5 to 7 minutes to read
Honorable Mention 1 of 3: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Concise, excellent, captivating narrative. Clear images. Critical subject matter. This should probably become a sort of required reading for the modern world as ignorance increases and control of thought/similar political maneuvers and strategies increase.
It was particularly cool to experience this not as a disinterested high school under mandatory reading, but as more of an adult with at least some foundations to perceive the profundity of the imagery. One of the greats for a reason.
Honorable Mention 2 of 3: Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller
Classic Keller. Another deserving both re-reading and thorough extraction of highlights/ideas. Also read his books on Prayer and Preaching, but didn’t quite find them to be on the level of this one.
Honorable Mention 3 of 3: Loveology by John Mark Comer
There are a lot of mediocre books on these subjects, and this one truly is great. General excellence in the subject: compelling, attuned to the world pulse, and speaking to modern pains.
#5: Cherish by Gary Thomas
I’m admittedly skeptical of dating/marriage books. This was great. Gary Thomas seems to both hold a unyielding Biblical view and be refreshingly aware of the gender stereotypes that pervade relationship books..burdens and bad looks for Christianity that often stretch the Biblical worldview beyond its boundaries (claiming as truth what is really opinion, anecdote or bias). His focus on the concept of cherishing feels original, yet rooted. The book had more substance than fluff and was highly applicable and balanced for each side of the aisle.
#4: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
All-around worthwhile book on a near-ubiquitous topic. How is God present in the monotony of actual real life? And in a substantive sense that isn’t a bunch of motivation preceding letdown reality?
#3: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
EXCELLENT. So spot on. This is the needed business book for a world that does not conform to ideals and the speculation of “experts.” The business models proceeding from scholarly work have immense limitations, especially for anyone doing anything truly novel or innovative. All models have limits and real company builders know where those lines lie. One of few business books I’ll definitely read again. It hits on the actual pain and suffering elements of leadership and startup growth too in a way that few others do.
#2: The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
Read this based on recommendations I found for it from an awesome website that aggregates recommendations from people like Naval, Balaji, Collison, Taleb, Andreessen, Graham, Khosla, Altman...and so many more (love, love, love this site).
This book was exactly as I hoped: high value, non-fluff (or even Bitcoin propaganda) and going to the roots of the roles of money across all time as a true Bitcoin 101. To use the Chesterton analogy, one should not be allowed to remove the fence before they know why it’s there. Highly recommend.
#1: Surprised by Hope by NT Wright
Early on, I knew it was one of my top five books of all time. I have a note-taking method where the highest highlight level is four stars in the margins. Most books get zero. This had many. I have so much deeper to dig into the broken ideas on heaven, earth, afterlife and physical vs immaterial and how they’ve so saturated Western Christianity (and probably far more than that given the Westernization of the world). This book was a profound demystification of some of the most confusing parts of Christianity when it was published in 2008, and it continues to ripple influence upon in the world through countless authors and speakers.
Reading this book was a tremendous deepening of the wonder I have for the gospel—maybe one of the biggest leaps of all over the last two decades or so. The God of the Bible is not one who obliterates the world and tractor beams people into non-bodies in an ethereal realm. He renewed and resurrected Jesus’ physical body. This was the “firstfruits.” Next is God’s people. And the whole created universe will follow, in a more true and historically accurate view of Christian orthodoxy.
The life-after-life-after-death explains so much of the confusion. It explains much of the Old Testament for me and fits so much more clearly with the cover-to-cover Scriptural narratives. I was cued onto this book by Josh Camp, Tim Mackie/Bible Project and John Mark Comer. I followed it up with Bible Project Classroom’s class on it. And there will be much, much more to follow on the subject. Finally, a warning: this is not an entry-level book. NT Wright is influential in large part because he brings academic rigor and credentials to a broader audience—this audience just tends to more so be people who read a lot of books and write their own. My guess is you should read Garden City if you want something more approachable (though that’s one of the few Comer books I haven’t read yet).
Others of Note:
- High Output Management by Andy Grove - obviously a legendary book. Valuable.
- A Promised Land (30hr book by Obama) - I really appreciated the Democrat/Liberal perspective being raised politically conservative
- Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor - this was inches from making it in as an HR. Of every book I’ve ever read, this is one of the first that I’d actually buy for people (and I have and will continue to!) - I’d love to meet Jordan one day.
- Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis - good. My best man at my wedding recently named his son Ransom too :) when I heard about it I was like “you know that’s the protagonist in Space Trilogy right?! And he didn’t know! So they were able to read through it.
- Breaking the King Saul Syndrome - about leadership/pride. Extremely concise and very good. Not in any way a best seller, but it deserves a lot more reads than it has had so far. If I had a publishing house, I’d ask Jonathan Martin to re-publish this with me.
- The Four Loves by CS Lewis - Definitely good, but not one of my all-times from Lewis.
- A Non-Anxious Presence by Mark Sayers - Good book. I just liked Facing Leviathan way more/it didn’t make the cut.
15 mentions! And I read 21 this year. So I guess I only managed to not mention six (and I indirectly mentioned two more within an entry). Oops - try again next year.
What Happened in 2022?
I got MARRIED. Christiana is the most incredible human being. Marriage is hard, but whenever I’m in my right mind I am grateful and honored to have her in my life to a deep level surpassing words. Had moved to Waco last August, but throughout this year, we became more rooted in the area, staying in one place for a full year (which was nice). Took new job leading small media company reviewing micro electric vehicles. Nana started grad school at Baylor in Speech Language Pathology. Went to Amsterdam!
Previous years list → 2021
Next years list → 2023 (not up yet)