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:
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The house elves at Goodreads have produced a little infographic to capture my year in book reading. I love data, and I love when clever people create clever algorithms to capture trends in visual form. I’ll post my full, super nerdy reading post in a few days, but just looking at the data highlights some trends for me.
So if all these books if you were to pick a ³must read² which book or two would you pick I don¹t see myself reading 177 books. Funny I posted a chart of kms ridden and you post a chart of books read.
Reminds me of a Tony Campolo story where he explains why Jewish people are so smart. Being Italian, his mom would shout as he left for school, ³Tony, don¹t forgetta your lunch!² The Jewish moms would shout, ³Fivel, don¹t forget your books!²
Splains a lot! 🙂 David
From: A Pilgrim in Narnia Reply-To: A Pilgrim in Narnia Date: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 6:53 AM To: David Hockley Subject: [New post] 2017: My Year in Books: The Infographic
WordPress.com Brenton Dickieson posted: “The house elves at Goodreads have produced a little infographic to capture my year in book reading. I love data, and I love when clever people create clever algorithms to capture trends in visual form. I¹ll post my full, super nerdy reading post in a few “
Hi David! A few funny format issues in your comment. Interesting.
The must-read? My answer is always C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce,” but this year I would say F. Dostoevsky’s “The Brother’s Karamazov.” Or Winnie-the-Pooh.
Fantastic! Good for you on exceeding your goal. So many good books in your pile! I have never read The Brothers Karamazov, but it is on my list of hopefuls. But have you ever read The Brothers K by David James Duncan? I’ve heard that is very good as well, basically a modern re-telling of the Dostoevsky book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19534.The_Brothers_K
I haven’t heard of that! I’m not terribly big on realistic fiction, but I’m pleased someone gave it a go.
Honestly, Dostoevsky intrigues me. If I knew Russian, I would have done my graduate work in FD.
I have another summary coming. The main goal I missed was actually slowing down on the number of books and reading beefier things (i.e., doing more of my school work and less audio reading and bedtime reading). Here’s to 2018!
The Brothers K by David James Duncan is good. I highly recommend it. And his The River Why too.
I’ve heard that was well received.
4.2 average is REALLY nice. I’m always jealous when other people get such high averages. Makes me wonder what I’m doing wrong or if my internal “pick a book’ometer is broken 🙂
I’m too kind! Well, partly. I should make 5* the perfect or exceptional book, but it is just any book I love. My whole system is bent.
However, I don’t read 1 or 2 star books, so that bends it up.
Looks looks like your year started with a whimper and ended with a bang. I think The Stand only won longest book because of the type face. The Silmarillion probably is the longer book. Cool list; thanks for sharing.
I’ll have to crunch the monthly numbers soon, but I wondered about your comment. Actually, The Stand is huge. 1000 pages is not really how big it is, because it comes in at 475,000 words, and so should be more like 1400 pages. The Silmarillion in my edition is only 130,000 words (but a bit tougher to read!).
Ah! Okay. That makes sense. Maybe I overinflated The Silmarillion because of the kinds of words 😉
Masterful list and great infographic! Well done and thanks for so many great recommendations for my 2018 reading list.
Thanks for the nice note! I hope your 2018 is rich in books.
I hope so, too, and you’ve given me lots to work with. Here are some that I read last year (includes a shout-out to your great Screwtape Letters blog series!): https://priestwife.com/2018/01/01/6-christianish-books-for-your-2018-reading-list/
Oh, great! Thanks for the shout out. I still have to read Godot sometime.
Fantastic reading. You have a new follower.
Great!
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