Soulfood

I completed another 24 books in Oct-Dec of 2025 to finish the year at 72 books. Overall stats: 47 print, 24 audiobooks. Approximately 13,000 pages read, and 214 hours listening to audiobooks. 56 of those books were first-time reads for me, with the 16 re-reads mostly being C.S. Lewis (in 2026, my re-read focus will be on Tolkien!) along with several seasonal devotionals. The average original publication date of the works I finished in 2025 was 1953. My goal is to read more of the Church Fathers in 2026 which hopefully will pull that back even further. I did read quite a few works of the Fathers in 2025, but not any complete works/books. I might also re-read the Mistborn series in 2026. We will see – first comes Tolkien!

For the books I read in Q4 of 2025, the breakdown is as follows:

History (4): Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die: How the Allies Won on D-Day by Giles Milton; River of the Gods (story of the Englishman who discovered the headwaters of the Nile) and Destiny of the Republic (story of James Garfield’s assassination), both by Candice Millard; Empire of Pain by Patrick Raddon Keefe (history of the Sackler family, who popularized and vastly profited from prescription opioids). Interestingly, River of the Gods and Empire of Pain were both books I found at the AirBnB we stayed at in Hershey, PA, during the CCEF Conference. Rather than buying them, I found them on Libby. I enjoyed both authors so much that I have queued up the rest of their works. Currently I’m listening to Millard’s Hero of the Empire, a narrative of the (2nd) Boer War focusing on the exploits of a young Winston Churchill.

Devotional (6): Come, Ye Weary by Michael Reeves; Stop Loving the World by William Greenhill; A Heavenly Conference by Richard Sibbes, Sounding the Seasons and Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite; and Take Heart by David Powlison.

Fantasy Fiction (9): Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, Prince Caspian, and The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis; Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson; Phantastes (at long last!) and The Light Princess by George MacDonald; Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien; and The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison. Apparently my taste is awful, because as much as C.S. Lewis raves about The Worm Ouroboros in multiple essays on writing and stories, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I’ll try to read it again someday.

Education/Edification (4): The Eastern Catholic Churches by Joan L. Roccasalvo; On the Trivium, the Trinity, and Triplets by my friend Amy Callis; and The Reading Life and The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis.

Other fiction (1): Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan – a marvelous fictionalized account, based on extant letters and other non-fiction books that have been published, of the relationship between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. It was charmingly kitschy but also very real. Davidman was, from my perspective based on this novel, not the nicest sort of person. But she certainly grew in Christlikeness as her life progressed, and it is easy to see how she captured Jack’s heart. Taken together with C.S. Lewis: A Life (which I read earlier in 2025) I have a much better picture now of the man whose works I so admire. It’s worth a read if you like romantic pseudo-autobiographies, even if it is fantasized!

I should also note, as I was going through my Libby history I realized I missed recording (2) titles in my Q3 count, namely, The Tender Heart by Richard Sibbes (a devotional work) and Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen (a history of the development of the wireless telegraph along with the story of the first man who was arrested with the help of wireless technology). So if you’ve been keeping track, it was 16 completed in each of Q1, Q2, and Q3, with Q4 clocking in at 24 to bring the total to 72 for the year.

Q1 of 2026 will start with a bang as I’m halfway through a print book on the history of the idea and construction of the Erie Canal, as well as the audiobook on Churchill in the Boer War, and most of the way finished with two devotional/educational books (Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls, and The Divine Liturgy Explained). More on all of those will come sometime in April!