It might be a first, but I managed to keep one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012. In January, I resolved to read 50 books or articles related to my research and writing on C.S. Lewis, and I hit #50 near the end of November. I did other reading: Jane Austen, the Hunger Games Trilogy, Holly Black, Alan Bradley, Christopher Hitchens, 
Richard Dawkins, Frederick Buechner, Shel Silverstein, Anne Lamott, E.L. Konigsberg, Charles Dickens, Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Paulo Coelho, Lois Lowry, a number of Terry Pratchett’s books as well as some indie fiction. The Hobbit should also be on the list, below, but I’ve forgotten it, and some of those may be connected to Lewis. The books I’ve listed below, though, are most central to what I’m working on. I’ve also read about 600 pages of C.S. Lewis’ letters (up to summer 1922) and his journal entries up to the same time period. I’ve read parts of Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms, Studies in Words, and Miracles, but finished none of them this year. Perhaps next year!
If you would like to track some of my thoughts on the reading, I’ve linked the pertinent blogs. I haven’t blogged on everything, and much of what I read on the Ransom books remains un-blogged (dis-blogged? not-yet-blogged?). “CSL” refers to C.S. Lewis, and I’ve kept the titles as short as possible.
What will I do for 2013? The 2012 list was light on essays and articles (about 1/4), and I know I’ll be reading more essays in 2013. I’ve decided to set my goal at 100 books and articles related to Lewis and the Inklings. We’ll see. Perhaps New Year’s Resolutions, with some exceptions, are made to be broken!
| 1 | 01/04 | CSL, A Grief Observed (audiobook & book) |
| 2 | 01/08 | Terry Glaspey, Not a Tame Lion |
| 3 | 01/24 | Antony Flew, There Is a God |
| 4 | 01/24 | John Cleese reads The Screwtape Letters |
| 5 | 01/25 | CSL, The Screwtape Letters |
| 6 | 03/01 | CSL, Voyage of the Dawn Treader |
| 7 | 04/08 | Bauder, Stackhouse, Mohler, Olson, 4 Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism |
| 8 | 05/14 | CSL, The Silver Chair |
| 9 | 05/22 | Joel Heck, Irrigating Deserts: CSL on Education |
| 10 | 06/25 | CSL, Out of the Silent Planet |
| 11 | 07/05 | CSL, On Other Worlds |
| 12 | 07/02 | CSL, The Dark Tower & Other Stories |
| 13 | 07/15 | CSL, The Screwtape Letters (Illustrated) |
| 14 | 07/17 | CSL, The Horse and His Boy |
| 15 | 07/19 | CSL, Perelandra |
| 16 | 07/22 | David Downing, Looking for the King |
| 17 | 07/25 | CSL, That Hideous Strength |
| 18 | 08/08 | H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds |
| 19 | 08/20 | G.K. Chesteron, The Ball & Cross |
| 20 | 08/30 | Planet Narnia podcast by Michael Ward, Holly Ordway, and William O’Flaherty |
| 21 | 09/10 | CSL, The Magician’s Nephew |
| 22 | 09/13 | CSL Phenomenon (not yet released) |
| 23 | 09/27 | Kathryn Lindskoog, CSL Hoax |
| 24 | 10/09 | T.A. Shippey, “Ransom Trilogy” essay in The Cambridge Companion to CSL |
| 25 | 10/10 | Peter Kreeft, Critical Essays |
| 26 | 10/11 | “Politics of Conservative Hope in Out of the Silent Planet” (not yet released) |
| 27 | 10/16 | Mary Neylan, “Friendship w. CSL” in Chesteron Review |
| 28 | 10/17 | Monika B. Hilder, “Foolish Weakness in CSL’s Ransom Trilogy: A Feminine Heroic” |
| 29 | 10/22 | David Downing, Planets in Peril: A Critical Study |
| 30 | 10/23 | CSL, “The Man Born Blind” |
| 31 | 10/23 | Charlie Starr, Light: CSL’s First and Last Short Story |
| 32 | 10/26 | CSL, Surprised by Joy |
| 33 | 11/02 | Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith |
| 34 | 11/05 | Victor Hamm, “Mr. Lewis in Perelandra” (1945) |
| 35 | 11/05 | CSL, The Discarded Image |
| 36 | 11/06 | Wayne Shumaker, “The Cosmic Trilogy of CSL” in Longing for a Form, Peter Schakel, ed. |
| 37 | 11/09 | CSL, The Great Divorce (audiobook & book) |
| 38 | 11/15 | CSL, “Bluspels and Flalansferes” |
