Currently Reading

In 2024 I read 59 books and started another 5-6. While I read some amazing books that really grew my mind, much of what I read was fluffy fiction. I’m wanting to be a little more intentional about where I park my brain in the new year.

Here’s my TO BE READ list for 2025. I’m tackling twelve categories of books, including faith, home/family, food, business, writing/learning, mindset, money, Japan, fiction I avoid, classic fiction, classic children’s lit, and rom coms. I hope to read at least five from each category.

Shop all these books.

Faith

  • How Then Shall We Worship? by RC Sproul
  • The Everlasting Man by GK Chesterton
  • The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis
  • Death by Living by ND Wilson
  • Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl by ND Wilson

Home & Family

  • Keeping House by Margaret Kim Peterson
  • Men & Marriage by George Gilder
  • Gather & Give by Amy Nelson Cannon
  • The Gospel Comes w/a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
  • Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson
  • The House that Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark
  • The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace (This is a reread from 20 years ago and I can’t remember if I liked it.)

Food

  • Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
  • A Different Shade of Green by Gordon Wilson
  • The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky
  • The Waste Free Handbook by Dana Gunders
  • The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin
  • The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
  • This Ain’t Normal by Joel Salatin

Business

  • 10x is Easier Than 2x by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan
  • Leadership & Emotional Sabotage by Joe Rigney
  • Your Next 5 Moves by Patrick Bet-David
  • Ploductivity by Douglas Wilson
  • Choose Your Enemies Wisely by Patrick Bet-David

Writing/Learning

  • How to Read a Book by Andrew Naselli
  • Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson
  • On Writing Well by William Zinser
  • Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
  • On Writing by Stephen King

Mindset

  • Practicing Thankfulness by Sam Crabtree
  • Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance. by Brant Hansen
  • You Who? by Rachel Jankovic
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

Money

  • The Scandal of Money by George Gilder
  • Wealth is a Mindset by Shang Saavedra
  • The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Japan

  • Inventing Japan by Ian Buruma
  • Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
  • Japan Travel Guide by Yuki Fukuyama
  • Easy Japunese Phrase Book by Talk in Japanese
  • Cool Japan Guide by Abby Denson

Sad Fiction I Typically Avoid

Life is hard and I don’t typically want to read sad books. However, I think I might challenge myself this year.

  • Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (a reread for me)
  • Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • something by one of the Bronte sisters

Classic Children’s Lit

Good kids’ books are meant for adults to read. These are all rereads except 100 Cupboards.

  • The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
  • The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
  • The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
  • 100 Cupboards by ND Wilson

Classic Fiction

  • The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
  • The Space Trilogy by CS Lewis
  • something by Jane Austen
  • something by Charles Dickens

Rom Coms

I love books by Katherine Reay, Katherine Center, Courtney Walsh, and Cindy Steel. I don’t think they have anything new coming, but I don’t need to plan out this kind of reading, it just happens.