There's no question that I love to read and usually end up reading about 40-50 books a year, although this year was quite lower for some reason, might have been the chaos of getting married, job transition, moving, etc. One of my favorite things to do is to make a reading list for the following year which I did while sitting down the other night with Kelli. I generally write down what I know I can read and then end up reading more along the way as authors I like come out with books I didn't know were coming or people tell me I must read something. Some of the books on this list came from other's recommendations, or a feeling that if i'm a literature fan at all there are certain books that I must read. Because I had a poor public school education you will notice books i probably should have read such as Slaughterhouse Five and Brave New World. I have also taken some recommendations from other blogs as I have seen what other people I respect are reading, checked it out and felt intrigued by reading it as well. So without any more nerdery, here is my reading list for 2006.
Feel free to leave any other books you might recommend. I'd be happy to check them out!
Literature and Poetry:
Town and City – Jack Kerouac
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
Complete Poems of Wendell Berry
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
To A God Unknown – John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley; In Search of America – John Steinbeck
Slaughterhouse Five – Vonnegut
Brave New World – Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Waste Land – TS Eliot
Non-Fiction:
On Earth as it is in Advertising – Eman
Wishful Thinking – Buechner
Organic Faith – Neil Cole
The Importance of Being Foolish – Brennan Manning
The Gospel According to Moses – Dickson
Practicioners: Voices within the Emergent Movement – Russinger
Communicating for a Change – Andy Stanley
The Challenge of Jesus – N.T. Wright
Preaching: Re-imagined – Doug Pagitt
Jesus in the Margins – McKinley
Heaven – Randy Alcorn
The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life – Tony Jones
The Gospel According to America – David Dark
The Secret Message of Jesus – Brian Mclaren
11 comments:
"Blink" is a great book too. :)
Two things I would add to your list are "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky and "Polekushka" by Leo Tolstoy. Those are my two favs in all of the Russian lit I have encountered. Also after you read "Heart of Darkness" go and rent "Apocalypse Now". It is Francis Ford Coppolla's retelling of that story against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Thats why most people who went to see the movie when it came out walked away going "what the hell was that all about"?
Skip Heart of Darkness. Worst book I've ever read in my entire life. The Congo is dark and evil. So are humans. I've just saved you a lot of time. I still have nightmares about reading it.
Can you sum up what impacted you the most about Brothers Karamazov...just curious.
Doug Fields this week determined a dork or nerd by someone who is on a date and is wearing a wireless headset for their cell.
adam - i have tried to look up the Tolstoy book but cannot find it anywhere. can you give me a link or something?
glad you enjoyed the list everyone, i will look forward to viewing yours when you make one!
thanks for the advice b chan, but now I almost want to read it just to see how bad it is! kind of like a car wreck, you've got to check it out.
misty - i will be able to sum up what strikes me most about it once i read it. this one might be a big commitment for me. quite a long book but i've heard it's amazing. have you read it???
adam - hahaha, that is good. i can't picture anyone more nerdy than that. i'm starting to feel better about myself.
not sure if anyone actually comes back adn sees my responses to their comments but it's worth a shot.
Duh Misty. No one ever accused me of being too bright. So. 2006 list, huh.
Yes, it's one of my favorites and think maybe I've read it 3 or maybe 4 times. I love Father Zossima and his grace and the interactions when the brothers and their dad meet with him. I love the inner struggle and relate with it in a deep way. I read it in May and it brought me back to the simplicity that Alyosha had in his faith.
Here in Russia Dostoyevsky is pretty close to a god. They put words into the complexities and contradictions of the Russian soul. After living here for 8 months, I really understand his writings (as well as Tolstoy and Solzhenitsen and Ahkmatova's) better. Their struggles are unique to Russia because of it's history, as well as the turmoil that is like stream of consciousness and never seems to go away...
I also recommend Crime and Punishment. Makes you think, though a bit dark. Wait, is "The Idiot" on there? Oh...add it. Wow. An epileptic who everyone really calls "idiot" even to his face (they still call handicapped people that here). He has the ability to see inside people's hearts and then people just fall in love with him and can't get enough of him. Really a spiritual idea of being misunderstood and seeing through people. I couldn't help but think about Jesus who was so despised and misunderstood while on earth...like Prince Myshkin... abused, ridiculed, but so completely pure at heart through it all and tender and often close to tears.
dustin,
three words: 'purpose driven life'. it will change your life. you are white, middle class and over the age of 30, right?
your buddy,
rick
I concur with just about everything written - but i would add "The Brothers K" by David James Duncan to your list, but only afteryou finish karamazov. K is a take on Dostoevsky's story set in the fifties-seventies working class oregon family, (with lots of baseball. liking baseball helps immensly. If in fact, you hate baseball, this may be a bad rec) and is a really wonderful contemporary that i actually enjoyed even more.
suppose i should note that you don't know me, but came across your blog a while ago and enjoy other critical christian thought. Cheers!
Hey Misty, i'm definitely excited to read it! I can't believe you've read it that many time! Wow! The Idiot sounds great as well, that may be added! I've heard great things about that too but have never read it. I've never really read any Russian Lit but am excited to. Thanks for your input.
Doug - I do like baseball! I'll have to check that out as well. thanks for the post.
Dustin,
wrong spelling is probably the reason you can't find it. The correct spelling is Polikushka. Sorry about that. It is one of his early short stories. You probably won't find it by itself but rather in a larger collection of works.
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