IF I could live to be 300 or 400 years old. Maybe eternity is still linear enough for us to read all the books that we never got around to in this life? In the meantime, summer is not over yet, and I’m going to do all the reading I can before it ends.
1. Got Summer Reading? by NRO’s Symposium. Books recommended by Hunter Baker, Joseph Pearce, Gina Dalfonzo, Elizabeth Scalia (The Anchoress)and other like-minded and erudite people–what a treat!
2. Al Mohler’s Recommended Reading List for the summer of 2012.
3. 2012 Summer Books: NPR Critics’ Lists. Several lists here, including historical fiction, romance, sci-fi, and teen reads.
4. Devon Corneal: Summer Reading 2012, Books for Kids of All Ages.
5. New York Times: New Under the Sun, Books for Basking
6. Chicago Tribune: It’s summertime, and the reading is easy.
7. Texas Monthly: The Fifty Best Texas Books. I would love to at least take a look at each one of these and see what’s really good out of the bunch.
8. A Fuse #8 Production: Top 100 Chapter Books
9. A Fuse #8 Production: Top 100 Picture Books
10. Washington Week Summer 2012 Reading List. Lots of politics and history on this list, but those are some of my fascinations.
11. 10 Books a Day series by Sarah Bessey
12. Girl Detective hosts The Summer of Shelf Discovery: (Re)reading Teenage Classics I just couldn’t fit this odyssey inot my schedule this summer, but you can still read along with Girl Detective and others as they rediscover the YA books of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.
13. Byliner’s 101 Nonfiction Stories, not exactly a book list, but I do want to read all of these stories from the world of journalism, what they used to call “human interest stories” and “investigative journalism.”
14. Carnegie Medal Winners. Wouldn’t it be fun to read through this list of children’s literature from the U.K., roughly equivalent to our Newbery Award winners? This same list at Lists of Bests.
15. Recommended summer reading from professors at the University of Texas at Austin.
16. Jared Wilson’s Fave Fifty. This list is just a list of favorites from a guy whose blog and taste in literature I happen to admire.
17. Great Summer Reading Suggestions by the team at Breakpoint.
18. Youth Reads Summer 2012 Recommended Reading List at Breakpoint.
19. 2012 Longlist for the Man Booker Prize.
20. NPR 100 Best Beach Books Ever.
21. NPR Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
22. NPR’s Top 100 “Killer-Thrillers”.
23. Olympic reading list: everything you need to know about the history, legacy and risk of the Games. From the blog run by social scientists from the London School of Economics.
24. bartzturkeymom’s 2012 Olympics Reading Challenge The point is to read one author per each of the 205 nations participating in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games by the end of the games. Obviously, I won’t make the challenge, but I do like the list.
25. 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, compiled by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. All of my favorites are on this list: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Ellis Peters, Josephine Tey, P.D. James. Plus there are several I’d like to read more of: Ruth Rendell, Laurie King, Carl Hiaasen, Minette Walters, and more.
26. Image Journal’s 100 Writers of Faith. Some of my favorite writers are on this list, and I’d really like to at least try all of the books listed here. I have started a couple of the books that are listed and found that were not for me, or it wasn’t the right timing, or something. (I’m not a fan of Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany nor of Updike or Walker Percy.) Still, there are some great books on this list.
27. National Geographic’s 100 Greatest Adventure Books, courtesy of Carol at Magistra Mater. Here is the same list at Lists of Bests.
28. Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight: Top 10 Jesus Books. I’ve not read a single one of these “best books to read about Jesus.” But maybe I should?
29. What Are You Reading This Summer? from Hermeneutics, the Christianity Today blog for women.
Oh, my, while making this List of Lists, I found this website called Lists of Bests where you can check off the books (or movies or places or music) you’ve “consumed”, and it saves your lists and tells you how much you have to go to finish the list. And I love it. I could spend all day long on this website, just checking off lists. Am I obsessive or what?
30. Christianity Today’s 100 most spiritually significant books of the 20th century at Lists of Bests.
31. Newbery Medal Winners at Lists of Bests.
32. Newbery Honor Books at Lists of Bests.
33. Petersens’ 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century at Lists of Bests.
34. Books from The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
35. 25 Books Every Christian Should Read from Renovare at Lists of Bests.
36. Hugo Award Winners for Excellence in Science Fiction at Lists of Bests.
37. Nebula Award Winners for Science Fiction and Fantasy.
38. Edgar Award Winners for Mystery Novels at Lists of Bests.
39. Printz Award Winners at Lists of Bests.
40. Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography at Lists of Bests.
41. Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize at Lists of Bests.
42. The Ultimate Summer Reading List from Biola Magazine.
43. Evan Johnson’s Reading List.
44. Horn Book International History List.
45 NPR’s Best Ever Teen Novels. Just published on August 7th, this list includes some of my favorites: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit and LOTR, Anne of Green Gables, and Divergent. It also includes some un-favorites, which I won’t name. So I’d like to read the rest to see where they fall.
46. Longitude: 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time.
47. Hutchmoot: Recommended Reading. (Even though I can’t go ’cause it’s full, and it’s in Nashville, and I’m in Texas, and I wish I could, but I can’t. But I can read the books.)
48. 2012 TAYSHAS Reading List. This list comes from a committee at the Texas Library Association, and it focuses on books, adult and YA, that are of interest to young adults. Of course, if you’re young at heart, like me . . .
49. Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List 2012-2013.
50. Excellent Books for Teens Between Cultures by Mitali Perkins.
51. 55 Biographies and Memoirs I Want to Read.
52. Reading Through Northern Africa for my Northern Africa Project.
53. My own Classics Club List.
55. Dr Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die at Lists of Bests.
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Oh, this just might be my all time favorite blog post EVER. 🙂
What a dangerous post. I have already spent way too much time looking at the lists and adding to my TBR list. Even though we no longer homeschool, I have a personal goal of reading through all the books in the Sonlight catalog. (Someday!)
I shall not click on a link at all. . . I shall not click on a link at all. . . I shall not click on a link at all. . . 🙂
I’ll be back!
You’re killing me. I can never resist lists like those – and to see so many of them in one place is almost overwhelming me with possibilities. But it also reminds me of how much of the good stuff I’m missing by spending so much time reading each year’s new books. For instance, even though I thought I was pretty much up with Texas books, I find that I’ve only read four of the fifty on that Texas Monthly list. I feel inadequate… 🙂
Thanks for the lists…so much to mine.
Thanks for this great list! I really enjoy your site and hope to send you some of our author’s titles soon for your review and feed back.
Thank you
Oh wow! Thanks for the research that went into this post! My TBR is never going to become manageable 🙂