Reading

My total pages read for March was 893.

I finished Plato’s Five Dialogues comprising Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno and Phaedo.

I also read Luc Ferry’s A Brief History of Thought. I first read it in 2019 and noted then that I only took in or understood around 30% of the book. This time I would estimate I understood around 70% of the work - but that was 90% of the first four chapters, dwindling to around 50% (or less!) for the final two chapters on Nietzsche and then post deconstruction.

In my most recent pages read post (February) I mentioned that I had completed reading Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy. I also mentioned that I had attempted to read one of Russell’s books around 40 years ago but had given up part way through the Introduction. I now suspect¹ that that book obtained in the the 1980s was An Outline of Philosophy which was published in the USA simply as Philosophy.

Introductory books

Having now successfully completed reading one of Bertrand Russell’s books (!) I thought it time to consider some other philosophy works. I came across a gentleman on YouTube by the name of Jared Henderson who has a video called 7 Philosophy Books for Beginners. His seven recommendations are:

My total pages read for February was 834.

I finished Daryl Thompson’s Break Through and David Saxton’s God’s Battle Plan for the Mind. I re-read The Kremlin Conspiracy which I first read around six or seven years ago. I resumed reading Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories.

I also read Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy. I had attempted to read one of Russell’s books around 40 years ago. I can recall having almost no idea what he was talking about in the introduction so I gave up. This time around was a little different. I could see what Russell was saying, but whilst I only understood perhaps half of it, I persevered. I have now been exposed to some of the terminology and thrust of philosophy and have a much better idea of what I don’t know (which is more than plenty).

My total pages read for January was 299. It included continuing my Christmas presents: The World of Croquet by John McCullogh and Stephen Mulliner; and David Saxton’s God’s Battle Plan for the Mind.

I also started another book in early January, Break Through which led me to pause my reading of the first two mentioned above. Once I finish reading Break Through (probably in early Feb), I’ll resume the others.

My total for December was pretty low, but better than November! December was 320 pages.

Firstly, I finished volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939.

I started a couple of other books but have put them aside for an undetermined period of time. The first is Sophie Hannah’s Closed Casket and the second is Tim Muldoon’s Ignatian Workout that I mentioned here.

I also started reading two books that were Christmas presents: The World of Croquet by John McCullogh and Stephen Mulliner; and David Saxton’s God’s Battle Plan for the Mind.

My total for November was a paltry 274.

I finished Spiritual Warfare for the End Times and have been reading ten-or-so pages each day from volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939.

My total pages read for October were 822.

My completions for October were Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness.

I commenced Derek Prince’s Spiritual Warfare for the End Times and volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939.

I also read the first dozen-or-so pages of Hans-Johann Glock’s What is Analytic Philosophy.

My total for September was 835.

I finished The Monogram Murders which is a Hercule Poirot mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. I also finished the first book in The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer

I started rereading R.Kent Hughes Disciplines of a Godly Man but put it away after a few chapters. I may come back to it in the new year.

I also commenced rereading Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness.

My total for August was 1,553.

The primary works were finishing Frank Peretti’s The Oath, reading the first 25 pages of Robert Stone’s Damascus Gate (before deciding to not read further), and reading two further works by Peretti: The Visitation and Monster.

I also commenced reading The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer.

Total pages read in July were 1,187. This included finishing George Bennett’s The Heart of Healing; Donald Whitney’s Praying the Bible; The Prayers of Kierkegaard by Soren Kierkegaard and Perry Lefevre; Prophet by Frank Peretti and the first half (or so) of Peretti’s The Oath.

Pages read in June totalled 829. It included the bulk of Howards End, all of Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon and a good chunk of The Heart of Healing by George Bennett.

Total pages read in May were 540. This includes the two books I’d lined up to read on holidays: How to Think, and Breaking Bread with the Dead - both by Alan Jacobs. I also started E.M Forster’s Howards End. I got about a quarter of the way through it in May and (spoiler alert!) finished it in June.

And how did April shape up? Poorly. The total was 393 comprising about a third from my daily Bible reading and devotionals with the other two thirds being a couple of short Christian books (Worthy by Sinclair Ferguson, and Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray).

May is a holiday month and I have a couple of new books lined up: How to Think, and Breaking Bread with the Dead - both by Alan Jacobs.

During the month of March I tracked the total number of pages I read. This was as a result of a video I saw by Parker Settecase on his youtube channel Park Notes.

The specific video was this one where he advocates logging ones reading on a daily basis. I came across the video in February so decided to commence in March.

So what was the answer? 512. Not much, but okay for someone who hasn’t felt like reading much since Christmas. Around a third of that reading is my daily Bible reading plan. Another third is a couple of Christian books I finished or started, and the final third comprises the rules or laws of Golf Croquet and Association Croquet¹.