Great Expectations

A partial reading list for 2013...

This year, instead of creating a master list from which I will be distracted by other acquisitions, new releases, and recommendations, I am identifying a shorter list of some 25 core books, all of which I already own, that I intend to complete.  The other half will be the fiction I consume between serious reads and those presented to me by serendipity.

In the fiction category I intend to read more horror, more science fiction, some literature, and maybe even some poetry.

A People's History of the Hmong, by Paul Hillmer

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Calculated Risks, by Gerd Gigerenzer

Done

Farthest North: The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer, by Fridtjof Nansen

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present, by Jaques Martin Barzun
  

From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith, by L. Michael White

Done

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong

 

How Intelligence Happens, by John Duncan 

Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate, by Rudolf Karl Bultmann

Done

Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by C.G. Jung

Done

Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive, by Bruce Schneier

Done 

Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, by William Lee Miller

Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, And The Feeling Brain, by Antonio Damasio

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, by Iain McGilchrist

The Qur'an: Arabic Text and English Translation, by M.H. Shakir (translator) 

In Process

The Radicalism of the American Revolution, by Gordon S. Woods

The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature, by Steven Pinker

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meachum

Done

The Upanishads, by Anonymous

In Process

The Vanquished Gods: Science, Religion, and the Nature of Belief (Prometheus Lecture Series), by Richard H. Schagel

Done

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James

Done 

The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson

Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, by Ian Morris

Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion, by James McClenon

Done

Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness, by James H. Austin

Hmmn, 25; that's a nice round number.  Science: nine. Religion: eight.  History: eight.  Interesting spread, and these are the books I know I want to read.  C'mon, serendipity! 

Image credit: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/10382/