I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. My fiction tends toward literary works, and my non-fiction toward history, theology and biography. Of late, I have focused on antebellum studies and American biographies as research for my Secession Trilogy.
Below are my reading lists from the past several years, with notes. I have marked those works that I read every year with an asterisk. These titles are also in bold (as are some other works that I particularly liked). You will never be able to read everything, so why not mine more deeply the works that have truly spoken to you? This quote of a quote summarizes my feelings well:
A list of books that you reread is like a clearing in the forest: a level, clean, well-lighted place where you set down your burdens and set up your home, your identity, your concerns, your continuity in a world that is at best indifferent, at worst malign. Since you, the reader, are the hero of modern literature, the existential loner, the smallest denominator of moral force, it behooves you to take counsel, sustenance, and solace from the writers who have been writing about you these hundred or five hundred years, to sequester yourself with their books and read and reread them to get a fix on yourself and a purchase on the world that will, with luck, like the house in the clearing, last you for life.
On “Rereading Books” from The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs, p. 130, Quoting poet L.E. Sissman (d.1976).
2023:
- The Bible, Gateway.com: Through the Bible in a Year
- Absalom, Absalom!*, William Faulkner
- A Wicked War, Amy Greenberg
- Who Decides? Judge Jeffrey Sutton
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence
- The Comeback, Lily Chu
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner
- Stoner, John Williams
- Love at First Psyche, Cara Bastone
- Taste: My Life Through Food, Stanley Tucci
- Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
- Carbs and Cadavers, Ellery Adams
- John Quincy Adams, Harlow Giles Unger
- The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes
- 51 Imperfect Solutions, Jeffrey Sutton
- The Morning Watch*, James Agee
- The Tender Bar*, JR Moehringer
- No Property in Man, Sean Wilentz
- Divided We Fall, David French
- A Country of Vast Designs, Robert Merry
- Faith in Cities, Chris Lozaro
- Shoeless Joe, W. P. Kinsella
- The Wedding Proposal, John Swansiger
- Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
- Travels with Charlie in Search of America, John Steinbeck
2022:
- The Bible* – after taking a year off, I am back to reading through the entire Scriptures in the calendar year. This year I am following a new format, a chronological one. The determination is subjective, of course, but I am finding the approach interesting. https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/chronological/next.
- Absalom, Absalom!* – William Faulkner
- The Tender Bar,* – JR Moehringer
- The Redhead By the Side of the Road – Ann Tyler
- Proof – Dick Francis
- Once Upon a Wardrobe, Patti Callahan
- Traveling Light, Eugene Peterson
- 1861: The Civil War Awakening, Adam Goodheart
- The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
- The Myth of the Lost Cause, Edward Bonekemper
- Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark, Michael Gershman
- The English Patient, Michael Odaatje
- The U. S. Constitution and Secession, A Documentary Anthology of Slavery and White Supremacy, Dwight Pitcaithley, ed.
- The Broken Constitution, Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, Noah Feldman
- The End of the Myth, From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, Greg Grandin
- Shoeless Joe, W. P. Kinsella
- Bricking It, Nick Spalding
- Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey
- Burr, Gore Vidal
- Tennessee Secedes, Dwight Pitcaithley
- The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783, Joseph J. Ellis
- The Key to Deceit, Ashley Weaver
- The Constitution: An Introduction, Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen
- Lincoln, Aaron Vidal
- All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
- Free to Move, Ilya Somin
- Is Atheism Dead? Eric Metaxas
- Hello Darkness, My Old Friend, Sanford Greenberg
- The Miranda Obsession, Jen Silverman
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
- Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- The Problem with Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo
- The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe
- The Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
- Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl
- Stealing Home, Sherryl Woods
- The Hamlet, William Faulkner
- The Town, William Faulkner
- The Mansion, William Faulkner
- The Saddest Words, Michael Gorra
- Becoming Faulkner, Phillip Weinstein
- Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Kent Nerburn
- The Broken Constitution, Noah Feldman
- Summoned to Glory – Lincoln’s Audacious Life, Richard Striner
- Jefferson Davis – The Man and His Hour, William C. Davis
- Moneyball, Michael Lewis
- Thomas Jefferson, A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, Thomas S. Kidd
2021:
- Absalom, Absalom!,* William Faulkner (still the greatest American novel, after at least a dozen readings)
- On Augustine, Rowan Williams (dense but profound in many respects)
- Living Wisely With the Church Fathers, Christopher Hall
- Summoned to Glory, The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln, Richard Striner (author is audacious, too)
- The Tender Bar*, JR Moehringer (a pinnacle of the memoir genre for American writers)
- Without Precedent, The Life of John Marshall, Joel Richard Paul (predictably admiring of Marshall, and surprisingly critical of Jefferson, but Paul makes a compelling case for both opinions.)
