Since writing my first blog post in the summer of 2009, I’ve shared book reviews, recommendations, and/or ratings on a regular basis. These efforts have focused on recently published books, and have allowed me to introduce my readers to more than 500 authors:
Elias Aboujaoude, Mustafa Akyol, Jay Allison, Dianna E. Anderson, Keith Anderson, Christophe André, Michael J. Arena, Steve Argue, Sarah Arthur, Reza Aslan, Patty Azzarello, Cheryl Bachelder, Christopher Bader, Scott Bader-Saye, Alex Banayan, William J. Barber, Eric Barker, George Barna, Jerram Barrs, John D. Barry, Molly Phinney Baskette, Diana Butler Bass, Kelly Bean, Susan Beaumont, Joshua Becker, Gayle D. Beebe, Drew Bekius, Jim Belcher, Rob Bell, Kristen Bell, Robert Bellah, Michael Belote, Warren Bird, Ronald Bishop, Gary Black Jr., Nadia Bolz-Weber, Marcus Borg, Ulrich Boser, Elena L. Botelho, David T. Bourgeois, Phil Bowdle, David K. Brake, Kay Bender Braun, Kathlyn A. Breazeale, Darrell Bricker, adrienne maree brown, Dave Browning, David Brubaker, Walter Brueggemann, John A. Buehrens, Vincent Bugliosi, Katy Bulter, Anne Burdick, David Burkus, Jason Byassee, Wendy Cadge, Kathleen A. Cahalan, Susan Cain, Cynthia M. Campbell, David E. Campbell, Bart Campolo, Tony Campolo, Sean Cannell, Timothy P. Carney, Jacqueline Carter, Jimmy Carter, Shawn Casselberry, Tim Catchim, Francis Chan, Samuel R. Chand, Mark Chaves, Joan Chittister, Eugene Cho, Jeff Chu, Norris J. Chumley, Forrest Church, Shane Claiborne, Ron Clark, Philip Clayton, Elesha J. Coffman, Philip N. Cohen, Allan Hugh Cole Jr., Tim Conder, Chip Conley, Adam J. Copeland, Martin Copenhaver, Honoree Corder, Benjamin L. Corey, Harvey Cox, Keith Craft, R. Robert Creech, John Dominic Crossan, Elizabeth Currid-Halke, Michael B. Curry, Albert Cutié, Lillian Daniel, Sara Davidson, Andrew M. Davis, Alain de Botton, Jeremy Dean, Mary Lynn Dell, Neslon Dellis, Patrick Desbois, Matthew J. Distefano, John Dorhauer, Ross Douthat, Johanna Drucker, Julia Duin, Richard R. Dunn, Michael Eric Dyson, Bill Easum, Philip W. Eaton, Erin Lovell Ebanks, Mary Tedeschi Eberstadt, Marc Effron, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bart D. Ehrman, Eric Elnes, Gregg A. Ten Elshof, David Emerald, William G. Enright, Bruce G. Epperly, Douglas Estes, Beth Ann Estock, Virginia Eubanks, Dave Evans, Rachel Held Evans, Don Everts, Friederike Fabritius, Ted Falcon, Andrew Farley, Wendy Farley, Bob Farr, Ronan Farrow, David M. Felten, James A. Forbes Jr., Richard J. Foster, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), Katrina Fried, Eric Friedman, Dwight J. Friesen, Paul Froese, Michael Frost, John Lewis Gaddis, Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, Greg Garrett, Becky Garrison, Dan Gediman, Michele Gelfand, Eddie Gibbs, David Gibson, Paul Gillin, Anand Giridharadas, Jon Gordon, Meredith Gould, Dawn Graham, Reesheda Graham-Washington, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Heidi Grant, Shelley Shepard Gray, A. C. Grayling, Peter Greer, Fred Grewe, Craig Groeschel, Thomas Groome, Galen Guengerich, Phillip Gulley, Lisa Gungor, Adam L. Gustine, Stan Guthrie, Albert Haase, Hans W. Hagemann, Adam Hamilton, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gary Neal Hansen, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Ryan