Soulfood

I finished strong in Q4, coming to the end of 21 titles between Oct. 1st and Dec. 31st. I’ll summarize them by my spreadsheet categories this go-round!

Non-fiction/other (6) – A Redemptive Theology of Art (David Covington), God Does His Best Work with Empty (Nancy Guthrie), On Stories (C.S. Lewis), Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance, audiobook), Living in Wonder (Rod Dreher), The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry (Wendell Berry, audiobook)

Devotional/Edification (4) – God Shines Forth (Michael Reeves), Waiting Isn’t A Waste (Mark Vroegrop), Waiting on God (Andrew Murray, eBook), Waiting on the Word (Malcolm Guite)

Non-fiction/history (2) – Lost Kingdom (Julia Flynn Siler, about Hawai’i), Russian Roulette (Giles Milton)

Fiction (9) – The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas), Rhythm of War (Brandon Sanderson), The Great Brain at the Academy (John D. Fitzgerald, read out loud to daughters), The Wake (Paul Kingsnorth, audiobook), The Chestry Oak (Kate Seredy, daughters lit book), The Switherby Pilgrims (Eleanor Spence, also lit book for my daughters), The Napoleon of Notting Hill (G.K. Chesterton), The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien, audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis), Letters from Father Christmas (J.R.R. Tolkien, audiobook)

Stats for the year – 71 books read, including 16 audiobooks and 55 print titles. The print titles had about 16,600 pages in total. 47 of the books were ones I read for the first time. 33 were fiction and the remaining 38 were non-fiction.

In 2025 I plan to delve deeper into Wendell Berry and read more poetry as I thoroughly enjoyed reading Malcolm Guite’s works and Waiting on the Word reminded me how much I can enjoy poetry when I read it out loud. I’m also planning to read more Giles Milton (I’ve already started his book, Paradise Lost, about the Turkish sack of Smyrna in 1922). And once I finish up reading The Great Brain books with my daughters, I’ll be reading Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books to them. Should be a fun year!