MICHAEL SPOTTS:.

Reading Lists

Would you like to become a more consistent reader? Check out this post for tips that have helped me.

Currently Reading:

• The Great Ideas — Adler, Mortimer J.
• Institutes of the Christian Religion — Calvin, John
• Words Old and New — Bonar, Horatius
• Planting, Watering, Growing — Hyde, Daniel & Lems, Shane
• True Spirituality — Schaeffer, Francis
• The Letters of John Newton
• The Lord’s Prayer — Thomas Watson
• The Holy Bible

The following are books I’ve finished reading. Of course this does not take into account articles, blogs, and such, but will give you an idea of what long-form material I prefer to consume…

2012 Reading List (*Date Finished)

• The Atonement — Loraine Boettner — Feb. 28
• Trusting God — Jerry Bridges — Feb. 21
• Christianity and Liberalism — J. Gresham Machen — Feb. 20
• Puritan Evangelism — Joel Beeke — Feb. 14
• Christian Love — Hugh Binning — Feb. 12
• Called to Preach — John R. Sittema — Feb. 10
• Faithfulness Under Fire: The Story of Guido De Bres — Boekestein, William — Jan. 28
• God in Our Midst — Hyde, Daniel — Jan. 28
• Pensees — Pascal, Blaise — Jan. 27
• The Family at Church — Beeke, Joel — Jan. 23
• Justification Vindicated — Traill, Robert  — Jan. 22
• The Glory of Christ — Owen, John — Jan. 20
• The Divinity of the Christian Religion — Rev. William Bates — Jan. 18
• Knowing God — Packer, J. I. — Jan. 17
• The Next Story — Challies, Tim — Jan. 17
• If there is a God, Why Are There Atheists? — Sproul, R. C. — Jan. 10
• Why Johnny Can’t Preach — Gordon, T. David — Jan. 5

2011 Reading List — Largely unrecorded. Sorry, I was busy. Treasure Island was on there. So was Martin Luther’s Table Talk, and William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest. Oh, and Van Drunen’s Living in God’s Two Kingdoms.

2010 Reading List 

• The Century, for Young Readers — Brian Jennings
• Agape Leadership, from the Life of R. C. Chapman — Robert Peterson
•  Marrow of Justification — Benjamin Keach
•  Communion with God — John Owen
•  Into the Wild — Jon Krakauer
•  Two years Before the Mast — Robert Henry Dana
•  Bondage of the Will — Martin Luther
•  Soul Heights — Soul Depths — Octavius Winslow
•  My First Summer in the Sierra — John Muir
•  Walden Pond — Henry Thoreau
•  Civil Disobedience — Henry Thoreau
•  Alexander the Great — Jacob Abbott
•  Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson
•  South! — Ernest Shackleton
•  History of the Peloponnesian War — Thucydides
•  Call of the Wild — Jack London
•  Ministry of Mercy — Timothy Keller 
•  Welcome to a Reformed Church — Daniel Hyde
•  The Truth About Public Speaking — James O’Rourke 
•  Jesus Loves the Little Children — Daniel Hyde
•  Justified — Edited by Ryan Glomsrud and Michael Horton 
•  The Constitution of No Authority — Lysander Spooner
•  The Metamorphosis — Franz Kafka
•  Mortification of Sin — John Owen
•  By Grace Alone — Sinclair Ferguson
•  Common Sense — Thomas Paine
•  Typhoon — Joseph Conrad
•  Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Mark Twain
•  The Great Conversation — Robert M. Hutchins

