On this first day of 2020, it’s time to look back and consider the books I’ve read over the past year. (This practice was inspired by James M. MacKnight’s annual reading lists. His 2019 post is here.) I read about a book a week—a practice I’ve maintained since I returned to Seminary in 2000. My reading journal, which began in a paper notebook in 2000, moved online in 2008. You can read my thoughts on all the books I’ve read in the past decade (if you want to). Here is my reading retrospective from last year.

A couple notes before we begin. The categories are not perfect but they’ll do the job. I do read odd books from time-to-time that don’t fit in any one category. All the books are linked to my book reviews if you’re curious. Finally, for the OCD among us, each section is alphabetized by the author’s last name.

Fiction

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
• Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Elevation by Stephen King
• Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
• Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
• The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien

And first place goes to . . . I can’t decide. Let’s call it a tie between Things Fall Apart and The Children of Húrin. Both of these books have gravity. There is a moral weight to them that underscores their value as enduring works of literature. Things Fall Apart is an episodic look at pre-colonial Nigerian culture and the arrival of missionaries in the 1890s. The Children of Húrin is one of the three great tales Tolkien set in the first age of Middle Earth, before hobbits and Sauron entered the scene.

Through Black Spruce is a close runner-up. Boyden masterfully weaves a story that takes us from Moosonee to New York without anything feeling out of place. This juxtaposition of two radically different worlds is a rich milieu for Boyden’s story about an aged bush pilot.

Philosophy

• Of Hospitality by Jacques Derrida and Anne Dufourmantelle
• Wittgenstein by A. C. Grayling
• The Four Horsemen by Christopher Hitchens, et. al.
• The Idea of Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl
• Silence in an Age of Noise by Erling Kagge
• Who’s Afraid of Relativism by James K. A. Smith
• The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich
• Suspicion and Faith by Merold Westphal

The winner here would have to be Tillich’s The Courage to Be. It’s a classic for a reason. In it, Tillich diagnoses the anxiety that penetrates the existential mood of the mid-twentieth century. While I have some reservations about his answer, his careful arguments and penetrating analysis of modern culture ring true decades later.

Suspicion and Faith is a close runner up. This book is a substantial primer on the thought of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. What sets this book apart from the rest is Westphal’s methodology. Rather than dismissing these three famous atheists, Westphal takes their critique of religion seriously, providing the church with an important challenge.  Sometimes our ‘enemies’ sharpen us more than our friends.

Theology

• Pentecost, Hospitality, and Transfiguration by Daniela C. Augustine
• Holy Laughter and the Toronto Blessing by James A. Beverley
• The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
• Atheism for Christians by Benjamin T. Jones
• Thomas Aquinas by Fergus Kerr
• Pentecostal Spirituality by Steven Jack Land
• The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality by Christo Lombard
• And You Welcomed Me by Amy G. Oden
• Making Room by Chrstine D. Pohl
• Main Street Mystics by Margaret M. Poloma
• Is the Atheist My Neighbour? by Randal Rauser
• After the New Atheist Debate by Phil Ryan
• The Friendship of the Lord by Deryck Sheriffs
• Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith
• He Loved Them Until the End | John Christopher Thomas
• Pentecostal Theology by Wolfgang Vondey
• A Theology of the Spirit in the Former Prophets by Rick Wadholm, Jr.
• Introducing Practical Theology by Pete Ward
• A Culture of Faith by Sam Reimer and Michael Wilkinson
• Hospitality and the Other by Amos Yong
• Being as Communion by John D. Zizioulas

This category was a tough one. After careful consideration, I have to go with Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination. It’s not often that I read the same book twice, but for this one I made an exception. Brueggemann’s understanding of the prophetic mission to announce death (the end of false hope) and imagine life after death makes sense of the largest section of the Hebrew canon.

Second place is a tie between Pentecost, Hospitality, and Transfiguration and Being and Communion. In a strange coincidence, both of these works are deeply rooted in the Orthodox tradition. I discovered Daniela Augustine’s book after hearing her speak on a panel at the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Her insight and graciousness prompted an impulse buy at the book table that paid off! Zizioulas’ book is a legitimate classic that underscores humankind’s existence as people-in-relationship—as persons, not individuals. This is a deeply needed corrective for Western Christianity.

Spiritual Formation

• Simply Spirit-Filled by Andrew K. Gabriel
• Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen
• You Are What You Love by James K. A. Smith
• The Power of Proximity by Michelle Ferringo Warren
• Tokens of Trust by Rowan Williams

You may have noticed that James K. A. Smith is in a few categories this year! In You Are What You Love, Smith condenses his work from the Cultural Liturgies series (which begins with Desiring the Kingdom). Smith makes a compelling case that we humans are not Cartesian thinking machines, but desiring animals. Any attempt to direct us must begin with our practices and habits, which aim our hearts toward their telos.

Non-Fiction

• Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day by Joan Bolker
• Time Travel by James Gleick
• The Gift of the Deer by Helen Hoover
• The Hidden Forest by Sigurd F. Olson and Les Blacklock
• MLA Handbook
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• The Death of Expertise by Tom Nichols
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) by Jeff Tweedy

The best non-fiction book I read this year is, hands down, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back). I’m aware of some bias here—Wilco is my favourite band. That said, Tweedy’s autobiography is a beautifully written story of what made him the creative man he is today.

So there you have it—everything I read in 2019 categorized and considered. Have you read any of these books? What do you think? What would you recommend? Feel free to let me know in the comments.