Top Books Read in 2018

George MacDonald
1.  Sir Gibbie (David Jack)
2.  Castle Warlock (David Jack)
3.  Robert Falconer (David Jack)
4.  Phantastes
5.  The Golden Key
6.  The Light Princess
7.  The Shepherd's Castle (Michael Phillips)
8.  The Minister's Restoration (Michael Phillips)

Charles Williams
1.  War in Heaven
2.  Many Dimensions
3.  The Greater Trumps
4.  Taliessin through Logres
5.  The Region of the Summer Stars
6.  He Came Down from Heaven
7.  The Forgiveness of Sins
8.  Collected Plays
9.  Three Plays
10.  Witchcraft
11.  The Silver Stair
12.  The Chapel of the Thorn
13.  The Celian Moment and Other Essays
14.  Outlines of Romantic Theology
15.  Letters to Lalage

Others in Alphabetical Order by Author
1.  The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
2.  Sherlock Holmes and The Needle's Eye - Len Bailey
3.  The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
4.  Hobbit Lessons - Devin Brown
5.  The Man Who Knew Too Much - G. K. Chesterton
6.  Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie
7.  Reflecting the Eternal - Marsha Daigle-Williamson
8.  Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
9.  Lenten Lands - Douglas H. Gresham
10.  King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
11.  The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
12.  Beowulf and Other Old English Poems - Constance B. Hieatt
13.  A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
14.  Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis
15.  Surprised by Joy - C. S. Lewis
16.  The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis
17.  The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis
18.  Charles Williams: The Third Inkling - Grevel Lindop
19.  Paradise Lost - John Milton
20.  Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus - Nabeel Qureshi
21.  A Comedian's Guide to Theology - Thor Ramsey
22.  The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy L. Sayers
23.  The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
24.  The Narnia Code - Michael Ward
25.  Surprised by Agape - Justin Wiggins
26.  Stars Through the Clouds - Donald T. Williams
27.  A Bounty of Blandings - P. G. Wodehouse
28.  Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
29.  God The Trinity - Malcolm B. Yarnell III
30.  The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings - Philip Zaleski & Carol Zaleski

October Reading

1. The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis - C. S. Lewis & Don Giovanni Calabria
2. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
3. All Hallows' Eve - Charles Williams
4. The Road Not Taken and Other Early Poems - Robert Frost
5. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
6. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
7. The Lair of the White Worm - Bram Stoker
8. The Golden Key - George MacDonald

September Reading

1. The Four Loves - C. S. Lewis
2. The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
4. Miles of Smiles - Bruce Lansky
5. Revise Us Again - Frank Viola
6. Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee
7. The Ultimate Fender Book - Paul Day & Dave Hunter
8. The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
9. The Dark Tower and Other Stories - C. S. Lewis
10. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: 1662
11. Descent into Hell - Charles Williams
12. Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan

August Reading

1. The Summer We Read Gatsby - Danielle Ganek
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
3. Thrones, Dominations - Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh
4. Poor Folk - Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Volume One: 1660
6. The Wisdom of the Shire - Noble Smith
7. Heaven Bound: Creating a Funeral or Memorial Service for Your Pet - Paraclete Press
8. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Volume Two: 1661
9. The 40 Most Influential Christians - Daryl Aaron

July Reading

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
2. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemmingway
3. 4.50 From Paddington - Agatha Christie
4. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot
6. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
7. Playing for Pizza - John Grisham
8. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
9. Biblical Preaching - Haddon W. Robinson
10. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend - Katarina Bivald
11. The New City Catechism

May Reading

1. George MacDonald: An Anthology - C. S. Lewis
2. God in the Dock - C. S. Lewis
3. Living the Braveheart Life - Randall Wallace
4. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
5. The Sacred Journey - Frederick Buechner
6. Church Elders - Jeramie Rinne
7. Song of the Sun - St. Francis of Assisi
8. Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life of G. K. Chesterton - Kevin Belmonte
9. The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis
10. The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien
11. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers
12. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
13. One for the Books - Joe Queenan
14. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward Fitzgerald
15. Right Ho, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
16. Unidentified Flying Oddball - Vic Crume

April Reading

1. 1 Peter: Message of Encouragement - John H. McClanahan
2. The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter - Scot McKnight
3. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4. The Most Reluctant Convert - David C. Downing
5. C. S. Lewis: Images of His World - Douglas Gilbert & Clyde S. Kilby
6. Letters of C. S. Lewis - W. H. Lewis & Walter Hooper (editors)
7. Reading Spenser: An Introduction to The Faerie Queene - Roger Sale
8. Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis
9. Jane Austen - Peter Leithart
10. Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings - C. S. Lewis
11. Lilith - George MacDonald
12. Spirits in Bondage - C. S. Lewis
13. Spenser's Images of Life - C. S. Lewis with Alastair Fowler

