2014: A Year of Reading

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

I love booksI seldom do well at New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve failed at almost every well-intentioned goal.  One that I have managed to keep is my reading resolution. As I’ve begun working on a PhD in Theology and Literature (focussing on C.S. Lewis’ fictional world-building), I knew that I would have to increase my reading level. A couple of years ago I began recording my reading to keep me motivated. I don’t count individual poems, most short stories, editorials, blogs, or one-off documentaries. I also don’t count essays that I read quickly or books that I scan.

In 2012 and 2013 I met and exceeded my goals (50 and 100 books/essays respectively). I set a goal for 2014 of 150 books, essays, or lecture series. Because of a strong first half of the year, I hit that goal on June 30th!

Actually, I hit 225 in total. It was a cool year, with rich reading from beginning to end.

In the world of fiction, I finished Roger Zelazny’s brilliant 10-part Amber series and Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. I re-read Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry with new depth of meaning, and slipped in some Stephen King. I’m slowly working my way through Terry Pratchett (Discworld) and C.S. Lewis chronologically. I’m in 1945 for Lewis and 1991 for Pratchett. Another thread that links the novels is “epistolary fiction”–books that are written in diary and letter form.

Essayist Bookshelf 2013In my nonfiction reading, I am exploring some intriguing Christian thinkers–Barth, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Hauerwas–and some writers who write about writers and writing. I’ve read dozens of Lewis essays and a few writers whose work sits on the edge between fiction and nonfiction, like the philosophical stories of George Orwell and Ayn Rand, or a memoir like Frank McCourt’s. I was also reading for three papers I worked on through the year. I read a few duds, but I was constantly amazed in my nonfiction how relevant the great essayist are, even now, years later.

What of 2015? I am working full time for much of 2015, so I don’t know what I can achieve. Last year I wanted to do one iTunesU class a month, but I only got through 3. I think 5 is a good goal. Last year I read 108 books and would love to reach 100 again. I am ambitiously setting my goal for 200 books, essays, and classes, with some considerable doubt that it is possible. I like lofty goals: I’d rather fail later–by not reaching them–than fail now by giving up!

“CSL” below means “C.S. Lewis.” I’ve linked some of the blogs that connect with the things I’ve read. I hope you enjoy, and if you have your own year-end list or best-of blog, make sure you list it!

