The 57 Books I Read In 2022

One thing I learned on the weight loss journey is how important it is to fill up my time with activities other than eating. Beginning in 2015, one major change I made in how I spent my time was to work towards a goal of reading 52 books a year. I made a strict rule not to eat while reading, which made it the perfect fasting window activity. I found that it also helped distract me when I was feeling the urge to eat, out of habit, or from stress. Another benefit was that reading kept me in a constant state of learning, which made my day more exciting, which meant I put less emphasis on eating for excitement. Yes, it’s true: prior to this, there were many times when the most exciting part of my day was eating.

Reading older books helps me put current events in perspective, which helps me to stay calmer and worry less. This leads to less stress eating. Finally, having this reading goal means that every day I’m making time for something I truly enjoy doing, which helps me to eat the right amount of food when I do sit down to eat because I’m not miserable and stressed out.

Every year there is a book that really sticks with me. For 2022, that book was The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand. The things I learned from it are still pinging around in my brain a year later on an almost daily basis. Dr. Brand wrote this book about his experience working with lepers, which taught him many things about what a gift pain is. Considering that pain is something we all experience, and that we tend to avoid at all costs, it was a paradigm-shifting book for me. I highly recommend it to everyone. My favorite novel on the list was the dystopian/post-apocalyptic book Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. That was a thoroughly enjoyable read that made me think. The author who I read the most often was my favorite author, C.S. Lewis. I loved everything I read by him and heartily recommend God In The Dock, which is a collection of his essays about theology and ethics.

For the curious, here is the complete list of the 57 Books I read In 2022. For what it’s worth, I don’t recommend #19, #20, #24, #31, or #43.  #53 was the hardest read and the one I enjoyed least, but given that it is held in such high esteem, I’ll assume the translation I used didn’t do it justice and that the fault is mine.

1. The Gift of Pain  by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (1997)
2. The 7 Principles For Making Marriage Work by Dr. John Gottman (1999)
3. Forgotten Truth by Huston Smith (1976)
4. Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien  (written in 1937 but not published til 1998)
5. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott (1884)
6. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (1943)
7. Spread the Word by Father Michael Keiser (2011)
8. That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (1945)
9. On The Incarnation by St. Athanasius (318)
10. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (1908)
11. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (1945)
12. Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012)
13. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2001)
14. Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926)
15. The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne (1928)
16. When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne (1924)
17. Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne (1927)
18. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (171)
19. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories By Franz Kafka (1915)
20. When Faith Is Forbidden: 40 Days On The Frontlines With Persecuted Christians by Todd Nettleton  (2021)
21. The World According To Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers(2003)
22. N or M? by Agatha Christie (1941)
23. Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction by George Bain (1964)
24. Start With Why by Simon Sinek (2009)
25. Boundaries by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend (1992)
26. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (2014)
27. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007)
28. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle (2007)
29. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis (1943)
30. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (1872)
31. The Art of Talking So That Other People Will Listen by Paul W. Swets (1983)
32. When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (2009)
33. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius (524)
34. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959)
35. Straight Talk To Men and Their Wives by Dr. James Dobson (1980)
36. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (1954)
37. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997)
38. A Shorter Summa by St. Thomas Aquinas and Peter Kreeft  (1485 and 1990, respectively)
39. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (1998)
40. The Shepherd of Hermas by Hermas (140)
41. Ninja Selling by Larry Kendall (2017)
42. Confessions by St. Augustine (Translation by F.J. Sheed) (400)
43. Missing From Action: Vanishing Manhood In America by Weldon Hardenbrook (1987)
44. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936)
45. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (1915)
46. God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis (1940-1963)
47. On Writing by Stephen King (2000)
48. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton (1911)
49. Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery  (1936)
50. Worlds Apart by Owen Barfield (1963)
51. All My Road Before Me by C.S. Lewis (1922-1927)
52. The Guardians by John Grisham (2019)
53. The Aeneid by Virgil (30-19 BC)
54. Science and Myth by Wolfgang Smith (2010)
55. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (2006)
56. The Way of a Pilgrim (1881)
57. The Bible (written down 1400ish BC-165 AD)*

*Note: I take all year to read the Bible. I read 4 chapters every morning to ensure I make it through the whole thing once a year. When I finish Revelation, I go back to the beginning of Genesis.

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