket Money Press)
Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Seuss)
God Made Christmas (Stainbrook/Burr)
The Polar Express (Van Allsburg)

Contemplative/Devotional:
The Way of Perfection (Teresa of Avila)


Friends:
Hagar (Shade)
Death by Church (Erre)
Why the Bible Matters (Erre)

Other:
The One-Day Way (Hobbs)
Pope Joan (Cross)
The White Queen (Gregory)
Younger Next Year (Crowley/Lodge)
Naomi and Her Daughters (Wangerin)
The Simple Dollar (Hamm)

That’s 70 books, one more than last year. More classics than I would have guessed! As well, some truly outstanding books. And, though I had my iPad for only half of the year, fifteen of the above were read in eBook format! What a blessing that has been!

Tomorrow I'll post my ten favorite books of the year.