I suppose most folks’ resolutions for 2023 (if given to resolutions) involve laudable goals–exercising more, improving one’s diet, sleeping better, etc. All good goals, I readily concede. But I have learned that nothing repays my labor, time, and mind–my soul–quite like reading. Specifically, reading well.

Reading the great books and living with them via a contemplative life is precious. And finding a select few who share the unique joys of reading deeply is a joy. I’ve met several via our Sunday school class who bring encouragement and interaction by way of a life of reading deeply and reading well.

Below are books I’m reading in 2023. Some, like Moby Dick, I have read several times before. But the more I dive into (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun) Moby Dick, the more I discover its depths. Books of that caliber are inexhaustible. Other books I am reading for the very first time. And then there are some authors whose oeuvre I aim to complete.

If you’re so inclined, join me. And if you’ve volumes you recommend, let me know. Other than talking of books and/or ideas that interest me via my YouTube channel and my little blog, I don’t do social media. I found that social media was prone to being quite unsociable, petty, and snarky. It tended to steal my joys rather than increase them. Plus, it was just a waste of valuable time.

And I’m old enough to know that time is short, that our days are numbered, and I’ve only one lifetime to do what I was created to do.

All that to say this: Below is a glimpse into some of my 2023 reading regimen. I hope it encourages you to perhaps read more, yes, but especially to read well.

Biographies:

The Narnian by Alan Jacobs

Dickens: A Biography by Fred Kaplan

The Life of John Milton by Wilson

Jonathan Edwards by Marsden

Classics of Literary Fiction:

Little Dorritt by Dickens

Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez

Everything That Rises Must Converge by O’Connor

Stories from the Attic by William Gay

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson

Moby Dick by Melville

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway

The Mansion by Faulkner

Love by Toni Morrison

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Hawthorne (complete)

History/Historical Fiction:

Twilight Warriors by Kitfield

The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings (1947-2005)

The 13th Valley by Del Vecchio

Yesterday as I hiked up a ridge south of our home, I took a couple of pictures with my iPhone–visual reminders to me of what I love, of those I love, and of why I do what I do.

Press on.