2009 Reading List 

• 5 Jan. — The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard
• 11 Jan. — Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, David McCasland
• 12 Jan. — The Sovereignty of God, A. W. Pink
• 13 Jan. — Augustine for Armchair Theologians, Stephen Cooper
• 15 Jan. — On Christian Doctrine, Augustine
• 21 Jan. — Holiness, J. C. Ryle
• 25 Jan. — Truth for All Time, John Calvin
• 9 Feb. — Not for Sale, David Batstone
• 12 Feb. — The Life of A. W. Pink, Iain Murray [review]
• 15 Feb. — He is There and He is Not Silent, Francis Schaeffer
• 15 Feb. — Truth for All Time, John Calvin (Re-read)
• 18 Feb. — The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul
• 19 Feb. — How Shall We Then Live, Francis Schaeffer
• 23 Feb. — Coral Island, R. M. Ballantyne
• 4 Mar. — Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald S. Whitney [review]
• 6 Mar. — All of Grace, C.H. Spurgeon
• 30 Mar. — Desiring God, John Piper
• 31 Mar. — The Loveliness of Christ, Samuel Rutherford [review]
• 13 Apr. — Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennet
• 15 Apr. — The Reformation for Armchair Theologians, Glen Sunshine
• 16 Apr. — A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, George Mardsen
• 17 Apr. — Made for His Pleasure, Alistair Begg
• 22 Apr. — The Ten Commandments, A. W. Pink
• 23 Apr. — Justification and Regeneration, Charles Leiter
• 29 Apr. — The Sovereignty of God, A. W. Pink (again)
• 13 May — Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe
• 16 May — Martin Luther for Armchair Theologians, Steven D. Paulson
• 17 May — John Calvin for Armchair Theologians, Christopher Elwood
• 20 May — The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges
• 30 May — Baptism, Election, and the Covenant of Grace, R. Scott Clark
• 2 June — The Reformed Confessions (WC, HB, BC)
• 11 June — Sailing Alone Around the World, Joshua Slocum
• 12 June — Plato in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern
• 13 June — Aristotle in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern
• 8 July — In Living Color, Daniel Hyde
• 9 Aug — Recovering the Reformed Confession, Dr. R. Scott Clark
• 17 Aug — The Christian’s Great Interest, William Guthrie
• 19 Aug — Missionary Patriarch: The True Story of John Paton, John Paton
• 26 Aug — Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace, Paul Jewett
• 27 Aug — Didache, Anonymous, c. AD 90-180
• 30 Aug — Jesus Loves the Little Children, Daniel Hyde
• 5 Oct — Body of Divinity, Thomas Watson
• 5 Oct — Just Courage, Gary Haugen
• 6 Oct — Treatise on Predestination, Augustine
• 10 Oct — Mystery of Godliness, John Calvin
• 10 Oct — Plato in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern (again)
• 11 Oct — Aristotle in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern (again)
• 14 Oct — The Crook in the Lot, Thomas Boston
• 17 Oct — Calvinism in History, Loraine Boettner
• 18 Oct — The Glory of the Christian Dispensation, Robert Murray M’Cheyne
• 20 Oct — The Doctrine of Justification, Arthur W. Pink
• 23 Oct — Attributes of God, Arthur W. Pink
• 26 Oct — Pisgah Views, Octavius Winslow
• 29 Oct — The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, John Calvin
• 8 Nov — Infant Baptism and the Silence of the New Testament, Bryan Holstrom
• 15 Nov — Temptation, Resisted & Repulsed, John Owen
• 22 Nov — Letters of C. H. Spurgeon
• 30 Nov — Satan Cast Out, Frederick Leahy
• 9 Dec — A Reformed Baptist Manifesto, Sam Waldron
• 9 Dec — The Ten Commandments, Arthur W. Pink
• 23 Dec — Politics, Aristotle

2006-2008 Reading List — These are the books I recall reading during this period, though I’ve forgot some now. The “@” means recommended.

• Profiting from the Word — Arthur W. Pink 
• All of Grace — Charles H. Spurgeon 
• Pocket Guide to Church History — Dr. Jeffrey Bingham
• The Sovereignty of God — Arthur W. Pink 
• Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul — Octavius Winslow 
• The Mortification of Sin — John Owen 
• The Young Christian — Matthew Henry 
• The Bruised Reed — Richard Sibbes 
• The Acceptable Sacrifice — John Bunyan 
• Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts — Jonathan Edwards 
• On Prayer and The Christian Life — John Calvin
• Imitation of Christ —Thomas a’ Kempis
• Truth for All Time — John Calvin 
• A Defense of Calvinism — Charles H. Spurgeon 
• Bondage of the Will — Martin Luther
• Redemption Accomplished and Applied — John Murray
• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God — J. I. Packer
• Doctrines of Grace, a Scripture List — Nathan Pitchford 
• Five Points of Calvinism — W. J. Seaton 
• Knowledge of the Holy — A.W. Tozer
• Autobiography of C. H. Spurgeon — W. Y. Fullerton  [review]
• Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret — Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor 
• Confessions — Augustine 
• The Diary of David Brainerd — by Jonathan Edwards 
• A Surprising Work of God — Jonathan Edwards 
• Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts — Jonathan Edwards 
• Tortured for Christ — Richard Wurmbrand 
• In His Own Words — Martin Luther
• Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God — David McCasland
• Ben Israel — Art Katz
• Mission to the Head Hunters — Frank Drown
• The Day Nazi Germany Died — Beatte Wilder—Smith
• One with Christ, Comments on the Song of Songs — Hudson Taylor
• Words to Winners of Souls — Horatius Bonar 
• Around the Wicket Gate — C. H. Spurgeon 
• Alarm to the Unconverted / Sure Guide to Heaven — Joseph Alleine
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God — Jonathan Edwards
• The Reformed Pastor — Richard Baxter
• Warnings to the Churches — J. C. Ryle
• Reformed Confessions Harmonized — Joel Beeke
• The Pilgrim’s Progress — John Bunyan 
• Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe 
• Pocket Guide to Church History — Dr. Jeffrey Bingham
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs — John Foxe
• King James Version  

1984-2008 Reading List — It’s hard to say, I read a lot then, too. Tolkien and Lewis are there in spades, as well as lots of poetry, Aurtherian and Greek mythologies, and books on folklore and the occult. Favorite poets from this time included Whitman, Sandburg, and Yeats, as well as several Russian Jewish poets and classic Greeks as Ovid. Clearly my interests changed.