T. Hartwig, Jen Hatmaker, Stanley Hauerwas, Emily C. Heath, Terry Heaton, Steve Heinrichs, William F. Heitman, Kevin Hendricks, H. Beecher Hicks Jr., Graham Hill, Allen Hilton, Shane Hipps, Alan Hirsch, Sarah Stewart Holland, Frank G. Honeycutt, Kevin Hong, Ashleigh Hope, Christ Horst, Rasmus Hougaard, Mary E. Hunt, James Davison Hunter, Michael Hyatt, Bill Hybels, John Ibbitson, Kyle Idleman, Michael S. Irwin, Douglas Jacobsen, Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, Saru Jayaraman, Philip Jenkins, Sandhya Rani Jha, Bernadette Jiwa, Cynthia Johnson, Alexandre Jollien, Stanley Jones, Tony Jones, Robert P. Jones, Paul H. Jones, Tanya Joosten, S. Steve Kang, Louis F. Kavar, Matt Keller, James Kenney, Sarah Kessler, Raymond M. Kethledge, Peter D. Kiernan, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Mihee Kim-Kort, Dan Kimball, David Kinnaman, Michael Kinnamon, Naomi Klein, Eric Klinenberg, Jim Knipper, John Koenig, JoEllen Koerner, Kris D. Komarnitsky, Kay Kotan, Michael Krasny, Tina Kuhn, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), Anne Lamott, Marc Lane, Jason S. Lantzer, Jeanne Marie Laskas, Gregg Lederman, Heather Lende, Shauna Lettellier, Amy-Jill Levine, Richard Lischer, Jason Locy, John W. Loftus, Michael G. Long, April Love-Fordham, T. M. Luhrmann, Sarah Griffith Lund, C. David Lundberg, Peter Lunefeld, Robert D. Lupton, Gabe Lyons, John R. Mabry, Gordon MacDonald, Don Mackenzie, Jonathan Malm, Will Mancini, Peter Manseau, Gordon Marino, George Marsden, Charles Marsh, James Martin, Adam McClane, Charles McCollough, Daniel McGinn, Michael McKinley, Scot McKnight, Brian McLaren, Gilbert Meilaender, Barbara Melosh, Linda Mercadante, Jonathan Merritt, Carol Howard Merritt, Eric Metaxas, Robin Meyers, Lisa Miler, Sara Miles, William C. Mills, Matt Miofsky, Sakyong Mipham, Janice Mirikitani, Gregory Mobley, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Jonathan Morduch, Robin R. Myers, Diann L. Neu, John Philip Newell, Frank Newport, Roger Nicholson, Aaron Niequist, Carey Nieuwhof, David Niose, Mark A. Noll, Kathleen Norris, Amy G. Oden, Enuma Okora, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Josh Packard, Doug Pagitt, Parker J. Palmer, Jay Parini, Rebecca Ann Parker, Gary A. Parrett, Eboo Patel, Terry Patten, Stephen J. Patterson, Stephanie Paulsell, Jennifer Howe Peace, Myron B. Penner, Gregory Pennoyer, Derek Penwell, Eugene Peterson, Christiana N. Peterson, Susan S. Phillips, Christian Piatt, Michael S. Piazza, Steven Pinker, David Platt, Trayce Potter, Kim R. Powell, Kara Powell, Todd Presner, Mitch Prinstein, Jeff Procter-Murphy, Stephen Prothero, Robert D. Putnam, Sarah Quezada, Jamal Rahman, Sam Rainer, Thom S. Rainer, Carl Raschke, Patrick Henry Reardon, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Daniel P. Rhodes, Matthieu Ricard, E. Randolph Richards, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Reba Riley, Brandan Robertson, Gene Robinson, Anthony B. Robinson, Samuel Rodriguez, Richard Rohr, Peter Rollins, Kevin Roose, Andrew Root, Or Rose, Alan J. Roxburgh, Christian Rudder, James Rudin, Letty M. Russell, Jonah Sachs, Lon Safko, Sheryl Sandberg, Michael J. Sandel, Tim Sanders, Scott Sauls, Scott Sauls, Alberto Savoia, Jarem Sawatsky, Michael