1 01/01 Roger Zelazny, Sign of the Unicorn (1975)
2 01/01 Stephen King, ‘Salem’s Lot (1975)
3 01/02 Roger Zelazny, The Hand of Oberon (1976)
4 01/03 Roger Zelazny, The Courts of Chaos (1978)
5 01/04 Madeleine L’Engle, An Acceptable Time (1989)
6 01/06 Roger Zelazny, Trumps of Doom (1985)
7 01/06 CSL, review of Esdaile, Sources of English Lit (1929)
8 01/06 CSL, review of Garrod, Collins (1929)
9 01/06 Stanley Hauerwas, “Vision, Stories, and Character “ (1973)
10 01/07 Stanley Hauerwas, “Reforming Christian Social Ethics: Ten Theses” (1981)
11 01/07 Stanley Hauerwas, “A Story-Formed Community: Reflections on Watership Down” (1981)
12 01/07 CSL, “Tasso” (1940s)
13 01/07 Roger Zelazny, Blood of Amber (1986)
14 01/09 Roger Zelazny, Sign of Chaos (1987)
15 01/10 CSL, “Dangers of National Repentance” (1940), plus 3 letters to the editor in response
16 01/10 Saving Jesus REDUX (2013, 12-part DVD series)
17 01/12 Roger Zelazny, Knight of Shadows (1989)
18 01/13 Stanley Hauerwas, “Character, Narrative, and Growth in the Christian Life” (1980)
19 01/13 CSL, reviews of de Rougemont and Chaveasse (1940)
20 01/15 CSL, “Two Ways of Self” (1940), and other contemporary thoughts and letters in The Guardian
21 01/15 CSL, “The Necessity of Chivalry” (1940)
22 01/15 Beowulf (8th-11th c.)
23 01/16 CSL, “Christianity and Culture” (1940)
24 01/16 Roger Zelazny, Prince of Chaos (1991)
25 01/17 CSL, “Why I Am Not a Pacifist” (1940)
26 01/18 CSL, The Screwtape Letters (1940-41), read by John Cleese, including “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”
27 01/20 CSL, “Meditation on the 3rd Commandment” (1941)
28 01/20 CSL, Review of L.P. Smith, Milton (1940) and letter
29 01/20 CSL, “On Stories” (1940-1947)
30 01/21 CSL, Review essay on Christian Poetry responding to Lord David Cecil’s Oxford Book of Christian Verse (1941)
31 01/27 CSL, “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said” (1956)
32 01/28 CSL, “Image and Imagination” (1931?)
33 01/28 CSL, Review of Ruth Mohl, Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Lit (1934)
34 01/28 CSL, Review of E.K. Chambers, Collected Essays (1934)
35 01/29 CSL, Review of T.R. Henn, “Longinus” (1934)
36 01/29 CSL, “The Sagas and Modern Life” (1937)
37 01/29 CSL, Reviews of The Hobbit in The Times and TLS (1937)
38 01/30 CSL, Review of Leone Ebreo’s, The Philosophy of Love (1938)
39 01/30 CSL, Review of H.M. Barrett, Boethius (1941)
40 01/30 CSL, “Evil and God” (1941)
41 01/30 CSL, “Bulverism” (1941; 1944)
42 02/01 Stephen King, The Shining (1977)
43 02/03 CSL, “The Weight of Glory” (1941), + reread Preface
44 02/03 CSL, “Religion: Reality or Substitute” (1941)
45 02/04 CSL, “On Reading The Fairie Queen” (1941)
46 02/04 CSL, Review of Dorothy Sayers, Mind of the Maker (1941)
47 02/09 Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
48 02/13 CSL, “Shelley, Dryden, and Mr. Elliot” (1938) + preface to Rehabilitations
49 02/14 CSL, Broadcast Talks (1942)
50 02/15 Gary Dorian, Remaking of Evangelical Theology (1998)
51 02/16 CSL, The Screwtape Letters (1940-41)
52 02/17 Justin Phillips, C.S. Lewis at the BBC (2002)
53 02/17 Madeleine L’Engle, Penguins and Golden Calves (2000)
54 02/18 CSL, “Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem” (1942)
55 02/18 CSL, “First and Second Things” (1942)
56 02/21 CSL, “On Ethics” (1942?)
57 02/24 Ralph C. Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien (2003)
58 02/24 G.K. Chesterton, Manalive (1912)
59 02/24 CSL, Christian Behaviour (1943)
60 02/26 CSL, “Miracles” (1942)
61 02/27 CSL, The Abolition of Man (1943)
62 02/28 CSL, “De Futilitatae” (1943)
63 02/28 Dorothy L. Sayers, The Man Born to Be King (1942-43)
64 03/03 CSL, Review of “Andreas Capellanus” by J.J. Parry (1943)
65 03/03 CSL, “Dogma and the Universe” (1943)
66 03/03 CSL, “Three Kinds of Men” (1943)
67 03/04 John G. Stackhouse, Jr., Making the Best of It (2008)
68 03/04 CSL, “The Poison of Subjectivism” (1943)
69 03/04 CSL, “Equality” (1943)
70 03/04 CSL, “My First School” (1943)
71 03/04 CSL, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (1949), Focus on the Family broadcast
72 03/12 CSL, That Hideous Strength (1943-44)
73 03/13 CSL, Beyond Personality (1943-44)
74 03/13 Reinhold Neihbuhr, The Irony of American History (1952)
75 03/14 CSL, Review of “J. W. H. Atkins, English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase” (1944)
76 03/14 CSL, “Is English Doomed?” (1944)
77 03/14 CSL, “Mr. C.S. Lewis on Christianity” (1944)
78 03/14 CSL, “Christian Reunion” (1944)
79 03/14 CSL, “On the Reading of Old Books” (1944)
80 03/15 Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears (1991)
81 03/18 Edwin W. Brown, In Pursuit of C.S. Lewis: Adventures in Collecting his Works (2006)
82 03/19 John Wyndham, The Chrysalids (1955)
83 03/24 CSL, “The Parthenon and the Optative” (1944)
84 03/24 CSL, “Answers to Questions on Christianity” (1944)
