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)

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 time of year. 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 ones 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 was a bit behind the pace the first half of the year while building our house, so I’m especially pleased to say that this year’s list includes 156 titles completed. Without further ado, here’s what I read in 2023:

Biblical Studies – General

• Gospel Allegiance, Bates [re-read]
• Inspired, Held Evans
• The Bible Made Impossible, Smith [re-read]
• The Lost World of Scripture, Walton and Sandy
• This is the Gospel, She Reads Truth
• Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, Richards and O’Brien
• Raised with Christ, Warnock

Biblical Studies – Old Testament

• The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha, OUP
• The Miracle of the Scarlet Thread, Booker
• Leap Over a Wall, Peterson
• Son of Man: Early Jewish Literature, Bauckham
• Show Me Your Glory, Idestrom

Biblical Studies – New Testament

• Hard Sayings of Jesus, Bruce
• Matthew (SP), Harrington [re-read]
• Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Bailey
• What If Jesus Was Serious?, Jethani [re-read]
• Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World, Carson
• The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, Pennington
• Sermon on the Mount (SoGBC), McKnight
• Matthew (NAC), Blomberg [re-read]
• The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content, Metzger [re-read]
• Jesus and the Manuscripts, Evans
• The Text of the New Testament, Metzger [re-read]
• Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies, Evans
• The Case for Jesus, Pitre*
• A Theology of Mark, Bayer
• 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, Schreiner
• To Live Is Christ, To Die is Gain, Chandler*
• 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, Wright
• Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Vols I & II), Wright

Churchworld and Pastoral Care

• Preaching as Reminding, Arthurs*
• At Your Best, Nieuhhof
• Becoming a Pastor Theologian, ed. Wilson and Hiestand
• On Pastoring, Charles
• Sticky Faith: Teen Curriculum, Powell and Griffin
• Move, Hawkins and Parkinson
• The Gift of Empathy, Bretscher and Haugk
• A Better Story, Harrison*
• The Great Dechurching, Davis and Graham
• Advent: The Season of Hope, Harrison Warren*
• The Cross and Christian Ministry, Carson
• The Trellis and the Vine, Marshall and Payne
• Prayers for Prodigals, Banks [re-read]
• A Dairy of Private Prayer, Baillie [re-read]
• Praying through the Names of God, Evans
• Created for Connection, Johnson and Sanderfer
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Gibson
• Preaching in the Inventive Age, Pagitt
• You’re Not Crazy, Ortlund and Allberry
• They Smell Like Sheep, Anderson

Fiction

• The Hobbit, Tolkien [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling [re-read]
• The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling [re-read]
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling [re-read]
• Quidditch Through the Ages, Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling [re-read]
• The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister, Martin
• A Journey through the History of Magic, British Library
• The Two Towers, Tolkien [re-read]
• The Children of Hurin, Tolkien
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Rowling
• The Hogwarts Library Collection, Rowling
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis [re-read]
• The Return of the King, Tolkien [re-read]

History – Baseball

• The Baseball 100, Posnanski
• Baseball Maverick, Kettmann
• Lords of the Realm, Helyar
• Watching Baseball Smarter, Hample
• The Only Rule Is It Has to Work, Lindbergh
• How Baseball Explains America, Bodley
• The Voices of Baseball, McKnight
• Ahead of the Curve, Kenny
• The Inside Game, Law
• Ballpark, Goldberger*
• The Baseball Fan’s Bucket List, Santelli
• Cheated, Martino
• 108 Stitches, Darling
• The Grind, Svriuga
• Knuckleball, Freedman
• A Nice Little Place on the North Side, Will
• Why We Love Baseball, Posnanski
• Sixty Feet, Six Inches, Gibson and Jackson
• Fantasyland, Walker

History – Christianity

• The Triumph of Christianity, Ehrman
• The Return of the Gods, Cahn
• How Jesus Became God, ed. Bird
• Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman [re-read]
• When God Spoke Greek, Law
• An Introduction to the Medieval Bible, van Liere [re-read]
• Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christian Contexts, ed. Hartog
• The Gospel According to Heretics, Whilhite [re-read]
• The Great Soviet Awakening, Kraeuter
• 2000 Years of Christ’s Power (Vol 1), Needham

History – General and Biography

• Winston’s War, Hastings
• Harry Potter: A History of Magic, British Library
• War as I Knew It, Patton
• A Brief History of Motion, Standage
• Killing the Legends, O’Reilly and Dugan
• Pearl Harbor, Nelson
• Mr. Hornaday’s War, Bechtel
• Return of a King, Dalrymple
• A Brief History of Creation, Mesler
• The Bassoon King, Wilson

Leadership

• Building Leaders, Malphurs and Mancini
• Eat Mor Chiken: Doing Business the Chick-fil-A Way, Cathy
• Great By Choice, Collins and Hansen
• What’s Best Next, Perman

Philosophy & Literature

• Apologetics Beyond Reason, Sire
• The Waste Land and Other Poems, Eliot
• After Virtue, MacIntyre*
• The Reason for God, Keller
• How to Read a Book, Adler and Van Doren [re-read]
• Mimesis, Auerbach [re-read]

Politics & Culture

• The View from Flyover Country, Kendzior
• One Billion Americans, Yglesias
• Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke
• Against War, Erasmus
• Stitches, Lamott
• The Power of Crisis, Bremmer
• Ready for Anything, Lipp

Theology – General

• The Business of Heaven, Lewis
• Reading for the Common Good, Smith*
• Communion with the Triune God, Owen
• The King Jesus Gospel, McKnight [re-read]
• Mere Christianity, Lewis [re-read]
• The Message of Easter, Peterson
• The Pursuit of Holiness, Bridges
• 66 Ways God Loves You, Rothschild
• How to Inhabit Time, Smith***
• Jesus Prom, Weece
• A Flexible Faith, Kristian*
• Quiet, Sherrill
• Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church, Froehlich
• The Circle Maker, Batterson
• The Air We Breathe, Scrivener*
• Reflections on the Sunday Gospel, Pope Francis
• Because He Loves Me, Fitzpatrick
• Discerning the Voice of God, Shirer
• Undistracted, Goff
• Soul Boom, Wilson
• Holy Hygge, Erickson*
• Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, Ciuciu

Theology – Gender and Sexuality

• Affirming God’s Image, Branch
• On Gender, Sproles
• Understanding Gender Dysphoria, Yarhouse*
• Same-Sex Marriage, McDowell and Stonestreet
• Messy Grace, Kaltenbach
• Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage?, Sprinkle
• Bible, Gender, and Sexuality, Brownson
• God and the Transgender Debate, Walker
• Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, Butterfield