A Short Reading List for 2023

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

You may have already ditched your New Year’s resolutions, but it isn’t too late to broaden your reading life. Typically, I do not plan my reading. I have a complex system of books piled in my bedroom arranged according to my reading intentions. They sit unread, so the system is virtually meaningless. This year, I decided to make a short reading list to finally brush the dust off some books from these piles. Since my master’s program is a Great Books program and my concentration is philosophy and religion, I have read very little non-fiction outside of my studies. There are gaps in my knowledge that I want to fill. So, I came up with a list of twelve categories and a book for each category. These twelve books will only be a small portion of the books I read, but it will help me not to be overwhelmed by the volume of books that I want to read. They are listed below in the order that I happened to think of them.

1. Saint’s Lives – St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book) by G. K. Chesterton

This book was a gift from my secret “elf” in the gift exchange through the Close Reads Facebook group. I had started the book on Aquinas before but got distracted and never finished it. I have been meaning to read more Chesterton, so I am looking forward to this one.

2. Prayer/Spiritual Growth – The Cloud of Unknowing

This text was written by an unknown 14th-century mystic and was highly influential to writers like St. John of the Cross. In 2022 I read Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird. He frequently references The Cloud, so I decided on this for my “spiritual” pick.

3. Church Fathers – Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics)

Last year I read two books about Eastern Orthodoxy: Know the Faith: A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers and Through Western Eyes: Eastern Orthodoxy: A Reformed Perspective. After reading these, I have intended to read the church fathers, beginning with the epistles. At the Circe Institute National Conference, I limited myself to purchasing only one book, and this was the book that I chose. It includes the epistles of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Barnabus among others.

4. Church History – Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley

My church history knowledge is patchy, especially the period prior to the Middle Ages. Wes Callahan recommended the book in a talk entitled “The Early Church Fathers and the Pagan Classics.” In addition to enriching my general knowledge, I am reading with the hopes that this might be a possible future text for homeschooling.

5. Intellectual History – The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle and the Struggles for the Soul of Western Civilization by Arthur Herman

I received this book as a Christmas gift a few weeks before I started graduate school. Because I would read Plato and Aristotle in-depth as part of my Great Books program, I wanted to wait so that it would not bias my readings. It has been taunting me from my shelf ever since. Herman’s background is history, not philosophy, so I am skeptically curious to read what he has to say.

6. Beauty – The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon

Literary types rave about this book. It has been on my nightstand for several months, but I have yet to start it. I am always on the lookout for books that will develop my sacramental vision and help me to want to cook dinner.

7. Pedagogy – Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David V. Hicks

I am ashamed that I have never finished this book; it is THE book on classical education. I have had a hard time getting the right pacing - reading slowly enough to digest the material but quickly enough so that I don’t forget it all. This is the year.

8. The classical Liberal Arts – Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus

Expanding my knowledge of the seven liberal arts is a priority for me to develop as an educator and as a human. I read the first few chapters of this book for a piece I wrote for Circe Institute about the Quadrivium. He begins with a reflection on wisdom, “the science of the truth in things.” Quoting Archytas of Tarentum, he argues that those who study mathematics have correct knowledge about what each thing is, first the whole, then the parts. These sciences (of the whole and parts) are the sister sciences, which deal with the sister subjects, the first two forms of being. This is my kind of math book.

9. Russian Literature – Eugene Onegin by Pushkin

Americans talk about War and Peace; Russians talk about Eugene Onegin. This is another "shame on me” book. I don’t know how I graduated with a degree in Russian without studying it. It was a Christmas gift from Jay last year; I meant to read it but never did.

10. From the Pile – A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Reading, Writing, and Life by George Saunders

This is another book that friends rave about, but it has been gathering dust by my bed for over a year. It is a collection of seven Russian short stories paired with literary essays. The description on the book jacket concludes, “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.”

11. The Re-read – The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

Truthfully, I reread a ton. (Last year roughly 50% of the books I read were re-reads or I read them more than once). This book was on my syllabus when I taught high school Medieval Humanities. Though I loved it, I taught it several months after my daughter was born and remember very little. It is a seminal text within the western canon, so I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it yet.

12.  The Oft-quoted – The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis

Lewis is one of my favorite writers, but I have only read this once, more than twenty years ago. Next time when someone says, “You know, in Four Loves…” I will know.

For more thoughts on reading within limitations, check out this article I wrote for Circe Institute: The Reader’s Regress - Loving Books and Wine in a Finite World.