It may be the day before Valentines day, thus it seems a little late in the new year to be unveiling a “2008 list,” but this is my website, so I make the rules, right?

My personal goal for 2008 is to read 24 books for pleasure, doubling the 12 I completed in 2007. My hope is to be able to write at a minimum, a brief review on this blog of each book I read. (You can see my thoughts on The Irresistible Revolution here and here).

The following list is as of accurate as of 2/13/08, but you can find an up-to-date list at devilishduck.com/reading.

Complete:
1: The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, Shane Claiborne
2: The Shack, William P. Young
3: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, Brian McLaren

Currently Reading:
4: How (Not) to Speak of God, Peter Rollins

Next Up (rough order, subject to change):
5: Life After Church: God’s Call to Disillusioned Christians, Brian Sanders
6: The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything, Brian McLaren
7: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams
8: The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism, Matt Mason
9: The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, Nicholas Carr
10: The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, Ori Brafman & Rod Beckstrom
11: Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, David Anderegg
12: Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
13: Jennifer Government, Max Barry
14: Company, Max Barry
15: The Book of Dave: A Novel, Will Self
16: Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America’s Reputation and Leadership*, Madeleine Albright
17: Love Monkey : A Novel (P.S.), Kyle Smith
18: The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier*, Tony Jones
19: The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time*, Tom Sine & Shane Claiborne
20: Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals*, Shane Claiborne
21: The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor*, Scott A. Bessenecker
22: Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller
23: Let Story Guide You: Why Some Lives Make Sense and Others Don’t*, Donald Miller
24: Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution–A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First, Alister Mcgrath

There are plenty more books on my reading list, but these are the books I’ve committed to read this year. If you have any suggestions for books I should add, feel free to send me an email. Any books listed above with the star symbol (*) are books I do not yet own, so if you’re in a giving mood feel free to buy me a book off this list, or my larger Amazon wishlist! Also, if you are an author or publisher and you’d be interested in sending me an advance copy of a book to read and review on this blog, you can contact me by email.

Random Reading Fun
On a somewhat different note, a couple weeks ago I was tagged by Jemila Kwon on her fantastic blog Quirky Grace, to participate in a new meme called 123, started by Erin at Decompressing Faith.

Here’s the rules:

• Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
• Find Page 123.
• Find the first 5 sentences.
• Post the next 3 sentences.
• Tag 5 people.

I’m currently reading Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God, and it happens to be the closest book to me.

So here we go…

At that moment we, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, brought in a woman caught in the sin of heresy.

We humiliated her by making her stand before the group, then we turned to Jesus and said, ‘Great teacher, this woman was caught perverting the law, spreading false witness and tainting the name of our God. Our law demands that we stone anyone who would so spoil the image of God.

I tag, Barbara, Rick, Ben,  C. Wess Daniels, and Josh.

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