Pursuing Veritas

Reflections by Jacob J. Prahlow

What I Read in 2022

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Every year, I commit to reading as much and as widely as possible. And as a means of attempting to remember everything I’ve read and holding myself accountable to my reading goals, I track the books I’ve read each year. (Click here to see what I read in 2021)

A couple of notes on this list. First, this is not a “what you should read” list like some of the others that you might see floating around. This is what I read this year and it’s a list shaped by my vocation and place in life. Second, I’ve found that breaking down what I read by category is helpful for me, so this list appears that way (and includes some sub-categories as well).

Please also note a couple of special markers. My favorite books (and the one’s I recommend you consider reading) are marked with an asterisk and hyperlinked. Additionally, the books I’d read prior to this year but re-read are marked with a [re-read] notation.

Finally, my goal the past several years has been to read 150 books (~3/week) and that was again the case this year. I’m pleased to say that this year’s list includes some 165 titles completed, so mission accomplished. Without further ado, what I read in 2022:

Biblical Studies – General

  • Five Things Theologians Wish Biblical Scholars Knew, Boersma
  • A Most Peculiar Book, Swenson
  • Reading While Black, McCaulley

Biblical Studies – Old Testament

  • A Biblical History of Israel (2e), Provan, Long, and Longman
  • Genesis 1-15, Wenham
  • Genesis 16-50, Wenham
  • Is God a Moral Monster?, Copan [re-read]
  • Urban Legends of the Old Testament, Croteau and Yates
  • The Lost World of Adam and Eve, Walton
  • Exodus for Normal People, Enns
  • Judaism’s Life-Changing Ideas, Sacks
  • Leviticus, Hartley
  • Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, Wright*
  • The Lost World of the Flood, Longman and Walton
  • Deuteronomy, Wright
  • Spurgeon and the Psalms, Spurgeon
  • Isaiah (TOTC), Motyer [re-read]
  • Isaiah (NIVAC), Oswalt [re-read]
  • The Fifth Gospel, Sawyer

Biblical Studies – New Testament

  • What Saint Paul Really Said, Wright
  • The New Testament in Its World, Wright and Bird
  • The Early Christian Letters, Wright
  • Reading Jesus, Gordon
  • John: The Gospel of Light and Life, Hamilton
  • 1 & 2 Thessalonians (WBC), Bruce
  • 1 & 2 Thessalonians (SoGBC), Byron
  • Reversed Thunder, Peterson*
  • Gospel Parallels, Throckmorton

Biography and History

  • The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed, Green
  • Lysistrata and Other Plays, Aristophanes
  • The Three Thebean Plays, Sophocles
  • The Day the World Went Nuclear, O’Reilly
  • Is This Anything?, Seinfeld
  • Killing the Killers, O’Reilly and Dugard
  • The Finish, Bowden
  • Churchill, Johnson
  • Handbook of Homerule, Gladstone
  • The Aviators, Groom
  • William Ewart Gladstone, Bryce
  • Alone, Korda
  • Mozart, Johnson
  • The Concise History of Germany, Fulbrook
  • Trivia Almanac, Jennings
  • A Short History of England, Chesterton
  • The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir
  • The Fall of the Roman Empire, Ferrill
  • C.S. Lewis: A Life, McGrath
  • The Rise of the Greeks, Grant
  • The Secret War, Hastings

Churchworld and Pastoring

  • Christianity and Culture, Eliot
  • Rediscover Church, Hansen and Leeman
  • Spirit and Sacrament, Wilson
  • Preaching the Cross in Dark Times, Wright
  • Across the Street and Around the World, Marie
  • No Longer Strangers, Cho and Page
  • Rediscipling the White Church, Swanson
  • Prayers for Prodigals, Banks [re-read]
  • A Dairy of Private Prayer, Baillie [re-read]
  • The Death of Porn, Ortlund*
  • No Little Women, Byrd
  • Practical Means to Participating in the Life of God, Shirley
  • The Living Church, Stott [re-read]
  • Human Rites, Johnson*
  • Letters to a Young Evangelical, Campolo
  • Simplify, Hybels
  • What If Jesus Was Serious about the Church?, Jethani*
  • This Is Our Time, Wax