February Reading

1. C. S. Lewis: An Apologist For Education - Louis Markos
2. Dancing on the Head of a Pen - Robert Benson
3. Striding Folly - Dorothy L. Sayers
4. C. S. Lewis At The Breakfast Table - James T. Como
5. The Silver Chair - C. S. Lewis
6. The Song of Songs - Marcia Falk
7. The Laws of Marie de France - Robert Hanning & Joan Ferrante
8. Four Quartets - T. S. Eliot
9. The Pilgrim's Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness - David Mills
10. The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library - Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle)
11. Letters to Heaven: Reaching Beyond the Great Divide - Calvin Miller
12. William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back - Ian Doescher
13. Cupside Down - Terry Cliett

January Reading

1. C. S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands - Brian Sibley

2. Chivalry - Zach Hunter

3. The Ballad of the White Horse - G. K. Chesterton

4. The Horse and His Boy - C. S. Lewis

5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne

6. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table - Roger Lancelyn Green

7. To Live Is Christ To Die Is Gain - Matt Chandler & Jared C. Wilson

8. Understanding Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings - William Ready

9. The Pastor as Scholar & The Scholar as Pastor - John Piper & D. A. Carson

10. Quest for Celestia - Steven James

11. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis

12. The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis

December Reading

• An Experiment in Criticism - C. S. Lewis
• A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
• The Practice of the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence
• Clive Staples Lewis: A Dramatic Life - William Griffin
• The Southern Poets - William Lander Weber
• The Chimes - Charles Dickens
• Glorifying God: A Yearlong Collection of Classical Devotional Writings - Thomas Watson
• Holy Bible: English Standard Version
• A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken
• The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
• That Hideous Strength - C. S. Lewis
• Walking with Bilbo - Sarah Arthur
• Diary of a Jackwagon - Tim Hawkins
• C. S. Lewis, My Godfather: Letters, Photos and Recollections - Laurence Harwood

Top 20 Books Read for 2016

I should make two clarifications.  First, this is not a list of books written in 2016.  This will be obvious to most.  Second, the title of this post is greatly misleading because I have excluded all books written by C. S. Lewis and all books about C. S. Lewis that I read this year.  Just click on the links to see those posts.  OK, I should also admit that my number one book for this year is connected with C. S. Lewis.
Also, there is one particular and unique book that I do not include in a list such as this, and that is because it belongs on a plane of its own--the Bible.  If you read nothing else, read the Bible.  Read the Bible before you read anything else.  This year (as is my habit of some years now) I read through the Bible.  I chose the English Standard Version.  I try to select a different English translation to read through each year.
One other thing of note.  The final count of books read this year is 143.  This is the most I've read in a single year, and this list comes from those 143 books.
Without further ado, here is my list.

1. A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken
2. The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien
3. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
4. Tremendous Trifles - G. K. Chesterton
5. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
6. Reading Between the Lines - Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
7. The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
8. The Princess and Curdie - George MacDonald
9. The Warden - Anthony Trollope
10. Dracula - Bram Stoker
11. The Quotable Chesterton - Kevin Belmonte
12. Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues - Mark Eddy Smith
13. At Home in Mitford - Jan Karon
14. Murder in the Cathedral - T. S. Eliot
15. Pymalion - George Bernard Shaw
16. Bunnicula - Deborah and James Howe
17. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
18. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Jessie L. Weston
19. The Book of the Duchess - Geoffrey Chaucer
20. Electra - Sophocles

Top Twenty Books by C. S. Lewis Read This Year

A good portion of the 132 books I've read this year have been by C. S. Lewis, so I decided to do a list dedicated just to those.  Of course, who can really rank Lewis' books?  But everyone has his or her favorites.  Here is how I decided to do this one: I will rank each book according to how much I enjoyed reading it.  Certainly, I would recommend all of them.

1. Mere Christianity
2. The Great Divorce
3. Surprised by Joy
4. Out of the Silent Planet
5. Of Other Worlds: Essays & Stories
6. Miracles
7. Letters to an American Lady
8. An Experiment in Criticism
9. The Abolition of Man
10. Perelandra
11. Reflections on the Psalms
12. A Preface to Paradise Lost
13. That Hideous Strength
14. The Screwtape Letters
15. Till We Have Faces
16. Narrative Poems
17. The Problem of Pain
18. Christian Reflections
19. Letters to Children
20. A Grief Observed

Top Seven Books for Pastors

I read over 130 books this year.  Of those, a good portion were about Christian ministry in particular, or Christian living in general.  Here's a list of seven of those that I would definitely recommend.  Of course, this list is not limited to pastors.  All Christians would benefit from reading these books.  Blessings!











