2011: A Year in Books

This last year, I did a lot of reading, and a lot of reviewing. To give you an idea of the pool I’m drawing from for my top 11 books of 2011, here’s the rundown.

Books I Read and Reviewed:

1. Histories and Fallacies
2. The Gospel and The Mind
3. Meaning at the Movies
4. Rediscovering the Church Fathers
5. The Greener Grass Conspiracy
6. Redeeming Sociology
7. Am I Really A Christian?
8. Practicing Affirmation
9. The Beginning and End of Wisdom
10. Jesus + Nothing = Everything
11. Lit! (part 2, part 3)
12. Why O God? Suffering and Disability in the Bible and the Church
13. The Doctrine of the Word of God
14. Right Reason and The Princeton Mind
15. Union With Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology
16. The Next Story
17. The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology For Pilgrims on the Way
18. The King Jesus Gospel
19. Introducing Covenant Theology (also called God of Promise)
20. Jesus, Paul and the People of God
21. Marriage Matters
22. When Will My Life Not Suck?
23. “We’re Just Friends” and Other Dating Lies
24. What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care?
25. Branded
26. Playing Hurt
27. From the Garden to the City
28. The World-Tilting Gospel
29. Paradox in Theology
30. Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith
31. Redemption: Freed by Jesus From the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry
32. Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing For Victims of Sexual Assault
33. Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself
34. Disciple: Getting Your Identity From Jesus
35. Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support
36. Now My Eyes Have Seen You
37. Dominion and Dynasty
38. Christianity and Literature
39. Business For the Common Good
40. Union With Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church
41. Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament

Books I’ve Read and am Due to Review:

Books I Read for Class:

1. What the Best College Teachers Do
2. Renewing Minds
3. Mark As Story
4. Telling Stories to Touch the Heart
5. Arminian Theology
6. What Saint Paul Really Said
7. Paul: In Fresh Perspective
8. Justification
9. The Saving Righteousness of God

Books I Read for My Thesis:

1. The Calvinist Concept of Culture
2. Calvin
3. Living in God’s Two Kingdoms
4. Hollywood Worldviews
5. The Message Behind the Movie
6. Into the Dark
7. The Moral Premise
8. Reel Spirituality

Books I Read for Fun:

1. All 7 Harry Potter books
2. The Chronicles of Narnia
3. Reclaiming Adoption
4. Cruciform: Living the Cross Shaped Life
5. But God..The Two Words at the Heart of The Gospel
6. Smooth Stones: Bringing Down the Giant Question of Apologetics
7. Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual For Mortifying Sin
8. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
9. Outliers: The Story of Success
10. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
11. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
12. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
13. Eating the DinosaurSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
14. Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
15. Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota
16. A Walk in The Woods
17. In a Sunburned Country
18. A Short History of Nearly Everything
19. Wayfaring
20. The Writer’s Life
21. Simply Christian
22. Surprised by Hope
23. After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters
24. The Gospel Commission
25. The Compound Effect
26. Arrested Development and Philosophy
27. God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
28. Science and It’s Limits: The Natural Sciences in Christian Perspective
29. God and Stephen Hawking
30. 7 Days That Divide the World
31. The Cross From a Distance
32. Original Sin
33. Christ, Our Righteousness
34. Sealed With An Oath
35. How To Write a Sentence and How to Read One
36. On Writing Well
37. Stuff Christians Like
38. Bossypants (thanks to Audible)
39. Steve Jobs (thanks to Audible)

Books I Dabbled In, Enjoyed, But Didn’t Read Cover to Cover (Yet):

1. Reformed Theology and Visual Culture
2. Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin
3. Reframing Theology and Film
4. A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes
5. Calvin and Culture
6. The Liberated Imagination
7. Story
8. Berkhof’s Systematic Theology
9. The New Testament and The People of God
10. The Doctrine of God
11. Trinitarian Spirituality
12. God With Us: Divine Condescension and the Attributes of God

Now, I know what you’re thinking, but this list isn’t exhaustive. But it does give both you and me a good picture of my reading patterns for this last year. Tomorrow, or probably the next day, I’ll highlight what were my personal favorites from this past year and sometime next week I’ll point you to what I’m looking forward to reading in 2012.

Most likely though, next year’s list won’t be quite this expansive. I doubt I can keep up a pace like this indefinitely. But we’ll see…