Tea, reading and other important topics…

Here are some statistics from 2003 conducted by The Jenkins Group:

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

Shocking, right? I mention these statistics because I am currently picking out the books I’m going to read in 2013, drawing heavily from the Best Catholic Books of All-Time list posted by Brandon Vogt:

Best Catholic Books

I’ll be posting my 2013 Reading List in a week or two. So what books do you plan to read next year?

Update on “Twelve for 2012″…

I was reading Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog entry The Mystery of the Catholic Book Buyer and it prompted me to write another update for my Twelve for 2012

Here are the finished books:

The Church and the New Media – Brandon Vogt
I’m Not Being Fed!  – Jeff Cavins
The Passion of Jesus Christ – John Piper
Father Brown of the Church of Rome – G.K Chesterton
The Story of Christianity – Justo Gonzalez
How To Listen When God Is Speaking – Mitch Pacwa, SJ
Godless Delusion – Patrick Madrid & Kenneth Hensley

Here are the bonus books/documents I’ve read which were not on the list:

The One Thing – Matthew Kelly
Pillar of Fire and Truth – Catholic Answers
Quitter – Jon Acuff
The meaning of Vocation – Pope John Paul II
Orientalium Ecclesiarum – Second Vatican Council
Deus Caritas Est – Pope Benedict XVI

I am currently reading:

Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Vatican II: The Crisis And The Promise – Alan Schreck (I’m reading this for the course I’m doing)

The books still to read:

Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB

Update on “Twelve for 2012″…

listenAt the beginning of the year I posted my Twelve for 2012, the twelve books I was going to read this year. I thought I’d post an update on how I’m doing with the list.

Here are the books on the list which I finished:

The Church and the New Media
– Brandon Vogt

I’m Not Being Fed! 
– Jeff Cavins

The Passion of Jesus Christ
– John Piper

Father Brown of the Church of Rome
– G.K Chesterton

The Story of Christianity
– Justo Gonzalez

 I suppose that it’s no surprise that I was unable to restrict myself to my initial reading list! Yes, that’s right, I’ve been naughty and read some books that weren’t on the list:

The One Thing
– Matthew Kelly

Pillar of Fire and Truth
– Catholic Answers

Quitter
– Jon Acuff

I am currently reading:

How To Listen When God Is Speaking
– Mitch Pacwa, SJ

…and here are the books which I still have yet to read:

Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Godless Delusion – Patrick Madrid & Kenneth Hensley
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris

So I have six books to read in five months. This means that I have to read at least one book each month until the end of the year. Fortunately, the books on the list which I’ve already read are generally the longer ones. All the remaining books to read, with the exception of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth, are reasonably short.

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