Last year, I read all the books I put on my to-read list! (I last accomplished this feat in 2020, when I had a baby… and a pandemic).
Overall, my reading has suffered the predictable consequences of having two children (and not counting all the bedtime picture books). I read 88 books and a little over 26k words, about on par with last year… a long way from 172 books the year before my first daughter was born. Only one pre-1900 book: George Eliot’s Silas Marner.
I like this making this list because it helps me give myself permission to prioritize these books over other articles, magazines, and new releases. And, as always, my list is limited to books I already own at the beginning of the year.
Perhaps giddy with last year’s victory (and ignoring two secret projects in project), I’m adding two ambitious books to this year’s list: a series of essays by Daniel Tammet in French (it’s not available in English) and THE POWER BROKER. You tell me which is more foolhardy.
Here they are, alphabetically by author, except for Caro, balanced on top of the stack.
- (√) The Power Broker by Robert Caro
- The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World by Ran Abramitzky
- The Concept of Woman, Volume 3: The Search for Communion of Persons, 1500–2015 by Sr. Prudence Allen
- The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
- The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul
- (√) Origen’s Revenge: The Greek and Hebrew Roots of Christian Thinking on Male and Female by Brian Patrick Mitchell
- (√) Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective by Henri J. M. Nouwen
- (√) The Uncontrollability of the World by Hartmut Rosa
- Fragments de Paradis by Daniel Tammet
- (√) Encounters with Euclid: How an Ancient Greek Geometry Text Shaped the World by Benjamin Wardhaugh
How are you going to manage the french? Is your french quite good? I optimistically bought a george and the dragon book in Spanish once. I did finish a chapter. I hope you succeed. I’m curious how to wade through it.
The book that sparks my interest the most from your list is “The Technological Society”. I wonder how general or specific his ideas are, and whether they translate, or that the argument has to be rotated every few years for each new technologies particular problems.
My French is medium. I took it in HS, and I’ve done Duolingo for ten years or so. I tried the first few essays and got the meaning (I think) with a combination of what I can read and occasional resorts to google translate. It’s definitely a stretch!