Resolutions

Do you get inspired to make resolutions? Try something new? End a bad habit?

Although not normally given to resolutions, last year I was inspired to make a list of books  to read over the coming year. It was an attempt at being intentional about where my reading time would be spent. It came from a comment thinking about the number of books that you might be able to read given your remaining reading years. Given that there will be a limited number of books you can spend your time on, which ones do you want to read?

Hoping to read a book a month I looked at various book lists and picked twelve books across a number of genres. Here is the list I came up with.

Literature
1.     The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)
2.     The Weight of Glory (Lewis)

Reading
3.     How to Read a Book (Adler)
4.     The Attributes of God (Pink)

Culture
5.     How Should We Then Live (Schaeffer)
6.     Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare (Powlison)

Suffering
7.     How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (Carson)
8.     A History of Christian Missions (Neil)
9.     A History of Nearly Everything (Bryson)
10.   Book of the Dun Cow (Wangerin)
11.   Seeing with new eyes (David Powlison)
12.   God is Red (Liao Yiwu)

I also found that other books would pop up on my radar through-out the year. Some just looked interesting others were required reading for an online class. The additional books were:

• The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
• Redemption (Mike Wilkerson)
• Rid of my Disgrace (Justin Holcomb)
• Just do something (Kevin DeYoung)
• Instruments in the Hand’s of the Redeemer (Paul Tripp)
• The Heart of a Servant Leader (C. John Miller)
• The Gift of Therapy (Irving Yalom)

The titles in bold are the books that I actually read. So by accident, I reached my goal – so much for intentionality!

What are you planning to read this next year?

/marc