- Apostles of Disunion, Charles Dew (eye-opening historical record)
- The Mansion, William Faulkner (my favorite of the Snopes trilogy)
- Fish Out of Water, A Search for the Meaning of Life, Eric Metaxas (I met and spent time with the author a few years ago; his is a very important voice in America today, but I am not yet sure what to think of this work.)
- The Morning Watch*, James Agee (a nearly perfect novella, in my opinion; I am grateful to Patrick Gahan for introducing me to this work.)
- A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (still trying to decide about Hemingway’s true place in literature’, but this work is a good sample for one wanting to understand his approach to the craft of writing)
- Calhoun, American Heretic, Robert Elder
- The War Before the War, Andrew Delbanco
- Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
- Lincoln on the Verge, Ted Widmer
- Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey (someone who is deeper than you think; keep watch)
- The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Mark Noll
- The Saddest Words, William Faulkner’s Civil War, Michael Gorra
- History of the Lost State of Franklin, Samuel Cole Williams
- My Reading Life, Pat Conroy
- Decision in Philadelphia, J. Collier and S. Collier
- A Potter’s Vessel, Riddle (pre-publication review)
- The Coming Fury, Bruce Catton
- Light in August, William Faulkner
- Polk, The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America, Walter Borneman
- Woke, Inc., Vivek Ramaswamy
- John Tyler, The Accidental President, Edward Crapol
- The Problem with Lincoln, Thomas DiLorenzo
- Break it Up, Richard Kreitner
- James Madison, America’s First Politician, Jay Cost
- Rebels in the Making, William Barney
- John Stott: A Summary of His Teaching, E.A. Schroder
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (some part of it appears in almost all of my writing)
- Madness Rules the Hour: Charleston, 1860, Paul Starobin (a fascinating exploration of the small group of men who drove the secession movement)
2020:
- The Bible (I try to read/listen through it every year)
- Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner (first book I read every year)
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe (better than I remembered)
- The Tender Bar, Moehringer (just added to my annuals)
- Caffeine, Pollan
- David & Goliath, Gladwell
- These Truths, LePore
- The Impending Crisis, Potter
- Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, Simons
- Lincoln and the Decision for War, McLintock
- Robert E. Lee, Blount, Jr.
