Well, I’ve put together a list of the books that I read last year and I’ve (sort of) categorized the list, noting the books that I enjoyed the most in each section (note: these selections are entirely subjective — in part because it was damn near impossible to pick a favourite in some sections).
Total Books: 106
Best Two Books of the Year: The Theology of Paul the Apostle by James D.G. Dunn, and Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Worst Two Books of the Year: Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (possibly the worst book I’ve ever read) and Dialogue with God by Mark and Patti Virkler.
Biblical Studies (15)
Best Book: The Theology of Paul the Apostle by James D. G. Dunn.
God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament by Richard Bauckham.
The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically by Richard Bauckham.
Contagious Holiness: Jesus’ meals with sinners by Craig Blomberg.
Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and Postmodern Imagination by Walter Brueggemann.
The Theology of Paul the Apostle by James D. G. Dunn.
Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder by Richard A. Horsley.
The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World by Richard A. Horsley and Neil Asher Silberman.
Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan.
Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat.
Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics by Stephen Westerholm
The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture by N.T. Wright
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright.
The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit by N.T. Wright.
The Meal Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion by Tom Wright.
Evil and the Justice of God by N. T. Wright.
Theology/Christian Living (25)
Best Book: Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm of Canterbury.
Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation by Naim Stiffen Ateek.
Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love by St. Augustine.
Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Church Dogmatics I.1: The Doctrine of the Word of God by Karl Barth.
Dogmatics in Outline by Karl Barth.
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community by Wendell Berry.
Growing in the Prophetic by Mike Bickle.
Introducing Liberation Theology by Leonardo and Clodovis Boff.
We Drink From Our own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People by Gustavo Gutierrez.
After Christendom: How the Church is to Behave If Freedom, Justice, and a Christian Nation Are Bad Ideas by Stanley Hauerwas.
Cross Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words by Stanley Hauerwas.
In Good Company: The Church as Polis by Stanley Hauerwas.
The Freedom of a Christian, The Bondage of the Will, The Ninety-five Theses, and Theses for the Heidelberg Disputation by Martin Luther.
The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom by Henri Nouwen.
From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa’s Mystical Writings compiled and introduced by Jean Danielou.
The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform by Roger E. Olson (also could be filed under history)
Prayers for a Lifetime by Karl Rahner.
finding naasicaa: letters of hope in an age of anxiety by Charles R. Ringma.
The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience by Ronald J. Sider.
Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by James K. A. Smith (could also be filed in philosophy)
Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace by Miroslav Volf.
Dialogue with God: Opening the door to two-way prayer by Mark and Patti Virkler.
Barth by John Webster (Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series).
Philosophy/Psychology (18)
Best Book: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault.
(Primary)
On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness by Jacques Derrida.
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language by Umberto Eco.
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault.
Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud.
The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud.
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
The Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger.
The Way to Language by Martin Heidegger.
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge by Jean-Francois Lyotard.
After Virtue: a study in moral theory by Alasdair MacIntyre.
Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Notebooks 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
.The Fragile Absolute — or, why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for? by Slavoj Zizek.
(Secondary)
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus: An Introduction by Alfred Nordmann.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Norman Malcolm.
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations by David G. Stern.
Wittgenstein by G. H. von Wright.
Socio-Political Commentary/History/Biography (19)
Best Book: Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks.
One Lady at a Time: The story of the Walter Hoving Home by John Benton.
Down to This: squalor and splendour in a big-city shantytown by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall.
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks.
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Sarah Churchwell.
The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical by Shane Claiborne.
We Say No: Chronicles 1963-1991 by Eduardo Galeano.
Letters from Lake Como: Explorations in Technology and the Human Race by Romano Guardini.
The Junkie Priest: Father Daniel Egan, S.A. by John D. Harris.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison (could also be filed under psych)
Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa by Stephen Lewis.
The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade by Victor Malarek.
God, Please Save Me by Sister Mary Rose McGeady.
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman.
The First to Throw the Stone: Taking Responsibility for Prostitution a Policy Paper by Samaritana Transformation Ministries, Inc.
Naked by David Sedaris.
Street Journal: Finding God in the Homeless by Gary N. Smith, S.J.
The Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.
Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Night by Elie Wiesel.
Fiction (24)
Best Book: Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles “Hank” Bukowski.
Women by Charles “Hank” Bukowski.
Life After God by Douglas Coupland.
Underworld by Don Delillo.
Demons/The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Baudolini by Umberto Eco.
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
Silence by Shusako Endo.
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith.
Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann.
The Red and the Black by Stendahl.
Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday! by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Other (5)
Best Book: Postsecret compiled by Frank Warren.
Postsecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives compiled by Frank Warren.
My Secret: A Postsecret Book compiled by Frank Warren.
Dos and Don’ts: 10 Years of Vice Magazine’s Street Fashion Critiques by Gavin McInnes.
More Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy.
Would You Rather? Over 200 Absolutely Absurd Dilemmas to Ponder by Justin Heimberg & David Gomberg.
In terms of reading for 2007:
-I intend to cut down the number of books that I read so that I can spend more time with each book that I do read
-I’ll be focusing on working my way through the rest of Barth’s Church Dogmatics (I’m halfway through Vol 2 right now)
-I intend to read more commentaries
-I intend to spend more time actually reading the bible instead of constantly reading books about the bible
-I’ll probably cut down on the philosophy and read more books related to biblical studies
-oh yeah, and I guess writing my thesis will probably end up totally skewing all plans I have for reading