Top 9 Books I Read in ‘09
I read a lot of books in ‘09. I wish I could have read more, but I have yet to find that benefactor who will financially provide for me to sit back and read all day long. If you’re interested, please e-mail me.
I’m always in the middle of reading one book for pastoral development and another for personal enjoyment. Right now, I’m working on Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Clowney’s The Unfolding Mystery. Both are great. Since we just finished up 2009, I thought I’d throw together a little end-of-the-year list on the most memorable books I read during the last 350 days or so. These books are in no particular order and are books that I read in ‘09, not books that were published in ‘09.
In the FICTION category:
Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar. Theroux travelled from London to Istanbul, through the Middle East, India, and eventually through southeast Asia, Japan, and back along the Trans-Siberian Railway. All of this by train in 1975. I love traveling and Theroux’s book made me want to jump on a train somewhere.
Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls. What does a man do when he believes the fight he’s in is just, but the chances of success are gone?
Joseph Heller, Catch-22. Somehow I missed this one in my high school and college literature classes. I probably enjoyed it more as a 35-year old than I would have as a 19-year old sophomore. Great characters, absurd situations, and this description of the chaplain: “He [the chaplain] was pinched perspiringly in the epistemological dilemma of the skeptic, unable to accept solutions to problems he was unwilling to dismiss as unsolvable. He was never without misery, and never without hope.” One of my all-time favorite quotes.
David Benioff, City of Thieves. An unlikely friendship in the middle of the starving city of Leningrad. An unforgettable book.
NON-FICTION
Chris Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness. Common assumption: forgive and forget. Brauns challenges are easy escapist notions of forgiveness. Still thinking through a lot of the practical implications of this book and I’d like to revisit some of his thoughts, but I’m waiting for my sister to return the book.
Francis Chan, Forgotten God. Evangelicals love God, believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, but largely ignore the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Chan writes a great, straightforward challenge to those of us who easily forget that God is three-in-one, not two.
Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods. I’d likely rate this higher if I hadn’t heard Keller speak much of this book at the Gospel Coalition conference and read so much of his online articles that cover the same stuff. Along with The Reason for God, and The Prodigal God, Keller’s books may be the three that I’ll give out more than any other.
Paul Miller, A Praying Life. Revolutionary. Miller not only is blunt and refreshingly honest about our need for prayer, he offers very practical and highly “do-able” suggestions for the development (or re-development) of a personal prayer life. This book has been an answer to my prayers.
Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. Pastors must be in prayer, must be listening to Scripture, and caring for people. Although written decades ago, Peterson’s book delivered a brutal combo on how I view my role as pastor.