85 03/24 Michael Lambek, “Provincializing God? Provocations from an Anthropology of Religion” (2005)
86 03/24 CSL, Miracles (1943-7)
87 03/24 CSL, “Democratic Education” (1944)
88 03/24 Andrew Lazo, “‘Early Prose Joy’: A Brief Introduction (2013)
89 03/25 CSL, Early Prose Joy (1930)
90 03/26 Andrew Lazo, “Correcting the Chronology: Some Implications of ‘Early Prose Joy’” (2012)
91 03/26 Bruce R. Johnson, “CSL and the BBC Brains’ Trust: A Study in Resilience” (2013)
92 03/26 CSL, “Transposition” (1944)
93 03/29 Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
94 04/01 CSL, The Great Divorce (1944-45)
95 04/03 E.R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros (1922)
96 04/04 CSL, “The Man Born Blind” as “Light,” unknown date
97 04/04 Reinhold Niebuhr, Children of Light, Children of Darkness (1944, 1960)
98 04/07 CSL, “A Dream” (1944)
99 04/07 CSL, “Myth Became Fact” (1944)
100 04/07 CSL, “Blimpophobia” (1944)
101 04/07 CSL, “The Death of Words” (1944)
102 04/07 CSL, “Horrid Red Things” (1944)
103 04/07 CSL, “Is Theology Poetry?” (1944)
104 04/09 CSL, “Private Bates” (1944)
105 04/09 CSL, “The Inner Ring” (1944)
106 04/11 Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia (1977)
107 04/16 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1937)
108 04/17 CSL, “Religion and Science” (1945)
109 04/17 CSL, “Membership” (1945)
110 04/17 CSL, “Two Lectures” (1945)
112 04/17 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957)
113 04/20 Charles Williams, “Chapel of the Thorn” (1912)
114 04/22 CSL, The Great Divorce (1944-45)
115 04/22 CSL, “The Grand Miracle” (1945)
116 04/22 CSL, Review “Who gaf me drink?: Owen Barfield, Romanticism Comes of Age” (1945)
117 05/01 Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor (1994)
118 05/01 J.R.R. Tolkien, fragment, “The Fall of Arthur” (1934?)
119 05/06 George MacDonald, Lilith (1895)
120 05/13 David C. Downing & Bruce R. Johnson, “C.S. Lewis’s Unfinished ‘Easley Fragment and his Unfinished Journey” (1927; 2011)
121 05/13 Paul Tillich, Against the Third Reich: Paul Tillich’s Wartime Radio Broadcasts into Nazi Germany (1942-44; 1998)
122 05/15 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur (1934?, 2013)
123 05/19 J. Aleskandr Wootton, The Eighth Square (2013)
124 05/20 David Mark Purdy, “Red Tights and Red Tape: Satirical Misreadings of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters” (2013)
125 05/22 Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur: Volume 1 (1485)
126 05/26 CSL, “Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945): an obituary” (1945)
127 05/26 CSL, “The Laws of Nature” (1945)
128 05/26 CSL, “Christian Apologetics” (1945)
129 05/26 CSL, “The Funeral of a Great Myth” (1945?)
130 06/08 Morley Callaghan, That Summer in Paris (1963)
131 06/09 Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology (1963)
132 06/13 David Downing, Into the Region of Awe: Mysticism of C.S. Lewis (2005)
133 06/17 Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur: Volume 2 (1485)
134 06/19 Margaret Hannay, “The Mythology of Out of the Silent Planet” (1994)
135 06/22 CSL, Of This and Other Worlds (1982)
136 06/22 CSL, Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
137 06/22 David Platt, Radical (2010)
138 06/23 Walter Hooper, “Inspiration and Invention,” ch. 5 in Past Watchful Dragons (1971)
139 06/25 Verlyn Flieger, “The Sound of Silence: Language and Experience in Out of the Silent Planet” (1991)
140 06/25 Gregory Wolfe, “Essential Speech: Language and Myth in the Ransom Trilogy” (1991)
141 06/25 Stephen Metcalf, “Language and Self-Consciousness: The Making and Breaking of C.S. Lewis’ Personae” (1981)
142 06/25 Donald Glover, “Bent Language in Perelandra: The Storyteller’s Temptation” (1991)
143 06/25 Joe Christopher, “Tolkien: Narnian Exile” (1988)
144 06/25 Thomas L. Martin, “Merlin, Magic, and the Meta-fantastic: The Matter of That Hideous Strength”   (2011)
145 06/25 Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (2008)
146 06/26 Jared Lobdell, “CSL’s Ransom Stories and their 18th century Ancestry” (1991)
147 06/26 Arthur Ransome, Swallows & Amazons (1930)
148 06/28 CSL, The Dark Tower (c. 1938-39), with Hooper Intro
149 06/30 Margaret Hannay, “Arthurian and Cosmic Vision in That Hideous Strength “ (1969)
150 06/30 CSL, The Screwtape Letters (1940-41), read by John Cleese
151 06/30 Charles Ross, “Arthuriana and the Limits of C.S. Lewis’ Ariosto Marginalia,” Arthuriana 21.2 (2011)
152 06/30 Jonathan B. Himes, “Matter of Time: CSL’s Dark Tower MS & Composition Process,” (2011)
153 06/30 Jeffrey R. Thompson and John Rasp, “Did C. S. Lewis write The Dark Tower?: An Examination of the Small-Sample Properties of the Thisted-Efron Tests of Authorship” (2009)
154 07/01 CSL, Perelandra (1943)
155 07/03 Harry Lee Poe, “Shedding Light on The Dark Tower” (2007)
156 07/03 A.Q. Morton, “Once. A Test of Authorship Based on Words which are not Repeated in the Sample” (1986)