- The Road to Disunion, Freehling (best work on the topic)
- Law and Gospel, Zahl (grace always wins)
- Ratification, Maier (very informative)
- We the States, VA Comm (would like to know the history behind this publication)
- The Morning Watch, Agee (read each year during Lent)
- Lady First – Sarah Childress Polk, Bumgarner (interesting ladies – subject and author)
- History of the Supreme Court, Irons
- The Soul of Baseball, Posnanski (Hard not to be romantic about Buck O’Neal)
- Born Blind, Riddle (about 5x, preparing for publication)
- Beloved, Morrison
- The Real Lincoln, DiLorenzo (I like his counter-thinking)
- When we are older, Part 1, Riddle
- The Givenness of Things, Robinson (dense but interesting)
- A Pitcher’s Storý, Angell
- Sweet taste of Liberty, McDaniel
- Tracer, Barthelme
- Worst. President. Ever., Strauss (irreverent, but mostly accurate based on my own research of the 15th president)
- Midnight Rising, Horowitz (we will miss Tony Horowitz)
- Travels with Charly, Steinbeck (I always learn from it, although Steinbeck goes up and down in my estimation)
- Presidents of War, Beschloss
- Riddle in the Sand, Riddle (preparing for re-publication)
- Camino Winds, Grisham
- In the Garden of Beasts, Larson
- Disease of the Public Mind, Fleming
- The Vast Southern Empire, Karp
- “Precepts of Men,” Riddle (preparing play script for publication)
- The Life of William Faulkner, Vol. 2, Rollyson
- The Saddest Words, Gorra (partial)
2019:
- Bible
- Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner
- Reckless Daughter, Yaffe
- Riddle in the Sand, Riddle
- The Tender Bar, Moehringer
- Hillbilly Elegy, Vance
- Precepts of Men, Riddle
- Kierkegaard – A single life, Backhouse
- Farewell to Mars, Zahnd
- There There, Orange
- Abraham, Feiler
- The Road Back to You, Cron
- To the Hilt, Francis
- Travels with Charly, Steinbeck
- Wait Till Next Year!, Goodwin
- Unconditional, Zahnd
- A Fable, Faulkner
- Garden of Eden, Hemingway
- Educated, Westover
- Our Man in Havana, Greene
- All the Little Live Things, Stegner
- Confederates in the Attic, Horowitz
- The Right Stuff, Wolfe
- Spying on the South, Horowitz
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens
- Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues, Harper
- Working, Caro
- Envy on 30A, Rine
- Ballpark, Goldberger (I was enamored, I wrote a collective review of these next 3 books: https://babesbaseball.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/reading-my-future-through-mlbs-past/)
- The Universal Baseball Association, Coover
- For the Good of the Game, Selig
- The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
- Cemetery Road, Isles
- Treasure Island, Stevenson
- Draft #4, McPhee
- We Have The War Upon Us, Cooper
- Natchez Burning, Isles
- The Impending Conflict, Potter
- Lady First, Greenberg
- The Unvanquished, Faulkner
- Secession on Trial, Nicoletti
- Gone with the Wind, Mitchell
- The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
- The Bondwoman’s Narrative, Crafts
- Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Chiaverini
- Top 100 Constitutional Law cases
- We Hold These Truths, Adler
- San Antonio Tricentennial, Miller
- Steely Dan FAQ, Robustelli
- A Christmas Carol, Dickens
- Matchmaking for Beginnners, Dawson
- Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
2018:
1. Absalom, Absalom!,Faulkner (the greatest American novel)
2. The Town, Faulkner (Faulkner’ trilogy is underappreciated in his canon)
3. Scalia Speaks!, Antonio Scalia (even RBG listened to him)
4. Riddle in the Sand, Riddle
5. The Tender Bar, Moehringer (a very skilled writer, with an interesting story)
6. Moving on, McMurtry (the anti-epic, but I can’t stop reading it)
7. Travels with Charly, Steinbeck
8. Treating People Well, Berman/Bernard
9. Shoeless Joe, Kinsella
10. Late Night, Early Morning, Weir
11. Tennis and the Meaning of Life, Jennings (painfully insightful, every time I read it)
12. Soul of the World, Scruton
13. Two Stories of Everything, Miller
14. Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me, Cron
15. Shoe Dog, Knight (well-told story, with the aid of JR Mohringer)
16. The Girl on 30A, Rine
17. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway
18. The Judiciary’s Class War, Reynolds
19. Paul, A Biography, Wright
20. Around the World in 80 Days, Verne
21. Etymylogicon, Hagen
22. Tennis and the Meaning of Life, Jennings (so true)
23. Hemingway’s Boat, Hendrickson (brought me new appreciation for Hemingway)
