This list began overseas, and ended in America. I can remember rushing to finish Good and Angry as we packed, and starting Songs of Innocence while jetlagging in America.

  • The Indian in the Cupboard
  • A Bear Called Paddington
  • Dostoyevsky: A writer in his time—I had wanted to read the original five-volume work for years. Then I saw this 1,000-page condensation for $10 on Kindle. Wonderful book. I’d like to read the entire five-volume series at some point. He uses the word “velleity” half a dozen times, and I’ve never seen that word anywhere else, despite its obvious utility (“a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action”).
  • Hearts for Sale
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Good and Angry
  • Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
  • The Waste Land
  • Outliers
  • Linguistic Field Work: A Practical Guide—I read this because I was teaching from it. Good book, as I recall.
  • The Magician’s Nephew
  • The Aeneid—I enjoyed this better than The Iliad and The Odyssey, which made me wonder, is it objectively better or am I just learning to appreciate epic poetry?
  • How God Became King—This was good, but I stopped reading Wright’s popular works (aside from his book on the Psalms below, I guess), because it’s all there in his scholarly stuff.
  • Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament—A friend recommended that I read this; it took a good chunk of my Summer. Then I took a course from the guy Fall semester and this was assigned. So I’d read ahead, but I’d also spent my Summer doing homework.
  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  • David Elginbrod—Classic character study with no plot. 🙂
  • George MacDonald: A short life
  • The Tipping Point
  • The Narnian
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  • James and the Giant Peach
  • The Descent of the Dove—Lot of hype for this book. I was disappointed, but (as one has to say with Charles Williams) maybe I just didn’t get it.
  • The Meaning of Marriage—Nothing makes you want to work at your marriage like your contemporaries’ getting a divorce. 🙂
  • Unbroken
  • Reading the OED
  • The Professor and the Madman
  • New Testament Exegesis—Here begin many books I had to read for my exegesis program.
  • Interpreting Galatians
  • The Faith of Israel
  • The Four Loves
  • Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible
  • With the Old Breed—I’m so glad I read this. It’s basically the heart and soul of Ken Burns’ The War. What an articulate man.
  • Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament—This is really an excellent book. It’s probably the best book I read in that year of my exegesis program, and it’s (I think) the only book I’ve actually gone on to recommend to people.
  • Invitation to the Septuagint—One of two exegesis books I read this year that I didn’t have to read.
  • Readings from the Ancient Near East
  • Ancient Texts for Studying the Hebrew Bible
  • Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach
  • Intangible
  • The Prince—Again, lots of hype and then ultimately disappointing.
  • Meaning and Relevance
  • The Forgotten Ways
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • All the Pretty Horses—True story: I wanted to read Blood Meridian, but I thought it was the final book of The Border Trilogy. So of course I start at the beginning. Eventually I figure out that Blood Meridian isn’t even part of The Border Trilogy, but then of course I have to finish the trilogy anyway. Let me tell you, reading four Cormac McCarthy novels in succession, when the last one is Blood Meridian, is quite a trip.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  • The Case for the Psalms—This book had a great impact on me. It was one of several books that nudged me—about a year later—to bring the psalms into my life in a serious way.
  • Silence—Call me hard-hearted, but I couldn’t see the appeal of this book. It was as if the priest hadn’t known about suffering before and was caught completely off-guard. (Proud to have read it before the movie came out, though, so that’s something!)
  • Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context—Really excellent book.