A Book Odyssey Through 2024
Reflections on My Reading
Reflecting on the books I read in 2024, I can’t say it has been a widely diverse grouping. Much of the fiction rests easily in the speculative fiction category, and much of the non-fiction is philosophy / education adjacent. These are the worlds I spend a lot of time in, both professionally and for pleasure. But I am keenly aware that many books on this list are books that were recommended to me, and even some of the serial listings (i.e. Barsoom) are series that I would never have picked up unless someone had suggested them long ago. To kick off the New Year then, I’d like to present a list of books worth your time.
While many of the books are worth fuller comments, here I am simply going to suggest what I consider the three books I read which have the most to offer you in 2025. These are not meant as the best books I read last year, nor even the most enjoyable ones. Rather, these are books that I know I will revisit this year, for one reason or another and I am looking forward to that return. They are also the books that I’m still thinking about, regardless of what point of the year I read them. So, in that regard, they are the books that I hope my readers will find paying dividends in the months ahead.
First, Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences. I mentioned this in my December digest, but it is worth kicking off the New Year encouraging folks to read it as well. Weaver’s book contains much that I’m still pondering, particularly given the technological society that we inhabit which his book doesn’t seem to fully account for. I don’t mean that his ideas don’t have application in a world dependent on digitalness; on the contrary, Weaver’s concerns take on much worse consequences in our current technocracy. I’ll be revisiting this one in a couple of months with a group of classical educators, and maybe then I’ll have something fuller to say on the connection between Weaver and this Brave New World we inhabit.
Second, Joe Rigney’s Live Like a Narnian. I had the pleasure to hear Joe speak at a conference back in January 2024. It was a preview of his book on leadership, but what most stuck out to me was a conversation I had with him at the end of the conference. I asked him which book had been the easiest for him to write, and he responded without any hesitation: “Live Like a Narnian.” The book does an excellent job walking through some of the best portions of Lewis’s Narnia series, while encouraging his readers to consider that a good story is more than merely entertainment. My eldest son read this one with me in 2024, and my second oldest will do the same in 2025. If nothing else, Rigney’s little book will give you new reasons to revisit Tumnus’s snowy wood, with a lamppost lighting your path.
Third, Homer’s Odyssey. I’ve read the story of Odysseus at least nine times, dipping into four different translations over those readings. But my favorite has come to be Robert Fitzgerald’s rendition. I’ve written about the Odyssey here before, so I won’t rehash any of that. I’ll just say that of all the classical texts I’ve read, my love for this one supersedes the rest (sorry, Virgil). I went through this one with a small group of classical educators last Fall, and I will get the chance to do it again with a different group this Spring. No matter how many times I read it, I come away with something different. And I am confident that will be the same for anyone else who picks it up this year.
Those are the three books from 2024 which I want to most heartily commend to you in 2025. But if you’re interested in seeing what else I read, then feel free to check out the full list below. Some of them are books I don’t think I’ll ever reread, while others are titles I plan to pick up again one day. And still others hold an academic interest for me, meaning they will certainly appear in my writing. And if anyone has their own books they’d like to recommend, feel free to drop them in the comments!
Desiring the Kingdom, James K. A. Smith
Serving God on the Christian School Board, Roy W. Lowrie, Jr.
Republic, Plato (trans. Allan Bloom)
A Fighting Man of Mars (Barsoom #7), Edgar Rich Burroughs
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (trans. Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins)
Politics, Aristotle (trans. Carnes Lord)
The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis
The Monster in the Hollows (Wingfeather #3), Andrew Peterson
Christian Higher Education: An Empirical Guide, Perry L. Glanzer, Theodore F. Cockle, and Jessica Martin
The Black Intellectual Tradition, Angel Adams Parham and Anika Prather
Experience & Education, John Dewey
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Friere
The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow, Allen French
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Swords of Mars (Barsoom #8), Edgar Rice Burroughs
Synthetic Men of Mars (Barsoom #9), by Edgar Rice Burroughs
What Barfield Thought, Landon Loftin and Max Leyf
Emile, or On Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (trans. Allan Bloom)
The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis
Live Like a Narnian, Joe Rigney
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
Until August, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans. Anne McLean)
The Warden and the Wolf King (Wingfeather #4), Andrew Peterson
Llana of Gathol (Barsoom #10), Edgar Rice Burroughs
John Carter of Mars (Barsoom #11), Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Lost World, Michael Crichton
Beauty: A Short Introduction, Roger Scruton
The Crisis of Narration, Byung-Chul Han (trans. Daniel Steuer)
How to Read a Book, Andrew Naselli
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Tanar of Pellucidar (Pellucidar #3), Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
Rosinante to the Road Again, John Dos Passos
An Experiment in Criticism, C. S. Lewis
The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
How to Run a Country: An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders, Cicero (trans. Philip Freeman)
The Alhambra, Washington Irving
Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
Ascension (Mass Effect #2), Drew Karpyshyn
Dune: Messiah (Dune #2), Frank Herbert
The History of the Work of Redemption, Jonathan Edwards
Retribution (Mass Effect #3), Drew Karpyshyn
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (HGG #1), Douglas Adams
Pirates of Venus (Venus #1), Edgar Rice Burroughs
Lost on Venus (Venus #2), Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (HGG #2), Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe, and Everything (HGG #3), Douglas Adams
Paradise Lost, John Milton
Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver
The Agony of Eros, Byung-Chul Han (trans. Alain Badiou)
The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis
Aristotelian Character Education, Kristján Kristjánsson
Nexus Uprising (Mass Effect: Andromeda #1), Jason M. Hough
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
The Tale of Jack and the Fallen Giants, Jonathan Pageau
The Odyssey, Homer (trans. Robert Fitzgerald)
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Paul Tough
The Inferno, Dante (trans. Joe Carlson)
Initiation (Mass Effect: Andromeda #2), Mac Walters
Annihilation (Mass Effect: Andromeda #3), Catherynne M. Valente