2024: reading
I read fewer books in 2024 than any year in the last decade, and I can’t quite figure out why. I didn’t teach a class for the final eight months of the year, for goodness’ sake. What else did I have to do?
I did read some fairly fat books. And we had a busy summer of travel (including two weddings I performed). And I published at least thirty essays, in addition to two books and a number of lectures and dozens of podcasts. So I was busy.
But still. I’m disappointed. The truth is, I am the slowest reader I know and a terrible skimmer. In 2011 I read 150 books and the closest I’ve come since is 120. In 2025, to take full advantage of my sabbatical, even granting that I’ll be drafting a book manuscript, I should end the year with at least 150 books read, ideally closer to 175. It probably won’t happen, but a man can dream.
This year may not have been a success in terms of quantity, but it was in terms of quality. Below I’ve listed below my favorite reads of the year, organized loosely by category. The only one not listed, since it lacks a category and since now I’m a biased judge, is Gavin Ortlund’s What It Means to be Protestant, which won Christianity Today’s Book of the Year. A few of the following were re-reads, or at least deeper reads following prior skims, but most were first-time reads, however old the book.
Classics
With some friends, this year I read both The Iliad and The Odyssey. We’re currently reading Virgil. Later in the year we’re turning to Dante and Milton. Everyone in the group has different prior experiences with Homer et al. I’ve got an essay under consideration right now that’s partly about (re)reading these classics. We’ll see if someone goes for it.
Poetry
I did my usual re-read of Franz Wright, Mary Karr, and Marie Howe, followed by Malcolm Guite’s Sounding the Seasons and Charles Wright’s Scar Tissue. I confess that, at first, I thought the latter was James Wright, i.e., father to Franz. All three won the Pulitzer and share the same surname, so I think the mistake wasn’t entirely unjustified.
Fiction
10. Daniel Silva, The Kill Artist & The English Assassin. Ideal airport reading.
9. John le Carré, Call for the Dead; A Murder of Quality; Single & Single. Getting closer and closer to le Carré completion.
8. Michael Bond, A Bear Called Paddington & P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins.
7. William Gibson, Neuromancer. This is a “successful” book, and its influence and prescience cannot be overstated, but it is not a pleasant read. The snaggletooth prose had me bleeding, confused, and and even bored. I’m still glad I read it, but I doubt I’ll go on to the sequels.
6. Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn + Percival Everett, James. Thoughts here. Rereading Twain did give me a greater appreciation of his achievement.
5. Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. As promised, a delight. On to Moonbound.
4. Michel Houellebecq, Submission. Far different than I expected, based on its reputation. I’ve got a long essay on the novel I hope will be published soon.
3. Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem. Thoughts here.
2. Tad Williams, The Navigator’s Children. Thoughts here. The apocalypse of Osten Ard. Worth the wait.
1. Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener.
Academic Theology
7. Matthew Lee Anderson, Confidence in Life: A Barthian Account of Procreation. Turns out this Anderson guy knows his stuff!
6. Kendall Soulen, Irrevocable: The Name of God and the Unity of the Christian Bible. Some thoughts here.
5. Brant Pitre, Jesus and the Last Supper & (with Michael Barber and John Kincaid) Paul: A New Covenant Jew. I’m something of a Pitre super-fan; these books did not disappoint.
4. Ephraim Radner, The End of the Church; Leviticus; Hope Among the Fragments; Time and the Word. More here.
3. William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration.
2. Ian McFarland, The Hope of Glory: A Theology of Redemption. A former teacher of mine and arguably the proper successor to Hauerwas’s moniker for Joe Jones: “the best unknown theologian in America.” This book completes a loose trilogy, following books on creation from nothing and the incarnation. Earlier works also address theological anthropology, the image of God, and original sin. Next up is ethics. The lesson: Read McFarland, people!
1. Paul DeHart, Unspeakable Cults: An Essay in Christology. This book is a riddle, a provocation, a tour de force, and designed alternately to thrill and to madden. If I’d read it closer to its publication date, I would have pitched a review essay to an academic journal. I love Paul’s work, even when we disagree profoundly, and this is him at the peak of his powers.
Spiritual (older)
5. Romano Guardini, The Spirit of the Liturgy.
4. François Mauriac, The Eucharist: The Mystery of Holy Thursday.
3. Saint Isaac of Nineveh, On Ascetical Life.
2. Simone Weil, Waiting for God. Is Weil having a moment? It seems I can’t go one week without seeing a new essay or podcast about her. Or maybe she’s always having a moment, as seems to have been true from very early in her life.
1. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath. A perfect book. Perhaps the best book about technology, because it’s not about technology, that you’ll ever read.
Technology
8. Franklin Foer, World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech.
7. Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation & Abigail Shrier, Bad Therapy. They go together.
6. Albert Borgmann, Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology.
5. Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight For a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.
4. Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
3. Byung-Chul Han, Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy. My second Han, and not the last.
2. D. W. Pasulka, American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. A shot in the arm. Pasulka’s star is rising with reason. Hoping to read her latest soon.
1. Sara Hendren, What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World. In contention for my favorite book I read this year. Certainly the best book-about-technology I read this year. Sara is a rock star.
Nonfiction
12. Ryan P. Burge, The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going & Stephen Bullivant, Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America & Isabella Kasselstrand, Phil Zuckerman, and Ryan T. Cragun, Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society. These folks keep me honest, Zuckerman especially.
11. John le Carré, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life. Opt for the audiobook; as read by the late author, you might as well be by the fireside with the master storyteller himself.
10. Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis. More here.
9. Albert Borgmann, Real American Ethics & Crossing the Postmodern Divide. The latter is outstanding; the former is not, in my view, Borgmann’s finest work. More here, in any case.
8. Mark Lilla, The Reckless Mind: Intellectual in Politics.
7. Jennifer Banks, Natality: Toward a Philosophy of Birth. Beautiful. I still can’t quite believe she pulled it off, given the thin ice all around.
6. Carlos Eire, They Flew: A History of the Impossible. Scholarly cheek in the best way.
5. Joseph Bottum, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America. Ten years later, it remains a vital “explainer” for our times. And beautifully written to boot.
4. Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity. A classic for a reason. As informative as it is distressing and even depressing. Let the reader understand.
3. Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. A one of one. Nothing like it. The sections on therapy and suicide read like they were written yesterday, in direct response to current events. There is nothing new under the sun.
2. Guy Davenport, The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays. I’m late to Davenport, but better—far, far better—late than never. What a joy.
1. Clive James, Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time. This book rocked my world this summer. I couldn’t put it down. I’ll never be one-tenth the writer as James, or one-hundredth the reader, or one-thousandth the linguist—but I can try. Reading James doesn’t make you want to give up: it, he, makes you want to persevere. More thoughts here and here.
