Reading List of 2008
As 2008 comes to a close, here is a look at the different books I have read this year.
Here is a listing of them with my rating for them (5 being the best):
- Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons 3.5
- Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose 4
- Little-Known Facts About Well-Known Stuff by David Hoffman 3
- It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg 3.5
- The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren 4.5
- The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell 1
- Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina 3
- Organic Community by Joseph R. Myers 3.5
- Finding Our Way Again by Brian McLaren 3
- Terrify No More by Gary Haugen 4.5
- The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom 4.5
- The Shack by William P. Young 5
- What God Thinks of Kids by Dr. Joe Grana 3
- Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell 4.5
- I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt by Vince Antonucci 3.5
- Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 4
- No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke 3.5
- Embrace Me by Lisa Samson 4
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 3.5
- Guns Save Lives by Robert A. Waters 4
- Buck Naked Faith by Eric Sandras 3
- Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman 3.5
- Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose 3
- Armed Response by David Kenik 3.5
- The Secret Life of Houdini by Kalush and Sloman 3.5
- The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence 2.5
- Wild at Heart by John Eldredge 4
- Fusion by Nelson Searcy 3.5
- Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell 4
- Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers 3.5
- Blog by Hugh Hewitt 4
- How Good is Good Enough? by Andy Stanley 3.5
- The Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts, Ph.D 4
- Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren 3
- A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards 4.5
- On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam 4.5
All in all I read 36 books. As I did last year, here are my yearly awards:
My favorite book of 2008: The Shack by William P. Young
My least favorite book of 2008: The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell
Posted by jeremy
This is the personal blog of Jeremy Jernigan. Husband, father, teaching pastor, and student of truth.
This is the personal blog of Jeremy Jernigan. Husband, father, teaching pastor, and student of truth.
You not liking Josh McDowell? Didn’t see that one coming.
Seriously, though, The Shack was probably one of my favorite books I read this year. Good choice. You read a lot.
My favorite “reads” of 2008: the series of Charles Swindoll, Great Lives from God’s Word. I especially recommend the volumes on Jesus, Paul, and a fine book with much encouragement as well as biblical lore–”Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives.” Swindoll’s series is a BIG 5!
Of the making of books there is no end but let’s resolve to keep ourselves fresh and in the game by substantial reading in 2009!
Jeremy, are there any good books about the Diamondbacks or do they all have Yankee in the title!
Happy New Year to all!
Charles.
I know you read a lot but when you see all the books listed…you read A LOT! Ok, the only thing I will say is that I am surprised Babywise did not get a 5. We refer to that book so much…what are the qualifications for receiving a 5?
His 5 star ratings are based upon the overall studliness of the author I believe. That William p Young must be a real looker!
To get a 5 rating it has to be an overall good recommendation for anyone. The only reason I didn’t give Babywise a 5 is that it is a very specific topic that only applies to people in a certain stage of life. I recommend the Shack to anybody no matter who they are or what stage of life they are in.
Well, I think it should get a 5 based on “how” many times you recommend the book and if I recall, Babywise has been recommended just as much as The Shack. You do not have to change your rating even though I think you meant to give it a 5. It’s ok…I forgive you!
Oh yeah, Richard…”me too trouble talking”!!!
And I have been on a reading kick lately, I will have to add some of these books to my ever-growing list!
Okay Michelle, as a former babysitter of many kids whose parents have done Babywise, I will give it a five!
You probably should get some voracious reader award or something! lol It so puts my paltry sum of 11 books I read this year to shame. : (
And I totally agree with your picks, although I agree with Michelle in that you should change your rating of Babywise to a 5 (no, make that a 5++!) just for the sheer fact that it’s made your lives much more manageable and sane which in turn does directly and indirectly impact all people in your lives (friends, co-workers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. I think you get my point. ; ) Seeing how well Babywise works, then these people may recommend the book to other people in their lives that could be helped by the book(s). And because of you guys telling me about Babywise, I now know there are Babywise books for pre-teen and teen kids which I plan on reading! So I rest my case…it deserves at least a 5!!
Not too bad a list there, pastor, but I cleaned your clock last year with 114 or 115 books–can’t remember exactly. I am most surprised by your high opinion of The Shack. I don’t fall into the camp of Christians that find it to be spiritually dangerous, but I just didn’t think it was very well written. I love fiction and read a lot of it, and a good deal of it is pure escapism–in fact you can find me on facebook and look up a note I posted of my 2008 reading list, and there’s lots of poorly written fiction on there. My frustration is that Christians are frequently willing to settle for mediocre media. Christian movies are often poorly written, feature cheesey soundtracks, and as as result are mocked in the secular world for their poor quality. Christian music? The overwhelming majority of it is a direct ripoff of successful secular artistic style. Why is this when there are many believers with vast talent in these areas (take your pal Zach Lind for example). I felt like Young’s book fell into this category of mediocre Christian produce. I’m for almost any book that gets people reading, really almost anything this side of pornographic magazines. I think reading is that important. But as Christians, we should be able to produce excellence, and The Shack falls short:
melodramatic plot to which it is difficult to accurately relate
grammatical errors
cliche plot devices
self-depricating narrator who apologizes for the poor quality of the book in the intro
etc.
I’m not a hater here. I read the book. I’ve recommended it to a few people. I just don’t think it deserves the high level of praise it so frequently receives. There are several other books on your list this year that were far more powerful in my opinion. Far more excellent. Far more glorifying to God by their quality.