24. Reflex, Francis
25. The Art of the Con, Amore
25. The Morning Watch, Agee (a nearly perfect story)
26. A Whole Different Ballgame, Miller (a fascinating guy about whom I found much to say:
https://babesbaseball.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/love-your-enemies-part-2-marvin-miller-and-bud-selig/)
27. The Mansion, Faulkner (better than I remembered it)
28. The Second McPhee Reader, McPhee (just read his sentences and forget about the topic)
29. Hardball, Kuhn (he brought lawyers a bad name, if that is possible)
30. We, the Corporations, Winkler
31. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (still not sure it deserves its reputation and endurance)
32. From Bauhaus to Our House, Wolfe
33. When We Are Older, Riddle
34. The Soul of America, Meachem
35. A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Buffett (the guy can write, period)
36. The Big Short, Lewis
37. The End of the Affair, Greene
38. West with the Night, Markham
39. The Nick Adams Stories, Hemingway
40. Giovanni’s Room, Baldwin
41. The Tender Bar, Moehringer (2d time)
42. Grammar Boot Camp, Curzan
43. History of the Christian Church, Jesus to Constantin, Ehrman
44. Proof, Francis
45. What the Dog Saw, Gladwell
46. Collected Stories, Faulkner
47. On Writing, King
48. The Mayor of Castorbridge, Hardy
49. Islands in the Stream, Hemingway
50. The Long Season, Brosnan
51. Failure is an Option, Benjamin
52. Unconditional, Zahnd (a life-changing book if you are holding any grudges)
53. Beauty Will Save the World, Zahnd
54. Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut
55. Unvanquished, Faulkner
56. Rabbit, Run, Updike
57. The Reckoning, Grisham
58. Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Morison
59. Becoming Faulkner, Weinstein
60. Them, Sasse
2017:
1. Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner
2. Who Am I?, McKnight
3. Reading Faulkner, Marius (written by my old Western Civ. prof., very interesting guy)
4. RARE Leadership,
5. The Undoing Project, Lewis
6. A Sacred Silence, Kinsell
7. Washington, Chernow
8. News of the World, Pauelette Jiles
9. The Morning Watch, Agee
10. Into Thin Air, Krakauer
11. The One Inside, Sam Shepherd
12. The Son, Philipp Meyer
13. Falling Upward, Richard Rohr
14. Team of Rivals, Kearns Goodwin
15. Capture, Kessler
16. Lube Jobs, McLeods
17. Intruder in the Dust, Faulkner
18. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson
19. A Good Life All the Way, Ryan White
20. The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse
21. The Spectator Bird, Stegner (still trying to decide about Stegner – this one really puzzles)
22. Heart of Darkness, Conrad
23. Wallace Stegner and the American West, Fradkin
24. Camino Island, Grisham
25. Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Stegner
26. Between the World and Me, Coates
27. On the Road, Kerouac
28. All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr
29. Shoe Dog, Knight
30. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway
31. A Truck Full of Money, Kidder
32. The Education of Henry Adams, Adams
33. Coal Black Horse, Olmstead
34. Open, Agassi (profound in such a way that you can’t believe Andre wrote it; did he? or was it JR Mohringer? Either way, very much worth reading)
35. Precepts of Men, Rose
36. Travels with Charly, Steinbeck
37. Return of the Native, Hardy
38. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
39. The Tempest, Shakespeare
40. A Street Cat Named Bob, Bowen
41. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
42. The Tender Bar, Moehringer
43. The Road Back To You, Cron
44. Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me, Cron
45. Willie, Moehringer
46. Constellations, Nick Payne
47. Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar
48. Martin Luther, Metaxas
49. Etymologicon, Forsyth
50. The Hamlet, Faulkner
51. The Bear, Faulkner
52. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullors
53. A Christmas Carol, Dickens
54. Windows to the Soul, Gahan
55. The Rooster Bar, Grisham (I have been involved in legal matters similar to this plot)
2016:
1. Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis
2. Rebel Yell, S. C. Gwynne
3. America, America, Ethan Canin
4. Wild Palms, Wm. Faulkner
5. Travels with Charley, Steinbeck
6. David’s Sling, the History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art, Coates
7. The Morning Watch, Agee
8. Go Set A Watchman, Lee
