To Be Read List « Collateral Bloggage

To Be Read List

It occurred to me after agonizing over my To Be Read List for 2010, that it might make 2011’s list easier to assemble if I just made myself a handy-dandy place to accrue future reads.

This won’t be where I keep track of everything I read, but only what I intend to read. Whether I read everything on the list remains to be seen, but I’m guessing “not.”

(I read through the Bible once a year, too, so if you’re wondering about my Bible Reading Plan, it’s after the book list.)

The top of the list is easy, in that it’s just the twelve or so I put on the TBR list.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (finished 1/6/2010)
Emma, by Jane Austen
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
God of the Possible, by Greg Boyd
The Inescapable Love of God, by Thomas Talbott
Jesus and the Undoing of Adam, by C. Baxter Kruger (reading as of 1/5/2010)
The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, Edited by James Beilby and Paul R. Eddy (started but shelved)
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton (started but shelved)
1776, by David McCullough
Feeding Your Appetites, by Stephen Arterburn (finished 1/18/2010)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
John Adams, by David McCullough
Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke (finished 1/28/2010)
2010, by Arthur C. Clarke
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stephenson
The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (reading as of 2/20/2010)
The Strain, by Guillermo Del Toro
The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

Bible Reading Plan

I’ve changed my Bible Read-throughing technique quite a bit over the years. But one thing that always stays the same is bookmarks. I print up bookmarks with every chapter in the Bible on them. I print them out and fold them into bookmark-ish shape and away I go! If you just want to look at those files, skip to the end. (I also have a non-bookmark file if you’re more into keeping a notebook.)

But here’s my current method, and the rationale for it, mixed in with a few bits of opining from me:

Read one Psalm and one other Poetry chapter every day. This way, before you’re even through Psalms, you’ve finished Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job. It’s a huge boost to the other part of the reading plan.
Read 3-5 chapters of the other OT books (Pentateuch, Historical Books, Prophecy) four days a week. I generally just do a straight read-through from Genesis to Malachi, skipping over the Poetry, because by the time I’d get to it, I’ve already read it.
The flexibility of 3-5 chapters is so that you can read whatever makes sense or is comfortable at the time. For instance, the story of Joseph runs basically from Genesis 37 to 50. I’m not reading fourteen chapters in a sitting. But there’s a fairly nice breaking point after Chapter 41, so I’ll stop there. There’s another one after Chapter 47, so that’s my next day. And 48-50 is a nice, easy chunk to read to finish out Genesis.
Read the tougher stuff aloud, with or without an audience. This can be used to great effect on much of Exodus and Leviticus. It’s harder for your mind to wander when reading aloud. You can also tag-team it with a partner as long as you’re reading the same translation (it’s tougher to concentrate on following along when the words don’t match.)
Read five chapters from the NT on the one leftover weekday. Why not just read them a day at a time? Context. In the Gospels, you can probably get away with going a chapter at a time, but in the Epistles, you’ll lose the train of the writer’s thought.
Read in the morning. Maybe you’re disciplined enough to set aside time in the evening for reading before bed. But you’re not, so don’t tell yourself you are. Get up a bit early and read while having a morning cuppa something.
Don’t make excuses. If you’re a slow reader, we’re still probably only talking about 30 minutes a day here. Skip The Office and read your Bible!
Do this every year! It really gets easier the more times you do it. You can read the same translation over and over (good for getting things memorized) or try out new ones.
Get an audio Bible. I have the ESV Listener’s Bible, and it’s awesome.
If you’ve started and not finished, don’t start over. It’s demoralizing to start and not finish. Pick up where you left off and FINISH! Once you know you’ve read the whole thing, it’s easier to do it again. Besides, reading Exodus over and over again could be regarded as cruel and unusual punishment.