It turns out that Goodreads has a nifty feature that plots the publication date of books you read against when you read them. (I think it gets confused by second editions and reissues, though). It was fun to see my year’s (well, half-year’s — I started using Goodreads this summer) reading plotted out in this way. Turns out the top ten oldest things I read were:
- Loss and Gain: Story of a Convert – John Henry Newman (1848) [reread]
- Dracula – Bram Stoker (1879)
- Cuchulain of Muirthemne – Lady Augusta Gregory (1902)
- Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres – Henry Adams (1905)
- Major Barbara – George Bernard Shaw (1905)
- The Problems of Philosophy – Bertrand Russel (1912)
- Kristin Lavransdatter – Sigrid Undset (1920)
- The Place of the Lion – Charles Williams (1931)
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon – Dame Rebecca West (1941)
- The Seven Storey Mountain – Thomas Merton (1948)
Meanwhile, I don’t have a reading resolution as such, but here are the books I have on deck (meaning literally in my possession–Kelly Link’s Get In Trouble doesn’t count, nor does Wesley Hill’s Spiritual Friendship even though I’ve preordered both). So, this list is composed of library books that I’ve got out at the moment, Christmas presents, and the books that rattle around while I keep intending to read them (though I finally knocked Josef Pieper’s The Four Cardinal Virtues off that list this year!). I’ve listed them alphabetically by author, and included some hat tips, where appropriate,
- (√) Quantum Computing Since Democritus – Scott Aaronson (prompted by Scott Alexander)
- (√) The Kernel and the Husk – Edwin Abbott (theological writings by the author of Flatland!)
- (tried it, don’t plan to finish) Three Philosophers: Aristotle, Aquinas, Frege – G.E.M. Anscombe and P.T. Geach
- Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion – Caroline Bynum
- (√) The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection – Robert Farrar Capon
- (√) Vita Nostra – Sergey and Marina Dyachenko
- Natural Goodness – Philippa Foot
- (√) Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London – Matthew Hunter
- (√) Original Sin: A Cultural History – Alan Jacobs (recommended by PEG)
- Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Union in the Middle Ages – Ruth Mazo Karras
- Mathematics and Religion – Javier Leach
- (√) The Stones of Florence – Mary McCarthy (because it was recommended in Balkan Ghosts)
- Why Place Matters – Wilfred McClay and Ted McCallister
- (√) The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality – Paul Murray OP (a gift from Irish Dominicans!)
- The Idea of a University – John Henry Newman
- (√) A Prayer Journal – Flannery O’Connor
- (√) Living the Truth – Josef Pieper
- (√) The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann – Father Alexander Schmemann
- (√) The Story of a Soul – St. Therese of Lisieux
- (√) The New Meaning of Treason – Dame Rebecca West
- (√) The Return of the Soldier – Dame Rebecca West
- (√) Saint Augustine – Dame Rebecca West
- (√) A Train of Powder – Dame Rebecca West
Oh, and speaking of Goodreads and intended reading, if you use the site, and are excited about my book, Arriving at Amen coming out in the spring, could I prevail upon all y’all to add my book to your “want-to-read” list on Goodreads? It’s one of the proxy variables that helps publishers and booksellers decide how much of a push to put behind an upcoming book.