9. A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway
10. “As you like it,” Shakespeare
11. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
12. Hamilton, Ron Chernow
13. Confessions of an Original Sinner, John Lukacs
14. Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky (partial)
15. 100 Years of Solitude, Marquez
16. Moving On, McMurtry (partial)
17. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
18. The Last Tycoon, Fitzgerald
19. “The Tempest,” Shakespeare
20. Everyday by the Sun, D.F. Wells
21. Goodbye to a River, Graves
22. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle
23. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
24. The Art of Fielding, Harbach
25. Myself and the World, Hamblin
26. Late to the Ball, Marzorati
27. Cannery Row, Steinbeck
28. Shoeless Joe, Kinsella
29. If you can keep it, Metaxis
30. Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner
31. Sanctuary, Faulkner,
32. Morning Watch, Agee (2d time)
33. Riddle in the Sand, Rose
34. “Precepts of Men,” Rose
35. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Rowling
36. Light in August, Faulkner
37. A First Rate Madness, Ghaemi
38. Impossible People, Guiness
39. Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
40. Democracy in America, de Toqueville
41. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
42. Hillbilly Elegy, Vance
2006: (bold: recommended; bold italics: highly recommended) (“aloud” indicates that I read them aloud to my children)
1. Light in August, Faulkner (476 pages)
2. Knowing God, Packer (279 pages)
3. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, Packer (126 pages)
4. Salvation, Radmacher (250 pages)
5. The Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights, Pyle (259 pages)(aloud)
6. Palace Thief, Canin (206 pages)
7. The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston; James (457 pages)
8. Walking the Bible, Feiler (406 pages)
9. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway (257 pages)
10. Faulkner: The Story Teller, Labatt (185 pages)
11. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Greenblatt (409 pages)
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling (309 pages)(aloud)
13. “Part I, Henry IV”, Shakespeare
14. Dragons of Eden, Sagan (248 pages)
15. Soldier’s Pay, Faulkner (319 pages)
16. Revolution, Barna (140 pages)
17. A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Buffett (458 pages)
18. History of the English People, Johnson (partial, 300 pages)
19. Robert E. Lee, Thomas (404 pages)
20. At Home in Mitford, Karon (416 pages) (aloud)
21. Behold the King, Toussaint (partial)
22. The Sermon on the Mount, Stott (partial)
23. Rhoda: A life in stories, Gilchrist (300 pages)
24. The Unvanquished, Wm. Faulkner (246 pages)
25. A Little Princess, Burnett (201 pages) (aloud)
26. A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole (partial)
27. Sailing Alone Around the Room, Collins (100 pages)
28. A Serious Way of Wondering, Price (146 pages)
29) A Man in Full, Wolfe (742 pages)
30) The Penderwicks, Birdsall (247 pages)(aloud)
31) Reading Faulkner, Marius (185 pages)
32) A Promise to Catie, Holt (253 pages)(aloud)
33) The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (221 pages)
34) A Separate Peace, Knowles (195 pages)
35) The Boy Who Saved Baseball, Ritter (219 pages)(aloud)
36) Architecture, Anyone?, Huxley (partial)
37) Wrestling with God, Marius (146 pages)
2005:
1) One Matchless Time – Biography of William Faulkner, Parini (457 pages)
2) Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift (partial, 166 pages) (aloud)
3) Sound and the Fury – Faulkner (257 pages)
4) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (275 pages) (aloud)
5) The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman (465 pages)
6) The Known World, Jones (450 pages)
7) Collected Stories, Stegner (partial, 175 pages)
8) Following the Equator, Twain (partial, 400 pages)
9) Dating Dead Men, Kozak (350 pages)
10) Dating is Murder, Kozak (338 pages)
11) The John McPhee Reader (377 pages)
12) The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck (partial)
13) National Velvet, (partial)(aloud)
14) Buried Treasure, Schroder
15) Basin and Range, McPhee (216 pages)
16) All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, McMurtry (286 pages)
17) Crossing to Safety, Stegner (341 pages)
18) How to Stay Christian in College, Bouzweski (185 pages)
19) Lord of the Flies, Golding, (248 pages)