Cultural Issues

  • You Are Not Special, McCullough
  • The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Carr*
  • Digital Minimalism, Newport
  • Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier
  • Atomic Habits, Clear
  • Things That Matter, Becker*
  • Critical Race Theory, Delgado and Stefancic
  • Escape from Reason, Schaeffer
  • Golden: The Power of Silence, Zorn and Marz
  • The Baseball, Hample
  • Empire of Pain, Keefe
  • The Grandest Stage, Kepner

Family Life

  • The Whole-Brain Child, Siegel and Bryson
  • Very Good Lives, Rowling
  • The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, Buscaglia

Fiction – General

  • Lamb, Moore
  • A Little Journey, Bradbury
  • Project Hail Mary, Weir
  • Flatland, Abbott

Fiction – Tolkien

History of Christianity

  • The Making of Biblical Womanhood, Barr*
  • Evangelical Disenchantment, Hempton
  • God’s Secretaries: The Making of the KJV, Nicolson
  • Jesus and John Wayne, Kobes Du Mez
  • Johann Gutenberg and His Bible, Ing
  • The Man Who Invented Christmas, Standiford
  • The Rise of Christianity, Stark
  • The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages, Oakley
  • The Westminster Confession of Faith, PCA
  • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Other Writings, Edwards

Leadership

  • A Guide to Christian Ambition, Hewitt [re-read]
  • Win the Day, Batterson*
  • How To Lead When You’re Not in Charge, Scroggins [re-read]
  • Death By Meeting, Lencioni
  • The Power of One More, Mylett
  • Axiom, Hybels
  • Humble Inquiry, Schein

Mental Health

Philosophy

  • Stillness is the Key, Holiday
  • On Nature and Grace, Aquinas
  • Courage is Calling, Holiday
  • The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, Marsden
  • Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Politics

  • God and Cancel Culture, Strang
  • Basic Economics, Sowell
  • An Essay on the American Contribution and the Democratic Idea, Churchill
  • On Tyranny, Snyder*
  • The Subjugation of Women, Mill
  • Crazy Sh*t Presidents Said, Schnakenberg
  • Profiles in Courage, Kennedy
  • Live Not By Lies, Dreher
  • Coercing Virtue, Bork

Reading and Writing

  • Of Other Worlds, Lewis
  • Bird By Bird, Lamott
  • Consider the Lobster, Wallace
  • Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Bryson
  • The Accidental Dictionary, Jones
  • 25 Great Sentences and How They Got that Way, Woods
  • Reading Like a Writer, Prose
  • Draft No.4 on the Writing Process, McPhee
  • An Essay on Criticism, Pope*

Science

  • How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, Brown
  • Packing for Mars, Roach
  • Relativity, Einstein
  • The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins
  • Essays in Science, Einstein

Theology – General

  • The Trial of God, Wiesel
  • Ethics, Bonhoeffer
  • On Mortality, Cyprian
  • The Word Became Flesh, Maynard
  • Gentle and Lowly, Ortlund*
  • The Ragamuffin Gospel, Manning
  • God has a Dream, Tutu
  • The Me I Want To Be, Ortberg
  • Kill the Jerk, Shepherd

Theology – Gender and Sexuality

  • People to Be Loved, Sprinkle
  • On Gender and the Soul, Cabe
  • Embodied, Sprinkle
  • All But Invisible, Collins

Theology – Spiritual Disciplines

  • When You Pray, Letendre
  • The Sabbath, Heschel
  • The Word Became Flesh, Maynard
  • Real Sex, Winner
  • The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Comer [re-read]
  • Celebration of Discipline, Foster [re-read]
  • The Only Necessary Thing, Nouwen*
  • Blue Like Jazz, Miller
  • Everything Belongs, Rohr

One response to “What I Read in 2022”

  1. What I Read in 2023 – Pursuing Veritas Avatar
    What I Read in 2023 – Pursuing Veritas

    […] Every year, I commit to reading as much and as widely as possible. And as a means of attempting to remember everything I’ve read and holding myself accountable to my reading goals, I track the books I’ve read each year. (Click here to see what I read in 2022) […]

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