2008 Reading List

As one of my goals for 2009, I plan to read six (6) books, as compared to zero (0) books finished in 2008. (See the entry below for my other goals.) The feat would be a good one for me a failed reader, but many of my friends and family do much better and read more books during a good month.

Both my brother and my friend Brian are two people who read a lot. My brother lives in a monastery, and you can see that impacts half of his reading list. (Brian used to travel a lot as a consultant, but not much anymore.) As my brother told me, "If I’m not praying, then I’m probably in my cell reading. That’s part of being a monk, I guess." He is also in graduate student but excluded required reading, as well as books that he did not read cover-to-cover. I thought to ask Brian for a list of his 2008 reads. My brother loves lists, so he had been keeping track along the way.

I wish I read as much as they do. I start out at a disadvantage as both of them read much faster than I do, at least twice as fast. For most novels, I read approximately ten (10) pages per hour. Relatively recent exceptions are the Harry Potter books, which have margins that allow only a couple of dozen words per page, and the Da Vinci Code, which starts a new chapter, skipping to a new page, every few pages. Also, I just don't put the time in, which is a choice I make with the limited time I seem to have with other obligations and hobbies.

Books Read in 2008

K.C./Brother Philip (alphabetically by author, and chronologically for the same author)
1. Aristotle – Categories
2. Benedict XVI – Deus Caritas Est
3. Benedict XVI – Sacramentum Caritatis
4. Benedict XVI – Spe Salvi
5. Derek Bickerton – Language and Human Behavior
6. Benjamin Black – The Lemur
7. Heinrich Böll – The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
8. Louis Bouyer – The Meaning of the Monastic Life
9. Louis Bouyer – The Roman Socrates
10. Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and Margarita
11. Paul Cobley – Introducing Semiotics
12. Jean Daniélou – Prayer: The Mission of the Church
13. John Deeley – C.S. Peirce and the Recovery of Signum
14. Francois de Sales – The Spiritual Conferences
15. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations
16. Albert Einstein – Relativity: The Special and General Theory
17. William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying
18. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Bookshop
19. Penelope Fitzgerald – Offshore
20. Penelope Fitzgerald – Human Voices
21. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Beginning of Spring
22. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Gate of Angels
23. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Blue Flower
24. Nadine Gordimer – My Son's Story
25. Brian Greene – The Fabric of the Cosmos
26. Graham Greene – Brighton Rock
27. Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt
28. Graham Greene – Monsignor Quixote
29. Colin Harrison – Mrs. Corbett’s Request
30. Martin Heidegger – Introduction to Metaphysics
31. Victor Hugo – Les Misérables
32. Basil Hume – To Be a Pilgrim
33. Kazuo Ishiguro – A Pale View of Hills
34. Henry James – The American (in progress)
35. Søren Kierkegaard – Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
36. Søren Kierkegaard – The Sickness unto Death
37. Robert Kysar – John the Maverick Gospel
38. Laura Lippman – The Girl in the Green Raincoat (in progress)
39. Bernard Lonergan – Understanding and Being
40. Bernard Lonergan – Method in Theology
41. Michael J. Loux – Metaphysics
42. Gabriel García Márquez – Cien Años de Soledad
43. Cormac McCarthy – The Road
44. Ian McEwan – Saturday
45. Flannery O'Connor – Wise Blood
46. Joseph Ratzinger – ‘In the Beginning…’
47. José Saramago – Blindness
48. Angelo Scola – Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Theological Style
49. John Steinbeck – The Winter of Our Discontent
50. Hans Urs von Balthasar – Love Alone Is Credible
51. Hans Urs von Balthasar – Engagement with God
52. Evelyn Waugh – A Handful of Dust
53. Steven Weinberg – The First Three Minutes
54. Ludwig Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus


Brian (chronologically)

1. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
2. I Hope They Server Beer in Hell – Tucker Max
3. World War Z – Max Brooks
4. Wish You Were Here – Mike Gayle
5. Fearless Fourteen – Janet Evanovich
6. Plum Lovin' – Janet Evanovich
7. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
8. I Was Told There'd Be Cake – Sloane Crosley
9. In The Woods – Tara French
10. The Book of Joe –Jonathan Tropper
11. Rigged – Ben Mezrich
12. Brand New Friend – Mike Gayle
13. When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
14. Creepers – David Morrell
15. Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less – Barry Schwartz
16. Mine All Mine – Adam Davies
17. The Spy Who Came For Christmas – David Morrell

N.B.: He started reading The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brain Greene in December 2007, but read most of it in January 2008.