We’re a few months into 2010 now and I still haven’t carefully crafted my reading lists for the year. It doesn’t seem to matter that I never fully accomplish my reading goals for the year – I keep setting them and, for some reason, the goals keep getting loftier.
This list is a multi-year goal and the exciting part is that it’s a list that Abbie and I will read together. Well, not together, exactly, but eventually we’ll both read through this list and have the opportunity to discuss the books with each other.
How fast our kids grow… She starts grade 10 this fall (more on that later) and although I hope to convince her to take four years to cover high school I’m pretty certain she’ll be done in three. And then that’s it. Homeschooling is finished and she’ll take full control of her own education. And I’ll be left with a shelf full of things I had hoped to make time for.
So, before I cry over my unfulfilled shelf, I thought I’d start making lists. The first is a list of non-fiction books (or topics if I haven’t found a good book yet). These are topics that I want to explore and that I feel are important to discuss before Abbie graduates.
There’s a great thread over at the high school board on TWTM that discusses high school must reads. That’s where the initial topic list came from and I’ve adapted it to our needs.
Media Awareness – I want her to be aware of how media and advertising can influence our choices and beliefs. I have an mp3 of a talk on this from a Christian perspective, but I’d also like a book with a focus on advertising.
Education – The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
Food – Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Resources – Canadian Water Politics: Conflicts and Institutions, as well as Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Change will Change Canada (And Our Lives), I’m still looking for one with a more global outlook.
Environment -
Poverty – Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, I’d like to add a book on poverty in Canada. Abbie’s already reading two books on life in Sudan which do a good job covering poverty in a third world country.
War – War Is… by Marc Aronson, looking for another couple of titles here.
Middle East – Unsettled: The Problem with Loving Israel by Marc Aronson
Taking Action – Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex Harris and Brett Harris – Abbie’s already read this and it has inspired her and her friends to devote a lot of time and energy to raising money for orphans in Sudan. But…I haven’t read it yet. Now it’s on the list.
Globalization -
Economics – The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
Technology – I’d like to find a good book on bioethics. For starters, we’ve got Discipling this Generation for a Digital World by Greg Bitgood which talks about how fast technology is moving and encourages Christians to be aware of what’s happening and really think through the ramifications of it and our own role in shaping the future.
Leadership – Maybe just a good biography in here?
That’s it for now. I guess I’d better get reading; time is running out.
