On Reading

My 2025 Book List

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For the past 20 years, I have normally read anywhere from 100-150 books a year. It has only been in the past few years that I have slowed down to around 50-75. Compared to some of you that’s nothing (you’re reading machines), but, maybe for others one of your goals for 2026 is to read more books. Before I introduce my book list from 2025, here are a few tips I’ve followed over the years, that have helped me maintain the habit of reading.

Reading Tips

1. Just start

   Seems obvious, but sometimes it’s just taking the first step. One book a month is 12 a year (I know crazy math), but 12 books on the same subject will deepen your mind in almost any area.

2. Read everyday

   Even if it is only two pages, that’s okay. Tiny changes don’t seem to make much of a difference in the moment, but as James Clear notes in Atomic Habits, they quietly decide who we become later. One percent better or worse adds up over time.

3. Follow your curiosity and be ruthless

   One of the things you will notice quickly about my reading list, is that there are a lot of deep dives into one particular area. I have found that I read best when I follow my curiosity. Could be a touch of neurodivergence, but I tend to get obsessed with an area or subject. However, here is the key for me, as soon as the obsession fades, or my curiosity is peaked elsewhere, I stop going down that reading rabbit hole. Doesn’t matter if I have a stack of books on the subject that I haven’t opened or if I am in the middle of a book. This may not work for many, but I find I read far more books when I follow my curiosity.

4. Seek to apply more than comprehend

   This will be a bit contrarian. When it comes to reading I seek first to apply, rather than fully comprehend. Part of following my curiosity is I read widely, which means reading a lot outside of my disciplines. As an example, I read a few of Vaclav Smil’s books this year. The areas of environmental science, energy, and public policy are not disciplines I have much experience in. I am a novice in those spaces and while I am sure I didn’t fully comprehend everyone he wrote (in fact I know I didn’t), there were many parts I was able to apply (e.g. Modern civilization runs on physical realities, energy transitions are slow). At the end of a book I don’t ask how much I comprehended or remember from the book, I ask what can I take from this book and apply to my life.

5. Make reading the default

   For most people the default is reaching for their phones. One of the ways to make reading the default is to replace where you put your phone with a book or books. I always have a book on my nightstand, by where I sit on the couch and in my truck. The proximity alone increases reading. I find it is rare that I have an hour or two to read, however, there are plenty of moments where I have 10 or 15 minutes to read. I will read while I am waiting in the car line to pick up my kids from school, I will read at the gym, and over time these short pockets of reading add up.

2025 Reading List

Now to my 2025 reading list. These books are in no particular order.

1. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine - Daniel J. Levitin

2. The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945 - Joseph Loconte

3. A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 - Joseph Loconte

4. Waiting for Jesus: An Advent Invitation to Prayer and Renewal - Rich Villodas

5. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. Demons - Fyodor Dostoevsky

7. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

8. Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse - Eric Jay Dolan

9. The New Well-Tempered Sentence - Karen Elizabeth Gordon

10. Steering The Craft - Ursula K. Le Guin

11. The Art of Fiction - Ayn Rand

12. The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century - Steven Pinker

13. Save the Cat! Writes a Novel - Jessica Brody

14. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood - Jane Leavy

15. Godric - Frederick Buechner

16. On Writing Well - William Zinsser

17. The Writing Life - Annie Dillard

18. How to Write Short - Roy Peter Clark

19. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain - George Saunders

20. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott

21. The Making of Biblical Womanhood - Beth Allison Barr

22. Ubik - Philip K. Dick

23. The Baseball 100 - Joe Posnanski

24. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon

25. Why We Love Baseball - Joe Posnanski

26. Isola - Allegra Goodman

27. Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service - Michael Lewis

28. Abundance - Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson

29. Trust - Hernan Diaz

30. The Overstory: A Novel - Richard Powers

31. The Dad I Never Had - Jordan Vale (You have to read your own work ;)

32. Alice's Philosophical Adventures in Wonderland - Jordan Vale

33. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

34. Think Remarkable - Guy Kawasaki

35. The Elements of Style - Strunk & White

36. The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology - Jeremy R. Treat

37. On Writing - Stephen King

38. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism - Sarah Wynn-Williams

39. Primalbranding: Create Belief Systems that Attract Communities - Patrick Hanlon

40. The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah

41. It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work - Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

42. The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God - Dallas Willard

43. Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies - Wright & Bird

44. Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World - Vaclav Smil

45. How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going - Vaclav Smil

46. Martyr!: A Novel - Kaveh Akbar

47. The Hobbit - Tolkien (I think this was the third time through, same with below)

48. The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien

49. Two Towers - Tolkien

50. Return of the King - Tolkien

51. I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel - Percival Everett

52. James: A Novel - Percival Everett

53. The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times - Adrienne Mayor

54. The Silmarillion - Tolkien

55. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis

56. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Carroll

57. Dracula - Bram Stoker

58. John Adams - David McCullough

59. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook - Gary Vaynerchuk

60. Contagious - Jonah Berger

61. Show Your Work! - Austin Kleon

62. Superfans - Pat Flynn