157 07/06 CSL, That Hideous Strength (1943-44)
158 07/08 Roland Barthes “The Death of the Author” (1968)
159 07/09 Irwin, “Against Intertextuality”
160 07/09 H.G. Wells, First Men in the Moon (1901)
161 07/10 Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1787)
162 07/13 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
163 07/17 Matthew Dickerson, The Rood and the Torc (2014)
164 07/18 Terry Pratchett, Sourcery (1988)
165 07/21 Graham Allen, Intertextuality (2000)
166 07/25 Gene Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer (1980)
167 07/28 Joe Christopher, “C.S. Lewis’s Lost Arthurian Poem: A Conjectural Essay” (2012)
168 07/29 Jared Lobdell, The Scientification Novels of C.S. Lewis: Space and Time in the Ransom Stories (2004)
169 07/31 Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (1996)
170 07/31 Charles Williams, Taliessin Through Logres (1938)
171 07/31 Charles Williams, The Region of the Summer Stars (1944)
172 08/01 CSL & Charles Williams, Arthurian Torso (1944-45)
173 08/05 Gene Wolfe, Claw of the Conciliator (1981)
174 08/15 Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters (1988)
175 08/16 Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008)
176 08/18 Anca Ştefan, “Notes on Contemporary Transformations of the Epistolary Fiction” (2010)
177 08/19 Roald Dahl, Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
178 08/20 Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor (1982)
179 08/21 CSL, Letters to Malcolm (1963)
180 08/27 Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)
181 08/27 Norman R. Petersen, Rediscovering Paul: Philemon and the Sociology of Paul’s Narrative Worlds (1985)
182 09/04 Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)
183 09/06 Catherine Brown, “Literature and Form”
184 09/10 Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things (2006)
185 09/11 CSL, The Screwtape Letters (1940-41)
186 09/17 Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)
187 09/22 Margaret J.C. Reid, The Arthurian Legend: Comparison of Treatment in Modern and Mediæval Literature (1938).
188 09/23 Caitlín Matthews, “The Voices of the Wells: Celtic Oral Themes in Grail Literature”
189 09/23 John Matthews, “Charles Williams and the Grail” (2002)
190 09/23 “After The Waste Land” in Beverly Taylor & Elisabeth Brewer, The Return of King Arthur: British and American Arthurian Literature Since 1800 (1983)
191 09/29 CSL, manuscript of “The Dark Tower” (1938)
192 09/30 CSL, manuscript of A Grief Observed (1961)
193 10/10 Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun (1987)
194 10/17 Guy Gavriel Kay, The Summer Tree (1984)
195 10/19 Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards! (1989)
196 10/20 Uwe-Karsten Plisch, “Introduction” to The Gospel of Thomas: Original Text With Commentary (2008)
197 10/27 CSL, “The Funeral of a Great Myth” (1945?)
198 10/27 Jerry Bergman, “C.S. Lewis: Creationist and Anti-evolutionist” (2008)
199 10/29 Eugene Peterson, “Soulcraft” Regent Class
200 10/29 Guy Gavriel Kay, The Wandering Fire (1986)
201 10/31 Diane Purkiss, “A Holocaust of One’s Own: The Myth of Burning Times” in The Witch in History (1996)
202 11/11 Don W. King, “C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Quest of Bleheris’ as Poetic Prose” (2013)
203 11/11 CSL, The Great Divorce (1944-45)
204 11/13 Roger Lancelyn Green, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table (1953)
205 11/14 Guy Gavriel Kay, The Darkest Road (1986)
206 11/16 John Crowley, Little, Big (1981)
207 11/18 Diana P. Glyer, The Company They Keep (2008)
208 11/18 Richard B. Hays, “The Puzzle of Pauline Hermeneutics,” ch. 1 in Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (1989)
209 11/19 Gérard Genette, “Structuralism and Literary Criticism” (1964)
210 11/19 Terry Pratchett, Eric (1990)
211 11/22 J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo (1975)
212 11/26 George MacDonald, Phatastes (1858)
213 11/27 CSL, “The Anthropological Approach” (1962)
214 12/01 CSL, “The Genesis of a Medieval Book” (1963)
215 12/02 CSL, “The Morte Darthur” (1947)
216 12/03 Eugene Peterson, “Jesus and Prayer” Regent Class
217 12/06 David Downing, “C. S. Lewis Among the Postmodernists” (1998)
218 12/09 Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures (1990)
219 12/11 Bruce Johnson, “Enchanting Luna and Militant Mars: The Shorter Planetary Fiction of C.S. Lewis” (2010)
220 12/14 Stephen King, Carrie (1974)
221 12/16 Madeleine L’Engle, Stone for a Pillow (2000)
222 12/18 CSL, “Edmund Spenser, 1522-99” (1954)
223 12/19 CSL, That Hideous Strength (1943-44)
224 12/22 Jeremy Dodds, trans., The Poetic Edda (13th c.; 2014)
225 12/27 Kath Filmer. “That Hideous 1984: The Influence of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength on Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1985)
226 12/28 George Orwell, 1984 (1948)

