Year of reading, turns out....

Although I originally expected this year to be the year of writing, it has ended up being the year of reading. Despite having less time during the day with this new job, I somehow have found more time to read than I ever have. I am enjoying it so much -- funny how you find time to do the things you enjoy. I usually do it during lunch...and it's amazing when that's your only break during the day, it does seem so long! That's my experience anyway. But I wanted to summarize what I've read so far this year, mainly to collect my thoughts and see what I've learned...but also to impress you with all my learning!

Finished: Lincoln - Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan. I started this last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was a different vantage point to see Abe through what he wrote, from poems and stories in his youth, to letters during his courtships, and of course his speeches. Makes sense though as there is perhaps no other American who is as famous for their words.

Finished: Picture Windows -- How the Suburbs Happened by Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen. Again this is a book I started in the summer of 2010, but I read slowly as I was reading other books, too. Plus it read slower as it was full of data, research and history from the 1920s through modern day. It is actually a book I bought for an American History class I took in college but did not read it then:). But with my recent interest in suburbia and consumer culture, it fit right in line with my research.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: First book I started and finished this year and only novel I read (so far). Great story about a relationship between a father and son and striving for reconciliation. It's written as a journal from father to his young son. Also had some of the most beautiful prose I've read since Peace Like a River by Leif Enger a few years back. Happens to be one of Obama's favorite books.

Radical by David Platt. I heard about this book from friends and the idea intrigued me because the tagline "Taking your life back from the American Dream" is in line with my recent thoughts on the fallacies in our aspirations as Americans. It was a quick read but Platt is often harsh and abrupt with his reader...but he has to be. As Christians in our comfy culture we need to be jarred out of self-focused thinking with stats like 26 thousand children die every day from lack of access to clean water. My friend started a non-profit as a result of reading it. Most influential book in my world this year by far. In fact it inspired the choice of the next book(s) I read.

The Bible (24 or so books so far). After reading Radical I was challenged to read the Bible through as I've mentioned on here before. Never done it before (that's one of Platt's points..we claim to live by the book, but most of us haven't read it all!) and it's been great to soak in the story. Theme I'm noticing is that the whole story of the Bible is really a story of God's people CONTINUALLY worshiping others beside the ONE true God and Him loving them back to Himself. Also God's judgment and punishment towards disobedience and idol worship is undeniable...only makes sense when understood in context of  His jealous and passionate pursuit of His people. Enjoying it especially because of The Daily Bible I've been using with manageable readings in chronological order. It does limit time I'm able to spend on other books, but I figured time in the Good Book is time well spent, right!?!

The Silence of Adam - by Larry Crabb. Got this one for Easter and offered great insight into our post-fall thinking as men. We opt to not speak rather than enter in to hard conversations. Silence is easy; speaking is godly.

Also read Good to Great by Jim Collins in the spring. It's been on my list since I heard him speak at my wife's company's event spring of 2010. It's a great business book with insight into what makes CEOs and companies extraordinarily successful. And the findings are often surprising and even biblical.

Technopoly by Neil Postman. Since reading Amusing Ourselves to Death last summer I've decided I'm going to read something by Postman every year. I just *love so much how he thinks, how he writes, and what he writes about. This book is about how our culture has developed a worship of technology to a point where it dictates all realms of our world at a great cost seemingly unbeknownst to us.  He covers the whole gamut of technology from language and numbers & statistics to the printing press and modern-day management methods. Written in 1990 before the dawn (really) of the internet, I found his insight prophetic and applicable to our modern day of gadgets and social media. I savored this book and read it slowly. I did not want it to end.

On Paradise Drive by David Brooks. Just finished this one and really enjoyed it as well. Part cultural criticism, part celebration, Brooks looks at the American mindset past and present and reveals how the whole idea of our country is set around the possibility and imagining of a better future. The downfall is you miss out on the present in your longing for the future, (and Brooks is more forgiving on that front that I am); but I savored this book as well especially it's historic scope with quotes from the likes of deToqueville, Whitman and Emerson.

That brings me to today. I just started Quitter by Jon Acuff about closing the gap between your day job and dream job. I enjoy how he writes, having followed his blog some. I think I may read a novel too around the holidays, most likely Till We Have Faces as it got the most recommendations when I asked for some on Facebook.

I have enjoyed all these books and hope you have enjoyed my "book report" of sorts. I am aware that most likely there will be no other time in my life where I'll have so much time for it. And although I opted for more reading than writing this year, several of these books fall into categories that are relevant research for my own book.  Now I need to use my lunch breaks for writing instead in 2012
and focus on how this knowledge is helping me love others. But it does satisfy me to think and develop these ideas. Thanks for reading!