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My Year In Books (and other media)

by | Mar 22, 2024 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

My year of reading a book a week has officially finished.  In some ways I succeeded, albeit with some substitutions of articles, movies, documentaries and podcasts for books.  At the opening of 2024, friends published their readings, which dwarfed mine and I was momentarily … without wind in my sails.  I also have only reported on the first 30 books.  The remaining 22 reports are probably going to remain unreported, though I will try to capture the contents for myself, since otherwise I will forget their useful contents.  I am happy to say each reading/listening/viewing enriched me and proved helpful to someone else over the course of the year.  I am planning to keep reading, but under a less stringent goal, and planning to keep reading out of love for both God and others.  That means I still want to know what other people think I should read.  

Here’s my list:

Total Books:  39

Total other media: 13

My Favorites or Recommended books:  Holy Unhappiness, Forgive, The Men We Need, Still Time To Care

As I look at my list in retrospect, I do not regret any of the books or media which I chose.  Each one blessed me in some way.  Each one expanded my perspective.  Some are more needful for some of us than others.  My four recommended books I chose by their possible applicability to all of us at this particular cultural moment in American Christianity.  I want to make a quick comment about Holy Unhappiness and Forgive, because I haven’t even posted a paragraph on them.

The premise of Holy Unhappiness is that Christians believe a kind of “Spiritual prosperity gospel,” and therefore we expect to be happy and fulfilled even if we aren’t healthy and wealthy.  Opelt asserts that because of the fall of humanity and its effects – sin and death – the normal Christian life will include frustration and sadness.  I think her message will resonate with many Christians who think there is something wrong with them that they don’t experience consistent joy and satisfaction, but a rather more up and down spiritual experience.  It is a book that might give hope to a Christian who is thinking of quitting the faith.

The premise of Forgive is that we are living in an era in which the understanding and practice of forgiveness is fading.  Keller spells out from Scripture what it means to forgive and that forgiveness is not opposed to speaking the truth about offenses and injustice.  Real forgiveness begins with bringing up what caused harm.  A lack of forgiveness is dividing so many people from others, and is a grievous offense to the God who has forgiven us an incalculable debt.

I am keenly aware these days that I am aging and my energy is either diminishing or changing.  As a result I have just begun Matt Perman’s 2014 book What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.  I am the daughter of a workaholic, and so I have always loved to get things done, check tasks off a list and thus feel good about myself.  But I have not always been sure that my priorities, my lists, have reflected God’s priorities for my life.  In his introduction, Perman says our governing principle for what we do should be love for God and love for others.  As I begin a new year of reading, I may not be able to keep up with the goal of one book per week, but I want to continue reading books that people recommend to me, or that I believe will open my eyes to someone else’s experience.