7.  Lessons from the Ladder - Neil Joiner
6.  Jesus Swagger: Break Free from Poser Christianity - Jarrid Wilson
5.  The Power of Positive Praying - John Bisagno
4.  Pastors in the Classics - Leland Ryken, Philip Ryken, and Todd Wilson
3.  The Book on Leadership - John MacArthur
2.  Who Moved My Pulpit? - Thom S. Rainer
1.  Praying the Bible - Donald S. Whitney

November Reading

• The Preaching Event - John R. Claypool
• C. S. Lewis on Faith - Lesley Walmsley
• The Abolition of Man - C. S. Lewis
• Tremendous Trifles - G. K. Chesterton
• Thoroughly Married - Dennis Guernsey
• Christian Reflections - C. S. Lewis
• Past Watchful Dragons - Walter Hooper
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Jessie L. Weston
• The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
• Sonnets from the Portuguese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Reflections on the Psalms - C. S. Lewis
• Shakespeare on Leadership - Frederick Talbott
• Who Moved My Pulpit? - Thom S. Rainer

October Reading

• The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Philippians - John MacArthur
• Exploring Ephesians & Philippians: An Expository Commentary - John Phillips
• The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
• Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Philippians - Tony Merida & Francis Chan
• Be Joyful: Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy - Warren W. Wiersbe
• The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church - Dave Gibbons
• Aslan's Call: Finding Our Way to Narnia - Mark Eddy Smith
• The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative - Steven D. Mathewson
• Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories - C. S. Lewis
• The Quotable Chesterton - Kevin Belmonte
• The Visionary Christian - C. S. Lewis
• Perelandra - C. S. Lewis
• Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis
• The Warden - Anthony Trollope
• Lessons from the Ladder - Neil Joiner
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
• Things That Cannot Be Shaken - K. Scott Oliphant & Rod Mays

September Reading

• What Would You Like On Your Mashed Potatoes? - Tom Davis
• Growing Up in Vienna, Georgia - Tom Davis
• What America Is - Neil Joiner
• The Jewel of Seven Stars - Bram Stoker
• Yours, Jack - C. S. Lewis
• Jack's Life: The Life Story of C. S. Lewis - Douglas Gresham
• At Home in Mitford - Jan Karon
• A Grief Observed - C. S. Lewis
• The Book of the Duchess - Geoffrey Chaucer
• In the Days of the Comet - H. G. Wells

June Reading

• Creative Family Activities: Living, Loving, & Learning Together - Valerie Sloane
• Babushka and the Three Kings - Ruth Robbins
• The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

April Reading

• Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of the Lord of the Rings - Mark Eddy Smith
• The Island of Dr. Moreau - H. G. Wells
• The Problem of Pain - C. S. Lewis
• The Soul of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Gene E. Veith, Jr.
• Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw
• Narrative Poems - C. S. Lewis
• Letters to an American Lady - C. S. Lewis
• Wait Till Helen Comes - Mary Downing Hahn
• Surprised By Joy - C. S. Lewis
• Bunnicula - Deborah and James Howe
• The Life of Timon of Athens - William Shakespeare
• A Display of God's Glory - Mark E. Dever
• A Preface To Paradise Lost - C. S. Lewis

March Reading

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
2. Jesus Swagger: Break Free from Poser Christianity - Jarrid Wilson
3. Pastors in the Classics - Leland Ryken, Philip Ryken, & Todd Wilson
4. C. S. Lewis & Mere Christianity: The Crisis that Created a Classic - Paul McCusker
5. C. S. Lewis: Letters to Children - Lyle W. Dorsett & Marjorie Lamp Mead
6. Till We Have Faces - C. S. Lewis
7. The New American Commentary: Leviticus - Mark F. Rooker
8. Be Holy: Becoming "Set Apart" For God - Warren W. Wiersbe
9. Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Leviticus - Allan Moseley
10. The Princess and Curdie - George MacDonald
11. Murder in the Cathedral - T. S. Eliot
12. Electra - Sophocles (translated by George Young)
13. Reading Between the Lines - Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
14. The Gospel According to Matthew - Leon Morris
15. Exploring the Gospel of Matthew - John Phillips
16. The New American Commentary: Matthew - Craig L. Blomberg
17. Layman's Bible Book Commentary: Matthew - Clair M. Crissey
18. Studies in Matthew: The King and the Kingdom - Roland Q. Leavell
19. Matthew (Vol. II) - J. Vernon McGee
20. Holman New Testament Commentary: Matthew - Stuart K. Weber
21. A Room with a View - E. M. Forster
22. The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew - Michael J. Wilkins
23. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 24-28 - John MacArthur
24. Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Matthew - David Platt
25. Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis

February Reading

• Punk Monk - Andy Freeman & Peter Greig
• Praying the Bible - Donald S. Whitney
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
• The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis - Alan Jacobs
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
• If I Had Lunch with C. S. Lewis - Alister McGrath