2020 started out on track to be a great year for me and reading! The confluence of many things all lined up perfectly to make it Greg’s year to enter the ranks of the well read!
I was as busy as ever, but I had job that required nearly 2 hours of commuting every day. I had gotten up to speed on audio books, and opened an audible account. Any book I could think of was few clicks away, and I had two hours per day of optimal listening conditions, as I commuted up and down one of the most scenic sections of highway in the whole United States.
Well, that lasted till March, and then 30 years of commuting to work every day came to sudden and abrupt end. That slowed my progress, but I still found other good opportunities to for listening to books like hoeing weeds.
Here’s my list of books for 2020:
God Has a Name (288 pages)
by John Mark Comer
An excellent and thought provoking book. Our view of God, and our view of our relationship to him is so influenced by what we’ve been taught, and what we’ve grown up being told. Bravo to John Mark Comer for being able to reach for reason and common sense to see so many things we’ve all been missing. I highly recommend this book.
The Best and the Brightest (688 pages)
by David Halberstam
I’ve heard about this book for years, and was always intrigued by its title. As I read this book, I got a sense of perhaps what might have been golden age of journalism. The book is very detailed, and often very dry, but I felt like the author was trying his best to deliver the full story of everything. There is so much information in this book, and so many lessons to be learned. I would highly recommend reading this book even a second time. Among the many things I’ll remember from this book, was the fact the President Johnson was tough, and a bully, and not afraid of just about anything, but he was completely intimidated by Kennedy and all his Ivy league associates. This insecurity drove him crazy. One of Johnson’s close associates said of the President that he did not receive an inferior education at Southwest Texas State Teachers College compared to all the Harvard people Kennedy brought in, he only thought he did.
Atomic Habits (319 pages)
by James Clear
This was definitely a good book filled with valuable substance. It is full of practical techniques to improve your productivity. Another book I would consider reading twice.
Pursuing an Earthly Spirituality (218 pages)
by Gary Selby
An excellent discussion of the themes found in many of C.S. Lewis’s works. We were fortunate to have been exposed to some of this material in person by the author when he taught some of our Sunday classes. I don’t think you can put a value on your relationship to God, or on your awareness of that relationship, so in that sense, this book is priceless!
Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World (336 pages)
by Andy Stanley
Another book helping us try and give a fresh and unbiased look to what we believe. In some ways similar to the book “God Has a Name”. It’s hard to look at something without being influencd by what you’ve always been taught, but there is so much to be gained by doing so.
A Short History of Nearly Everything (544 pages)
by Bill Bryson
A really interesting book covering just about everything having to do with science, without being too technical in most cases. Much was interesting, and some was boring. I think what I’ll remember most are the parts that cover the last 200 years or so, and some of the tragedies that forever changed our globe. One chemist alone, Thomas Midgley, Jr (born 1889, died 1944) gave us two of the most “useful” products we had when I was growing up: leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons. How these things came to be is not only interesting, but perhaps there are lessons to be learned. What kinds of things are we doing today that we’ll look back upon in horror 100 years from now?
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (432 pages)
by Kevin Fedarko
Outstanding book all around! Great in terms of history, great description of one of our grandest natural resources, and great story about people and an amazing sequence of events.
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (640 pages)
by Robert M. Gates
This was probably the best book I read all year. I believe after reading this book, Gates was as objective as any person could be. He worked for both George Bush and Barak Obama, and in the end sacrificed a lot give up a comfortable life when his country needed him. The book definitely changed or at least modified my view on many aspects of this period of history. I’m anxious to read Gates’ next book.
The Servant (187 pages)
by James Hunter
A fictional story about a business manager who’s life and career seems to be going fine, but are falling apart. He reluctantly agrees to a week long stay at a Monastery. The majority of the book is simply the dialog between the main character, a monk, and the four other “clients” in his small group that week. It would be hard to make an interesting book within these parameters, but this one is indeed outstanding. I really enjoyed this book, and am a better person for reading it!
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (186 pages)
by Jon Krakauer
A collection of essays on mountain climbing by author Jon Krakauer. Each chapter is a stand alone essay, so there is no real need to read the whole book in order from start to finish. The best were the essays the author writes about his own climbs, especially the last one where he describes his epic and ill conceived journey at 22 to climb the 6000ft face of Devils Thumb in Alaska.