2010 Reading Lists

"I find television very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room to read a book." ~ Groucho Marx

"He who lends a book is an idiot.  He who returns the book is more of an idiot."~Arabic proverb

"Never judge a book by its movie."

~J.W. Hagan

Why did we wait so long to do this?

What is this? Well, this is simply sitting down together and brainstorming about our reading goals for the year and then actually making a LIST.

Is the list to impress or give us the illusion of being smarter than we are?  Hardly.  The purpose of the list is to help us have goals and to actually know where we want to go.  It's about living intentionally and being good stewards of the little time we have. (It's been said that we'll be the same persons five years from now except for the people we meet and the books we read.  Thankfully, God doesn't just leave us to those two things, though....He's sanctifying us day by day.)

I'm terrible about knowing the many books I want to read but then getting distracted by the latest book recommendation, never making significant progress even though I'm always reading something.  And,  though I probably won't get to read every book on my list, I will at least have a focus and most likely be much more productive than I think I'm going to be when I'm just winging it.

Sitting down together and discussing what we wanted to read this year was so much fun.  We encouraged one another and made recommendations (Scribe and Little Big Man especially), and left the table feeling like one of the most difficult things was done (or perhaps making the list was actually the easy part!).  I'm also looking forward to the discussions our readings will provide as we'll be enjoying many of the same books together.

Scribe posted his reading list earlier.  Today I'll post Mountain Man's and then Little Big Man's and my own.

I must say how proud I am of my Beloved for even agreeing to attempt this.....his free time is so scarce.  He will be doing many of his books on audio since he has so much drive time each day (3-1/2 hours).

Personal Productivity

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Memory Mechanics by Gary DeMar

Money Management

The Complete Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Christian Living/Discipleship

Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Desiring God by John Piper

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

(ahem....Scribe slightly influenced this list :))

Family Life

Shepherding A Child's Heart by Ted Tripp

Your Family God's Way by Wayne Mack

Culture/Politics

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes by Kenneth A. Myers

Glenn Beck's Common Sense

The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield

Is Christianity Good for the World by Doug Wilson

Historical Fiction/Fiction

Witch Wood by John Buchan

St. George for England by G.A. Henty

At Agincourt by G.A. Henty

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

Classics

The Confessions of St. Augustine

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Biography

Joe Meek the Merry Mountain Man by Stanley Vestal

A Heart Promptly Offered-The Revolutionary Leadership of John Calvin by David Hall

The Journal of Jacob Fowler

Education

When You Rise Up by R.C. Sproul, Jr.

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille

Philosophy

The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton

History

"1776" by David McCullough

The Battle for Iwo Jima by Robert Leckie