Several years ago, I started tracking the books I read during the course of a year. I use goodreads.com to do this. Last year, I read a personal record of 64 books. I read a lot more fiction last year than I usually do. Most of it was my typical spy novels. However, there was novel that stood out: “Gods and Kings” by Lynn Austin. This is the first book in a series that I plan to read that gives a fictional account of the lives of Kings in the Old Testament. Austin did an amazing job of pairing Biblical accounts to create a life story of sorts. Through her novel, she succeeded where no one else has in getting me interested in this part of the Old Testament. I look forward to reading the other books in this series.
The other two books that I favored during 2011 were “Rest of God” by Mark Buchanan and “Margin” by Richard Swenson. I was reading these books at the same time and found that though they are very different books, they are similar in topic. Margin is more of a self help book and covers emotional, physical and spiritual health. His basic premise is that we are overloaded and need to have margin in our lives so that when those super busy times come, we don’t collapse. It is a great book for anyone who is stressed out and doesn’t know what to do next.
Rest of God is more of an inspirational book and deals more specifically with the spiritual although he does cover the need for physical rest. He reminds us that God created us to need rest and rest is good. Rest gives God the opportunity to restore our soul as well as our body.
These cover my faves from 2011. I don’t think I’ll break my record this year, but I am looking forward to reading more great books.