The Writer's Yearly Reading List

help me add to it!

Edited: Added several of the recommendations in the comments to the list! We’ll see how much I actually get through in 2024.

This is another one of those posts that you all hate because *drumroll* I am once again *drumroll* asking you *drumroll* to…

I would like this reading list to be as long as possible. Long lists do not intimidate me. Putting a book on the list is not a promise to finish it, just a promise to try it. If I hate it in the first paragraph, I’ll put it down. If I’m only interested in one section, I’ll skip to that one. My husband thinks I’m a Philistine for this practice, but I just say it’s good winnowing. Otherwise, reading becomes earnest and intimidating, when it should be leisurely and fun. So, no pressure to offer the perfect book recs. I’ve already Goodreads stalked some people to get these. Maybe one of them was you. All this to say—I’m ravenous for recommendations.

Just tell me and the other readers some books that have changed your thinking, made an impression, or were just plain fun.

Fiction

mostly fantasy & sci-fi

• Sea of Tranquility DNF

• Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2)

• Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3) 

• The Snow Queen (Snow Queen #1)

• The Summer Queen (Snow Queen #2) 

• Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy

• The Day the Angels Fell

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Piranesi

The Name of The Wind

Hedda Gabler

Lies of Locke Lamora

Spiritual Growth

focusing on purity of heart towards God

• Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner

• Purity of Heart by Soren Kierkegaard

• Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age

• The Practice of the Presence of God

• Art & Faith: A Theology of Making

• Ragman: And Other Cries of Faith

• John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology

• Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer

• I Corinthians (going over it at least 5 times with extensive prayer and meditation)

• John (with Wisdom Seekers group)

• The Kybalion (with Wisdom Seekers group)

Writing

focusing on nonfic

• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

• The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life

• The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Junichiro Tanizaki's essay "In Praise of Shadows"

The Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima

True Stories

for inspiration

• Everything Sad Is Untrue

• The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

• The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor

• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Parenting Books

developing sustainable systems

• Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms

• Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne 

• Loving the Little Years

• A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family

• A Mother Held: Essays On Anxiety And Motherhood

Adopted for Life

Nonfiction

a bit of everything!

• Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

• Micromastery: Learn Small, Learn Fast, and Find the Hidden Path to Happiness

• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World 

• When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself

• Chasing Excellence: A Story About Building the World’s Fittest Athletes

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Thank you all once again for being here!

Amelia

p.s. please comment—I crave your book recs.