2010 was a bad year for reading for me.  i only read nineteen books which is far fewer than i normally read.  nineteen may sound like a lot, but when you’re trying to make a top ten that means that books from the lower half of the spectrum make the top ten…i’m not a fan of that!

i also didn’t feel like the quality of books was that high.  in comparison, i don’t think books 5-10 would’ve made last years rankings.  with that being said, though, i did read one of my favorite books of all time this year.  its probably a top five book of all time! scroll to number one if you don’t have the patience to read through the rest to see what that book is!

ten | when people are big and God is small_edward t. welch

this book came at the right time for me.  after a busy summer and right as i went on my prayer retreat, this book definitely shaped the way i thought and prayed during that time.  i am so swayed by the opinion and concern of others.  we often say, “love God, love people” is the way to live, but i realize that i put the people before God often.  this book helped put some of that in perspective as well as identifying why i do that.

nine | freakonomics_steven d levitt & stephen j dubner

timing may be the only thing separating this book from being swapped with the number five book.  i read this one second, so some of the thoughts weren’t as fresh, but they were still provocative.  i love questioning the validity of conventional wisdom and developing scientific/economic tool for discovery what is (or is not) true about what we believe.

my favorite studies were the ones on if teachers were changing their students answers to give them high scores on standardized testing and whether real estate agents could be trusted  to sell your house for as much as they sell their own.

eight | blockade billy_stephen king

even a bad Stephen King book is usually going to make the top ten for me.  he writes brilliant characters and takes the time to adequately develop a setting and plot.  regardless of how he is branded as a horror novelist, he is one of our generations best writers.  (for those of you who are doubting, ask yourself if you enjoyed movies like stand by me, the shawshank redemption, and the green mile…yep, they’re all stephen king books!)

anyways, blockade billy is about a baseball player who is a little messed up in the head.  i love baseball.

seven | have a little faith_mitch albom

i remember when my friend josh told me to read tuesdays with morrie.  i asked him who wrote it and he said “mitch albom”.  i replied “the sports guy?”

mitch albom has a magical way of relaying a story of real life that makes you care deeply about the characters and their situation.  he is always found in his books, but it is the people around him who are highlighted.

have a little faith chronicles mitch’s relationship with the rabbi of his youth and the life of a charismatic preacher in a poor neighborhood in detroit.  two men who otherwise never would’ve been known by the likes of millions are shown to us all as men who moved people.  with glory  so easily given to athletes, musicians, and entertainers, its nice to see men who sacrificed everything for their faith communities being lifted up a little bit.

six | breaking the missional code_ed stetzer & david putman

this last year had me reading quite a few books about church planting and living on mission.  because of my relationship with a few different church planters and an increase in church planting world-wide, i felt like a few of the books weren’t that fresh, but breaking the code was very inspiring and helpful in regards to church planting.  i’m not a church planter, but this book sparked that desire a little and also helped me to think about how to live and love in a community regardless of whether or not i’m planting a church or not.

five | the tipping point_malcolm gladwell

its hard to separate this book too much from freakonomics in that they both deal with looking sideways at problems or conventional wisdom and seeking the truth in otherwise ordinary problems.

the big takeaway from this book was to look and see why do things move? are there problems within our ministry here that i need to look at a different way in trying to solve them? are there different ways to get the ministry to move forward than the conventional way that we’ve been trying already? who are the people we need to make that happen?

four | unchristian_dave kinnamon & gabe lyons

if there was a theme in my reading this year, then it was research non-fiction.  freakonomics, the tipping point, and now unchristian.  they all used research to try to solve their questions.

in unchristian, kinnaman & lyons ask the question, “how do the non-churched or non-Christian young people view Christians and the Church?” they came up with six general impressions that young people have about God’s people.  but they don’t just leave it at that.  they then look at why that is the perspective, what we’ve done to perpetuate that believe and what we need to do either to change the perspective, if its not how Christ would live, or how to communicate Christ’s message better, so that it isn’t lost in so-called insensitivities.

three | preparing for jesus_walter wangerin

walter wangerin is a brilliant Christian author.  i read his book paul probably ten years ago and i loved it.  he put paul’s life into chronological order (as best he could) and brought humanity to the man who wrote much of the new testament.  he does the same in preparing for Jesus, but on a smaller scale as he gives us fresh insight into the life of those closest to Jesus during the time of His birth.  he manages to show Christ in His humanity more clearly than anything i’ve read before, while continually pointing us to His glory as God’s Son.

definitely buy it and read it next advent!

two | the prodigal god_timothy keller

timothy keller is one of the most brilliant Christian minds of our age.  Reasons for God was a top five book last year and he finds himself near the top again as he helps us to look at the story of the Prodigal Son with new eyes.  his fresh look at one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, causes to rethink who the story is really about and how this story is a much more phenomenal characterization of God’s love for us than our old understanding of the story.

one | east of eden_john steinbeck

i first picked up east of eden from the bookshelf of my friends, brooke and johnny after stopping in slovenia on our way back from croatia in august of 2009. i only read the first page, but i knew that it would be a book that i would love.  i then purchased it from a used bookstore in flagstaff when we were with em’s family last fall.  but, for whatever reason, i didn’t pick the book up to read it until august.  fortune or fate or chance or whatever, led me to read this as i was also discovering one of the best albums of the year (read tomorrow’s post to discover which album).  the two, book and album, are now forever connect…so much so that i even googled to see if the album was inspired by the book.  i digress…

i have always been fascinated by steinbeck.  he is easily one of the best writers of the 20th Century.  i always say you can tell is an author is good if they can make you care about something that you never cared about before.  my illustration of this is grapes of wrath.  i have very little, if any, interest in great depression/dust bowl America.  i love american history, but i probably care the least about this time period.  yet, grapes was compelling and brilliant.

so what about eden? it takes all the brilliant writing and imagery from grapes and puts it into storyline and plot that i cared for deeply.  as i walked decade by decade with the trasks and hamilton families, my love (and hatred) for them grew deeper and stronger.  i was grieved when death entered the story,  desperate when relationships ended, shocked when a gun is fired, overjoyed by the care of a chinaman, and provoked to thought throughout the entire novel.

it really is one of the best novels of all-time.

[please use the comment area to let me know what your favorite book(s) were of this past year...i'm always looking for new books to read!]