About Brenton Dickieson

“A Pilgrim in Narnia” is a blog project in reading and talking about the work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Inklings, L.M. Montgomery, and the worlds they created. As a "Faith, Fantasy, and Fiction" blog, we cover topics like children’s literature, myths and mythology, fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, poetry, theology, cultural criticism, art and writing. This blog includes my thoughts as I read through my favourite writings and reflect on my own life and culture. In this sense, I am a Pilgrim in Narnia--or Middle Earth, or Fairyland, or Avonlea. I am often peeking inside of wardrobes, looking for magic bricks in urban alleys, or rooting through yard sale boxes for old rings. If something here captures your imagination, leave a comment, “like” a post, share with your friends, or sign up to receive Narnian Pilgrim posts in your email box. Brenton Dickieson (PhD, Chester) is a father, husband, friend, university lecturer, and freelance writer from Prince Edward Island, Canada. You can follow him: www.aPilgrimInNarnia.com Twitter (X) @BrentonDana Instagram @bdickieson Facebook @aPilgrimInNarnia
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20 Responses to 2014: A Year of Reading

  1. mallorb says:
    December 29, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    Nice. . .I like how Jack Kerouac made an appearance amongst all the scholarly stuff; shows his lasting power.

    Reply
  2. robstroud says:
    December 29, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    That’s a lotta GREAT reading. Too much for a mere human being to absorb. You must be superhuman! Looking forward to the 2015 edition of A Pilgrim in Narnia.

    Reply
  3. Don Johnson says:
    December 29, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    Besides being dated, Barth and Tillich are non-orthodox existentialist, and I am not sure they’re worth reading today.