Saylor, Donna Schaper, Doug Schaupp, Edgar H. Schein, Peter A. Schein, Gerald W. Schlabach, Jeffrey Schnapp, Rachel Schneider, Katharine Jefferts Schori, David Meerman Scott, Chuck Scroggins, David Sehat, Meir Shalev, Tim Shapiro, Haydn Shaw, Rubel Shelly, Darren Sherkat, Clay Shirky, Jack Shitama, H. Stephen Shoemaker, Rupert Short, Nikesh Shukla, Beth A. Silvers, Edward Skidelsky, Robert Skidelsky, Dan Slater, James K. A. Smith, Judah Smith, Christian Smith, James Bryan Smith, Efrem Smith, Gary Scott Smith, Tim Soerens, Chris Sonksen, Paul Sparks, Aida Spencer, Michael Spencer, William Spencer, Martha Spong, John Shelby Spong, R. C. Sproul, Francis Spufford, Veronica Squires, Bradley R. Staats, Guy Standing, Rodney Stark, Jackie Stavros, Clyde Steckel, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Andy Stern, Ed Stetzer, Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dan R. Stiver, Norm Stolpe, Cyndi Suarez, Chimene Suleyman, Jana L. Sundene, Emily Swan, Leonard Sweet, Kathryn Tanner, Paul Taylor, Barbara Brown Taylor, Bill Tenny-Brittian, Martin Thielen, Susan Thistlethwaite, Frank A. Thomas, Phyllis Tickle, Leanne McCall Tigert, Darryl Tippens, Maren Tirabassi, Jemar Tisby, Monica Duffy Toft, Cheri Torres, Steve Tracy, Celestia Tracy, Shea Tuttle, Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu, Tien Tzuo, Tim van der Vliet, Craig Van Gelder, William Vanderbloemen, Kurtis Vanderpool, Edgar Villanueva, Felix C. Villanueva, John Voelz, Brandon Vogt, Miroslav Volf, Gretta Vosper, Kim M. Voyle, Robert J. Voyle, Benjamin Vrbicek, Sam Walker, Jeanne Murray Walker, Jim Wallis, Jonathan P. Walton, Emilie Wapnick, Marcus Warner, Erin F. Wasinger, Sharon Watkins, Stephen Weathers, Robert H. Welch, Merold Westphal, Vera White, Landon Whitsitt, Ken Wilber, Jim Wilder, Charles Wiley, Dallas Willard, Scott Williams, Cecil Williams, Joan C. Williams, Clifford Williams, William H. Willimon, Garry Wills, Jared C. Wilson, Ken Wilson, Lauren F. Winner, J. Philip Wogaman, Gregory Wolfe, Catherine Wolff, Roger Wolsey, Almeda Wright, Jamie Wright, N. T. Wright, Bradley R. E. Wright, Robert Wuthnow, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Philip Yancey, Andrew Yang, Wm. Paul Young, Guillaume Zeller, Martin Zender, Dwight J. Zscheile, Ethan Zuckerman
Limited Reading
Reading matters.
Shockingly Americans read very few books. According to the Pew Research Center
Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans’ book reading habits.
Put differently, if the “typical” American never read two books by the same author it would take them over 100 years to read books by 500 different authors. And, the “average” American would need almost 42 years to do so.
So What??
More than 95% of the books I’ve discussed here at So What Faith have been published within 12 months of my first mention, and around 90% can be broadly categorized as religious or speak directly to matters of faith that matter.
Following the Way of Jesus is a journey that should be informed by many sources, including good books.
- On average, how many books do you read a year?
- What percentage of the names on the list of authors above are unfamiliar or new to you (feel free to estimate)?
- Share the name of at least one author not listed above that you recommend.