(As a side-note right away: Reader, please feel free to skip this post if it sounds boastful at any point. Personal posts like this on my blog are mainly for myself, for my records and to remember the year of reading. And if it helps anyone with book advice and choice, then praise God. But please free to skip this post if it appears to you as self-exaltation.)
I set out this year to read less and write more. Since 2017, by God’s grace I have developed a habit of reading I never thought I’d have—finishing a hundred books in 2017 and fifty last year. So this year, I wanted to develop a similar habit for writing, with the goal of decreasing reading while increasing writing.
My Backstory of Reading and Writing This Year
And the year began this way: I read only two books in January and two books in February, setting me on a trajectory to read twenty-four books. And through this time I was writing more and enjoying it. So far, so good. But, as my wife can testify, I began realizing I was bored and restless many evenings. I was writing a lot, but in my free time during the evenings, I often didn’t want to write. Moreover, I also hadn’t enjoyed my typical reading in my morning routine (I like to read a chapter of a book before my Bible reading to wake me up). So long story short, as the year continued on, I started reading more again.
Looking back, I now see what happened and why. I had planned to read less in 2019 because I wanted to write more, but I soon realized that this isn’t how I work—for two reasons. First, I simply missed reading and learning; and writing doesn’t scratch the same itch as reading. But second, I now realize my aspiration was based on a false dichotomy between reading and writing. Here’s what I mean: I originally pit reading and writing against each other, assuming one would take the time and energy away from the other. But I soon learned that reading and writing take different energies (and often, times). It’s true that they both take time and energy, but I saw in those first couple months that when my energy usually would’ve led me to read, I didn’t want to write. And so, as time went on, I learned that developing a writing routine was different than reading; it mostly took other non-reading-related energies and times. And therefore, I happily returned to reading, while, by God’s grace, also developing more of a habit of writing.
Overall, then, I learned that reading and writing certainly overlap in many ways (especially since reading more helps writing better, and vice versa). Yet still they are vastly different activities. Writing is more of a creative endeavor. Reading is more of a passive, learning activity. And so, starting in March I began reading more on a regular schedule. (This was particularly kickstarted by the fact that my amazing wife gifted me with a “reading retreat” weekend in early March, where I was able to finish over four books in a couple days.) And throughout the year, by God’s grace, I was able to read seventy books this year.
As with my other previous years (see 2017 here and 2018 here), I will take a couple posts to review my reading. This post will cover the books I read, with ratings for each and accompanying statistics at the end. The next post will list my favorites from multiple categories. Last year I was privileged to read the complete works of C.S. Lewis (post here) and Jonathan Edwards (post here). This year I didn’t focus on reading any specific writer. (My yearly goal instead was to write 100 blog posts, which I will post about in a week or so.) As a result, the reading choices were more sporadic, but nevertheless, it was still very enjoyable. (Although I can’t say this year’s reading was as enjoyable, for I’m not sure much can beat immersing yourself in a lot of C.S. Lewis).
List of Books Read in 2019
Here, then, are the seventy books God graced me to read in 2019. They are listed as follows:
Author, Title – Year Published – Date Finished – Rating (out of 5)
- R.C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus – 1998 – 1/19/19 – 5
- Brian W. Jones, Brew: Better Coffee at Home – 2016 – 1/22/19 – 4
- Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor – 2016 – 2/1/19 – 4
- Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness – 1978 – 2/24/19 – 5
- Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation – 1993 – 3/6/19 – 5
- Mark Jones, Knowing Christ – 2015 – 3/8/19 – 5
- Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ – 1651 – 3/8/19 – 5
- Ron Rhodes, Christ Before the Manger – 1992 – 3/9/19 – 3
- Athanasius, On the Incarnation – 318 – 3/9/19 – 5
- Michael Reeves, Rejoicing in Christ – 2015 – 3/9/19 – 5
- Karl Barth, On the Humanity of God – 1960 – 3/13/19 – 4
- John Piper, Why I Love the Apostle Paul – 2019 – 4/7/19 – 5
- Ken Wytsma, The Myth of Equality – 2017 – 4/15/19 – 4
- Colin Smith, Heaven, How I Got Here – 2015 – 4/19/19 – 5
- John Piper, Astonished by God – 2018 – 4/23/19 – 4
- Matt Smethurst, Before You Open Your Bible – 2019 – 4/28/19 – 5
- Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will – 1525 – 5/3/19 – 5
- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain – 1940 – 5/7/19 – 5
- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man – 1943 – 5/10/19 – 5
- C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew – 1955 – 5/15/19 – 5
- Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline – 1959 – 5/18/19 – 5
- Andy Crouch, The Tech-Wise Family – 2017 – 5/19/19 – 4
- Tony Reinke, Competing Spectacles – 2019 – 5/25/19 – 4
- Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning – 1945 – 5/29/19 – 5
- C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – 1950 – 5/29/19 – 5
- Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy – 2011 – 5/29/19 – 4
- William Zinsser, On Writing Well – 2006 – 5/30/19 – 5
- Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Evangelism – 2007 – 5/30/19 – 4
- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce – 1945 – 6/3/19 – 4
- Mitch Stokes, How to Be an (A)theist – 2016 – 6/12/19 – 4
- Andrew David Naselli, No Quick Fix – 2017 – 6/15/19 – 5
- Ian Murray, The Invitation System – 1967 – 6/23/19 – 4
- J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy with God – 1980 – 6/25/19 – 3
- John Piper, What’s the Difference – 1990 – 6/29/19 – 5
- John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals – 2013 – 6/30/19 – 5
- Ian Murray, Heroes – 2009 – 7/4/19 – 5
- Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ – 2016 – 7/4/19 – 4
- Tim Chester, Enjoying God – 2018 – 7/20/19 – 5
- Jared Wilson, The Gospel-Driven Church – 2019 – 7/23/19 – 5
- Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird – 1960 – 7/19/19 – 3
- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters – 1942 – 8/1/19 – 5
- John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad – 1993 – 8/22/19 – 5
- Earnest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises – 1926 – 8/27/19 – 1
- Peter Jensen, At the Heart of the Universe – 1991 – 9/2/19 – 5
- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians – 2008 – 9/5/19 – 4
- David Murray, Reset – 2017 – 9/15/19 – 5
- Barna Group, Gen Z – 2018 – 9/23/19 – 5
- Daniel Fuller, The Unity of the Bible – 1992 – 5
- Nevil Shute, On the Beach – 1957 – 10/4/19 – 2
- Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer’s English – 2019 – 10/6/19 – 4
- Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto – 1981 – 10/16/19 – 3
- Derek J. Prime & Alistair Begg, On Being a Pastor – 2004 – 10/24/19 – 3
- Rob Reinow, Reclaiming the Sufficiency of Scripture – 2012 – 10/24/19 – 4
- Jerram Barrs, Shepherds & Sheep – 1983 – 10/29/19 – 4
- John Piper, Desiring God – 1986 – 11/5/19 – 5
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 – 1953 – 11/11/19 – 4
- Hans Rosling, Factfulness – 2018 – 11/16/19 – 5
- Randy Alcorn, Heaven – 2004 – 11/23/19 – 4
- Mark Dever, Discipling – 2016 – 11/25/19 – 3
- Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You – 2017 – 11/30/19 – 4
- Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle – 2001 – 12/2/19 – 4
- Robert Murray McCheyne, Old Testament Sermons – 1843 – 12/2/19 – 4
- Colin Marshall & Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine – 2009 – 12/7/19 – 5
- Colin Smith, Heaven, So Near–So Far – 2017 – 12/9/19 – 5
- John Calvin, Commentary on Philippians – 1581 – 12/9/19 – 4
- F.F. Bruce, Philippians – 1983 – 12/10/19 – 4
- Ralph P. Martin, The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians – 1987 – 12/11/19 – 4
- J.B. Lightfoot, Philippians – 1868 – 12/12/19 – 4
- Stephen King, On Writing – 2000 – 12/19/19 – 4
- John Milton, Paradise Lost – 1667 – 12/19/19 – 4
Some Statistics
As with the previous couple years, I again kept track in an Excel spreadsheet which allowed me to calculate these statistics. (Once again, reader, please feel free to skip this, especially if it comes off boastful; these are interesting mainly for myself, especially when compared to 2017 and 2018.)
The average number of pages for the seventy books was 186 (compared with 156 from 2017 and 205 from 2018). From January to March, the average page number was 160; from April to June, 166; from July to September, 212; from October to December, 222. Meaning, I steadily read longer books as the year went on.
For each book I wrote a quick review and gave them a star rating out of five stars. These I wrote over at Goodreads, and you can see all my ratings and quick reviews there. My average rating for my books was 4.3 stars—which is eerily close to my 2017 and 2018 average of 4.4 stars. Once again this year, I guess I’m very consistent with my (overall positive) book ratings.
I read a total of 13,390 pages (compared with 15,580 in 2017 and 10,250 in 2018). That averaged around 38 pages a day (compared with 45 in 2017 and 29 in 2018). Although it must be said, I do not consistently read daily like that (meaning, 38 pages a day). Reading rather comes and goes.
My most prominent read authors were, to no surprise, both C.S. Lewis (6) and John Piper (6). Besides them, I only read Karl Barth, Randy Alcorn, Tony Reinke, and Colin Smith twice each. This accounts for twenty of the books; so, this means that I read fifty authors only once.
In the next post, I give my personal favorites from various categories out of these books read.