| 39 | 11/16 | CSL, “De Descriptione Temporum,” inaugural lecture at Cambridge (1954) |
| 40 | 11/19 | CSL, “The Literary Impact of the Authorized Version” (195) |
| 41 | 11/19 | John Connolly, The Gates (audiobook & book) |
| 42 | 11/19 | CSL, “The Vision of John Bunyan” (1962) |
| 43 | 11/19 | CSL, “Four Letter Words” (1961) |
| 44 | 11/20 | CSL, “A Note on Jane Austen” (1954) |
| 45 | 11/20 | CSL, “High and Low Brows” (1960) |
| 46 | 11/21 | Anne Fremantle, The Age of Faith |
| 47 | 11/24 | Rob Bell, Love Wins |
| 48 | 11/26 | Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle, Erasing Hell |
| 49 | 11/26 | CSL, “Hell,” ch. 8 in The Problem of Pain |
| 50 | 11/26 | Peter Kreeft, “Hell” |
| 51 | 12/06 | CSL, “Psycho-Analysis and Literary Criticism” (1942) |
| 52 | 12/13 | CSL, “The Longaevi,” in Discarded Image |
| 53 | 12/14 | CSL, “The Anthropological Approach” (1962) |
| 54 | 12/14 | Loomis, “Literary History and Literary Criticism: A Critique of C. S. Lewis” (1965) |
| 55 | 12/16 | Stephen King, On Writing |
| 56 | 12/17 | George MacDonald, Phantastes |
| 57 | 12/19 | CSL, The Last Battle |
| 58 | 12/20 | Mervyn Nicholson, C.R. Maturin & C.S. Lewis in Notes & Queries (2011) |
Bravo. And if you can retain as little as 5% of what you’ve read, you are a brilliant man, indeed.
Ah, 5%–that would be a treat. I have a good memory, but some kinds of reading has a slower effect: like how age yellows the pages of a book, so the books dye my imagination and intellect over time.
A great bibliography! Jerry and I will pick through it for anything we haven’t read yet. (We didn’t do the bulk of our reading in one year but we did focus heavily on CSL and other Inklings the year before and after attending Oxbridge–two weeks of lectures, discussions, dinners, country dances, BagEnds and poking around Oxford and Cambridge put on by the C.S. Lewis Foundation of Redlands, CA every third year).
Ah, yes, I`m tempted to 2014. There are a few programmes in 2013, but I`ll miss most of them I think. Perhaps 2014 tho!
I hope you’re on their list for mailings inviting papers for upcoming conferences: cslewis.org.
I just did!
I don’t know how else to let you and your readers know about this upcoming event:
The C.S. Lewis Foundation cordially invites you
to join us for our Twelfth Night potluck dinner and reception
Hosted by Donald Nydam
1632 Garden Street, Redlands, California
Saturday, January 19, 2013
at 5:30 p.m.
Join us in commemorating the 50th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s departure for Aslan’s country!
We’ll be featuring the talents of violinist Frances Moore, pianist/harpsichordist Angela Brand, and soloist Darlene Ross.
Professor Moore teaches violin at the University of California Riverside and Loyola Marymount University. She has played extensively in the Los Angeles Opera, the LA Mozart Opera, and in numerous film scores.
Dr. Brand teaches at California Baptist University and performs regularly in southern California as a harpsichordist, pianist, and conductor.
Darlene Ross is a speech pathologist at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. She is a graduate of Loma Linda University and sang as part of the Loma Linda University Church Sanctuary Choir.
In addition to the fellowship and music, we will offer a report on the Foundation’s accomplishments in 2012 and the promise and challenges of 2013.
Enjoy the company of friends, old and new!
We hope to see you there!
R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, January 18th
by emailing selmore@cslewis.org or by replying directly to this message.
Well done. Do you have a link to post on the facebook page for this site?
Pingback: But I am reading… | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: 2013: A Year of Reading | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: 2013 End of Year Book Survey | A Pilgrim in Narnia
Pingback: “2013: A Year of Reading” – Pthfthfpt! | hiddeninjesus