Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Last year's reading

I'm often asked what I'm reading. A few years back I began keeping a list of the books I read. Here is 2007's list. Some are new, some are old.

The Hope by Herman Wouk
The Last Jihad by Joel Rosenberg
Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybles
Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell
The Last Days by Joel Rosenberg
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
The Copper Scroll by Joel Rosenberg
The Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg
Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg
Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren
Night by Elie Wiesel
Be a People Person by John Maxwell
A Theological Miscellany by T.J. McTavish
Visioneering by Andy Stanley
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
The Fight for Jerusalem by Dore Gold
Point Man by Steve Farrar
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
The Externally Focused church by Rick Rusaw
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Breakout Churches by Thom Rainer
Clearing the Bases by Mike Schmidt
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Reveal: Where Are You? by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson
Made to Stick by Chip heath and Dan Heath
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
A Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson

I try to read a variety of books. Looking over the 31 titles that make up the list, I find 7 works of fiction and 24 non-fiction. Three are biographies. Eleven are either personal spiritual formation texts or somehow related to helping me "do church better." In 2007 I devoted a considerable amount of reading to books with a Middle Eastern theme. The best of these, by far, was Friedman's book, From Beirut to Jerusalem.

Without question, the best book I read in 2007 was Atkinson's follow-up to his Pulitzer winning book, An Army at Dawn (a 2006 read). His latest installment in the Liberation Trilogy has me panting for the final volume in that series. What a massive and fulfilling read.

What did you read in 2007? What are you looking forward to reading in 2008?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man you read a lot of books. I only read 2 in 2007....and that's 2more than usual.

I read Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Revisited and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Bruce
Kokomo, IN

Soren said...

Books read in 2007
360 Degree Leadership by Michael Quicke
360 Degree Preaching by Michael Quicke
the Big Idea by Dave Ferguson
Building Leaders by Aubrey Malphurs
Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel
Culture Shift by Wayne Cordeiro
the Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
Free Refill by Carson Pue
Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
Making Sense of Church by Spencer Burke
No More Christian Nice Guy by Paul Coughlin
Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll
Simple Church by Thom Ranier
Six Battles Every Man Must Win by Bill Perkins
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Soren said...

On the list for 2008
Jim & Casper Go to CHurch
UNchristian
The Way of the Wild at Heart
Eat This Book
The Jesus Way

Soren said...

I noticed that you left "Your Best Life Now" off your last. Come on Frank! Your secret is safe with us.

Frank Weller said...

On my list for 2008:

The Jesus Way by Peterson
Making Room for Life by Frazee
They Smell Like Sheep by Anderson
Several miscellaneous history titles
Your Best Mullet Now by Noel Roasteen
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