It was not the books we read that will be most remembered this year, the narratives, memoirs, and fictions, but the stories of our own lives. Who would have imagined a fictional world where people could not touch, hug, gather, or stand less than six feet apart? Where our smiles were hidden and our words muffled behind cloth masks? Where a deadly encroaching virus was invisibly spread just by breathing, talking and singing? Everyone of us in 2020 lived a story beyond our own imaginings
2020 began like any other year. And suddenly it was not like any other year ever. Covid hit like an unexpected story that never seemed to end.
We cannot help but be changed by it.
Even looking back now on those first few months of lockdown,
I would have considered it as a reader’s paradise. But at first, I couldn’t get settled. I attempted to wade into a few books on our
shelves at home, even those for years I have intended to read or wanted to
reread. But we were suddenly living in a strange story.
As I began reading again, I felt like a novice swimmer standing reluctantly on the side of a pool. How do I jump back into books? I joined a zoom book group at my church, discussing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a book I first read decades ago. I remember C. S. Lewis stating, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”
But because it is not the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia, I started dutifully with The Magician’s Nephew, read seamlessly into The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and by then, I was on a roll, reading all seven volumes and stunned again by his tales, his intricate weaving of truth and wonder. Every story is interconnected to the next, something we don't often realize in our own lives.
The books we read are not just what entertain us, but reveal to us timeless truths, unveil hidden strengths, and weave the fragments our lives together. Jesus never spoke before others without a parable. Because stories show us how to understand.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And the light dwells with Him.
Daniel 2. 22
How little we are aware of being equipped by what we read, how profoundly we are changed by the ageless written words, how precisely an author brings our own thoughts into language, and how immeasurably stories connect us endlessly to each other.
Here are the books I read in 2020:
1. Adorning The Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson (2019)
2. Esther and Ruth by Iain M. Duguld (2005)
3. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2019)
4. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results, An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (2018)
5. Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed by Matthew Futterman (2019)
6. Different: The Story of an Outside-the-Box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him by Sally Clarkson (2016)
7. Teaching Ruth and Esther: From Text to Message by Christopher Ash (2018)
8. The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor by Jonathan Rogers (2012)
9. Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson (2018)
10. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (1952)
11. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion by Rebecca McLaughlin (2019)
12. The Incomparable Christ by John Stott (2001)
13. One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty (1984)
14. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)
15. The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work by Steven Garber (2020)
16. The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis (1955)
17. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (1950)
18. The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (1954)
19. Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis (1951)
20. Through the Wardrobe: How C. S. Lewis Created Narnia by Lina Maslo (2020)
21. Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan (2017)
22. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley (1917)
23. So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom by Gary D. Schmidt (2018)
24. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis (1946)
25. Deacon King Kong by James McBride (2020)
26. No Surrender by Chris Edmonds (2019)
27. With Justice for All by John Perkins (1982)
28. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis (1952)
29. Let Justice Roll Down by John M. Perkins (1976)
30. The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis (1953)
31. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis (1956)
32. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (2019)
33. A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel (1945 and 2017)
34. Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman (2012)
35. Grow: Secrets of Our DNA by Nicola Davies (2020)
36. Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis (1955)
37. A Simple Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen by Jim Manney (2011)
38. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K. A. Smith (2016)
39. The Wonder Switch by Harris III (2020)
40. Jack by Marilynne Robinson (2020)
41. Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ by Timothy Keller (2016)
42. The Promise: A Celebration of Christ’s Birth by Michael Card (1991)
43. I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion But Found My Faith by LeCrae (2020)
44. The Witness of Poetry by Czeslaw Milosz (1983)
45. Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference by Timothy Keller and John Inazu (2020)
46. Immanuel: Reflections on the Life of Christ by Michael Card (1990)
47. God With Us: The Miracle of Christmas by John F. MacArthur (1989)
48. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (2018)
49. Be The Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison (2019)
50. The Bible
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