    Reply
    • Brenton Dickieson says:
      December 30, 2014 at 9:50 am

      Well, it’s their datedness that drew me to them. The fact that I can find them in Used Bookstores even though they are from another era is what made me suspect they were worth reading.
      Barth is not an existentialist, unless there is such thing as a Christological existentialist. I don’t understand all his work, but his reminder of the Christ-centred nature of God’s engagement with humanity (the Word), and our inability as human cultures to bridge the distance between humanity and God (sin)–these are key. And his long passages of exegesis of Scripture are helpful.
      I like his sermons best, until I read “Evangelical Theology.” Wow, what a book. It is easy to read, and I think every pastor should read it before he or she stands behind a pulpit or beside a hospital bed.
      Tillich is less orthodox, and is an existentialist. I hope one day to see what he is saying, but “Courage to Be” is a tremendous book. And his radio messages to suck the Germans into betraying Hitler–awesome!
      Of course, I’m an existentialist, so I might have sympathies here.
      No, I think both are worth reading. I’ve read Bultmann too, and found less value. But not none. I’ve read the liberals–F.C. Baur and Schleiermacher and the boyz. In all that I’ve grown.

      Reply
  4. Wayne Stauffer says:
    December 29, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    i would like to find a collection of csl’s literary scholarship (journal publications and such). i have several of his better-known apologetic collectons, but i’m interested in his literary analyses.

    wayno Sent from my iPad

    Reply
    • Brenton Dickieson says:
      December 30, 2014 at 9:44 am

      Wayne, if you type “C.S. Lewis Bibliography” into google, you’ll find that resource. Joel Heck and CSLewis.com both have good biblios.
      Roughly (dates are rough):
      1. The Allegory of Love, 1935.
      2. Rehabilitations, 1939 (Out of Print)
      3. Preface to Paradise Lost, 1941.
      4. The Discarded Image, developed from lectures.
      5. English Lit in the 16th century, 1954
      6. The 4 Loves, mid-late 1950s
      7. Reflection on the Psalms, 1958
      8. Studies in Words, 1960
      9. Experiment in Criticism, 1961
      10. Selected Literary Essays, 1930s-1960s
      11. Image and Imagination, 1920s-1960s

      Reply
  5. Michelle Joelle says:
    December 29, 2014 at 11:18 pm

    Fantastic! I’ve just started keeping track of my reading, and I aspire to your greatness. I wish I could read as quickly! I get caught up in note-taking, which turns into writing, and slows me down.

    Reply
    • Brenton Dickieson says:
      December 30, 2014 at 9:36 am

      I’m struggling with the different kinds of reading. I’ve increased my reading speed, but I either take way to many notes (like 20-30 pages) or too few. It helps if I know what I’m reading toward.
      C.S. Lewis used to read a book, then write an essay. He put it in a drawer for a year and a day, then graded it. If it was less than an “A”, he rewrote the essay. That’s how he wrote “16th Century”, his longest book, which took 15 years. Maybe I should do that!

      Reply
  6. bryanajoy says:
    December 31, 2014 at 12:53 am

    Some great stuff here! Good work! 🙂

    I’ve read less than year than maybe any year since elementary school, due to big life changes, but your list reminds me that I really need to make another post reviewing the books I DID read so I won’t forget about them. I think some of my favorites were by Bonhoeffer and CSL – and a biography of Oswald Chambers which was really exceptional.

    Hope your holidays have been joyous!

    Reply
    • Brenton Dickieson says:
      December 31, 2014 at 8:20 am

      I haven’t blogged everything, or most things. I’m not sure everything is interesting to other people! Who knows?
      Some things I didn’t know what to say. And sometimes I feel silly reviewing a 30 year old book that everyone has either read or ignored.
      So I just follow my nose!

      Reply
  7. Bill says:
    January 2, 2015 at 8:32 am

    I enjoyed this list so much last year that I kept track of my reading this year and will publish my own list once I have it typed up. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  8. jubilare says:
    January 6, 2015 at 11:17 am

    “Actually, I hit 225 in total. It was a cool year, with rich reading from beginning to end.” Wow…. I only dream of every managing 100 in a year.

    Reply

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