20) Don’t Waste Your Life, Piper
21) Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, Fleming (124 pages) (aloud)
22) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling (652 pages)
23) Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne (162 pages) (aloud)
24) Personal Memoirs, U.S. Grant (590 pages)
25) Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder (304 pages)
26) LIVING through Crisis, Taliaferro (currently reading)
27) “Taming of the Shrew,” Shakespeare
2004:
1) Sartoris, William Faulkner (430 pages)
2) The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling (440 pages) (aloud)
3) “Julius Caesar”, William Shakespeare
4) Living in Christ’s Church, Clowny (112 pages)
5) American Girl – Felicity (90 pages) (aloud)
6) The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway (127 pages)
7) In the Tennessee Country, Peter Taylor (225 pages)
8) Abraham: Journey to the Heart of 3 Faiths, Feiler (227 pages)
9) Atonement, Ian McEwan (349 pages)
10) Little Town on the Prairie, Ingalls Wilder (256 pages)(aloud)
11) Isaac’s Storm, Erik Larsen (325 pages)
12) Jimmy Buffett, The Man from Margaritaville Revealed; Eng (322 pp)
13) A Shropshire Lad; A. E. Housman (64 pages)
14) Visions of Jazz, The First 100 Years; Giddons (selected sections)
15) The Goblet of Fire; Rowling (735 pages)(aloud)
16) In Patagonia; Chatwin (120 pages)
17) Moneyball; Lewis (304 pages)
18) Moving On, McMurtry (794 pages)
19) Roger’s Version; Updike (329 pages)
20) Great Expectations; Dickens (aloud, partial)
21) West With The Night, Markham (297 pages)
22) On the Banks of Plum Creek, Wilder (279 pages) (aloud)
23) Good Poems, Keillor, editor (400 pages)
24) Inward Light, Schroder (180 pages)
25) Dating Dead Men, Kozak (326 pages)
26) All Creatures Great and Small, Herriott (395 pages) (aloud)
27) Men At Work, Will (400 pages)
28) Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner (440 pages)
29) The Order of the Phoenix, Rowling(842 pages) (aloud)
30) A Christmas Carol, Dickens (142 pages)
31) A Salty Piece of Land, Buffett (462 pages)
2003:
1) From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman (575 pages)
2) Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik (470 pages)
3) Walking the Bible, Bruce Feiler (450 pages)
4) Peace Like a River, Leif Enger (315 pages)
5) Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (320 pages) (aloud)
6) Rabbit, Run, John Updike (400 pages)
7) Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins (175 pages)
8) The Bible Jesus Read, Yancey (175 pages, partial)
9) Ernie Pyle’s War, Tobin (360 pages)
10) The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder (235 pages)
11) Black Beauty, Sewell (300 pages)(aloud)
12) The Return of the King, Tolkein (330 pages)
13) Lonesome Dove, McMurtry (843 pages)
14) Life of Pi, Martel (319 pages)
15) John Adams, McCullough (650 pages)
16) History of Christianity in North America, Noll (currently reading)
17) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling (315 pages) (aloud)
18) Philokalia, Cairns (currently reading)
19) The Education of Henry Adams, Adams (currently reading)
20) For the Union of Evangelical Christendom, Guelzo (404 pages)
21) A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson (partial)
22) One Palestine, Complete; Tom Segev (250 pages)
23) The Trumpet of the Swan; E.B. White (200 pages, aloud)
24) Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes (235 pages, aloud)
25) Tom Sawyer; Mark Twain (partial, aloud)
26) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling (600 pages)
2002:
1) Fair Ball, Costas
2) To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
3) The Hobbit, Tolkein
4) Art of the Novel, Kundera
5) Franny & Zooey, Salinger
6) Cat Stories, Herriot (aloud)
7) For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway
8) Oxford – City of the Imagination, Horan
9) The Bears Upstairs, (aloud)
10) Encounters With the Archdruid, McPhee
11) A Pirate Looks at 50, Buffett
12) Tarpon Quest, Coles
13) The Last Navigator, Thomas
14) Chronicles of Narnia (entire Books I-VII) (aloud)
15) Coming into the Country, McPhee
16) A Life of John Calvin, McGrath
17) Reign of the Servant Kings, Dillow (partial)
18) As I Lay Dying, Faulkner
19) Constantine’s Sword, Carroll (partial)
20) The Secret Garden, Burnett (aloud)
21) The Two Towers, Tolkein
22) From Beirut to Jerusalem, Freidman (partial)
23) A Fable, Faulkner (partial)
24) Wild at Heart, Eldredge
JACKSON RIDDLE 