Cover to cover Non-Fiction:
(1) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. - John Calvin
(2) The Bondage of the Will - Martin Luther
(3) Francis Schaeffer: A Biography - Colin Duriez
(4) The End of Reason - Ravi Zacharias
(5) Israel and the Church - Ronald Diprose
(6) Culture Shift - R. Albert Mohler Jr.
(7) Who Needs Theology? - Stanley Grenz and Roger Olson
(8) Across the Spectrum - Gregory Boyd
(9) Do Hard Things - Alex and Brett Harris
(10) Walking From East to West - Ravi Zacharias
(11) Art and the Bible - Francis Schaeffer
(12) Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood - Eds. John Piper and Wayne Grudem
(13) Discovering Biblical Equality - Eds. Ronald Pierce and Rebecca Merrill Groothius
(14) Understanding the Church - Eds. Joseph M. Vogl and John H. Fish III
(15) Essentials pf Missionary Service - Ken Fleming
(16) Through Gates of Splendor - Elisabeth Elliot
(17) What In the World is God Doing? - Gordon Olson
(18) George Mueller - Richard Steer
Most memorable of this list was: The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, Israel and the Church by Ronald Diprose, Francis Schaeffer by Colin Duriez, The Institutes of the Christian Rleigion by John Calvin, and Walking from East to West by Ravi Zacharias.
My all time favorite of the year for non-fiction was The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther.
Most awful of this list was: Discovering Biblical Equality compiled by Eds. Pierce and Groothius.
Why I read non-fiction this year: Because I LOVE to learn new things!
Positions I changed because of what I read: I think I may seriously prefer the Lutheran method of interpreting the Bible through the lens of Law and Gospel. . .happy birthday to me I'm a Lutheran?!
The Top Ten Non-Fiction Books I Started But Didn't Finish Yet Fully Intend To:
(1) Italy: A Short History - Harry Hearder
(2) The Italians - Luigi Barzini
(3) Europe Today and Tomorrow - Joseph Ratzinger
(4) Solomon Among the Postmoderns - Peter J. Leithart
(5) L'abri - Edith Schaeffer
(6) Christianity and Liberalism - J. Gresham Machen
(7) What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace? - R.D. Phillips
(8) Future Israel - Barry Horner
(9) Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
(10) The Gospel According to Jesus - John Macarthur
Cover to Cover Fiction:
(1) The Lord of The Rings - Tolkien
- The Two Towers
- The Return of the King
(3) His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
- The Golden Compass
- The Subtle Knife
- The Amber Spyglass
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Horse and His Boy
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Last Battle
(8) Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell
(9) Five Novels by P.G. Wodehouse
- The Return of Jeeves
- Bertie Wooster Sees it Through
- Spring Fever
- The Butler Did It
- The Old Reliable
- The Mirror Crack'd
- A Caribbean Mystery
- Nemesis
- What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
- The Body in the Library
My all time favorite of the year for fiction was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
Most awful of this list was: The Shack by William P. Young (poor literature and heresy).
Why I read fiction this year: Because during the wildness of school suicide wasn't an option!
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The Book That Most Shaped Me This Year a.k.a My Book of the Year: The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
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As I said, this was an excellent year. Looking back I never would have supposed I could read so many books. It's amazing. Praise God. A little lesson before I go. Don't think about how many books you want to read. Sure, make a list, but then never look at it again. Just read. Five pages a day equals 1,820 pages in a year. That means YOU could read the Institutes of the Christian Religion in FIVE PAGES A DAY OVER THE COURSE OF LESS THAN ONE YEAR! Wanna know how long that takes? About twenty minutes if you're slow and about ten if you're mid range. Chances are, five won't be enough and you'll want to read ten. Ten pages a day is 3,640 pages in a year. That basically covers The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. It really isn't that hard to read. I promise. If you do just a little bit every day you will feel both productive and will learn great amounts. This of course, is not part of your Bible reading. You must not read more than you read your Bible! READ YOUR BIBLE! READ GOOD BOOKS!
Soli Deo Gloria!
R.D. Thompson
13 comments:
The Shack isn't fiction!
The Shack is totally fiction.
Or, at any rate, that is what every single person I have talked who LIKED the book has said. It is their primary (and most useless) defense of the book. "You can't criticize fiction." Shoot me. Yes you can and you should. Otherwise the walking uselessness of "A New Kind of Christian," couldn't be criticized! AND IT NEEDS TO BE!
I THINK you must be kidding (you being sarcastic Amanda and all). At any rate, I HOPE you're kidding. I think if it is at all true it's had just a little exaggeration...
So judgmental! You probably take issue with The Da Vinci Code too, hmm?
And yes I'm kidding. I only say these things to persecute you. I haven't read The Shack but I have read A New Kind of Christian and thought it was laughably bad.
The Shack was laughably bad no doubt...
Ugh...
Do you hava blog?
Yeah, but I haven't posted on it in like two years.
Not having read any of them and only having read this blog a few times, I was still somehow very not surprised to see that the least favorite non-fiction book was the one with "equality" in the title. I guess stereotypes do often prove right.
:)
I'll make sure and add "Good News for Women" by Rebecca Merril Groothius to my list for next year and I promise I'll make it my favorite and most impacting book ever!
Feel free to be fair and note that my favorite fiction over and above THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA was The Golden Compass which was written by a raging agnostic!
Last I checked fundamentalist "stereotypical" Christians condemned Philip Pullman to the depths of hell and burned his books.
(Sigh)...Can't please everyone I suppose. If there's anything I have learned so far in my life it's that.
so maybe you should stop trying so hard to please people all the time then.
:) Sounds good to me! (I say as I try to please you)
Oh yeah...I meant to add a Luther phrase in there:
"Sounds good to me! Vile dog! Evil Miscreant! Barking hound of Satan!"
There now see? I don't try to please everyone...
My question: Why list all of the books you have read?
You're smart and I think you're amazing fro all that reading.
Is that what you want to hear?
:) No of course not Katie (that's who it sounded like anyway!)
I'm being an elitist pig can't you see that?
That's like asking, "Why do you list all of your interests on Facebook? I already know everything you like!"
It's a long way to show others what I'm reading and why I'm reading it.
It also is a way to recommend books in short hand. It's easier than saying, "I recommend this book," for every single book I read. Instead you can look at the ones which were my favorites and be like, "Cool, he liked that, I should think about reading it maybe."
38 books really isn't that many next to most of my friends either. Graeme is probably laughing his face off that I only read 38. He had read 50 by May!
I love books. They are my primary ministry. I really want other people to read some of the books I have read. Hence I write them down and recommend you read them.
That's not so bad now is it?
My response to this post will appear on my own blog, on the 1st of 2009.
-M:.
www.theopenlife.com
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