Challenge: 50 Books discussion

In the year 2007, I read 79 books.
In the year 2008, I read 100 books.
In the year 2009, I read 165 books.
In the year 2010, I read 145 books.
In the year 2011, I read 82 books.
In the year 2012, I read 62 books.
In the year 2013, I read 90 books.
In the year 2014, I read 87 books.
In the year 2015, I read 126 books.
In the year 2016, I read 113 books.
In the year 2017, I read 153 books.
In the year 2018, I read 100 books.
In the year 2019, I read 102 books.
In the year 2020, I read 64 books.
In the year 2021, I read 117 books.
In the year 2022, I read 65 books.
In the year 2023, I read 116 books.

Last year I managed to exceed my stated goal pretty nicely, despite a number of personal challenges - several minor surgeries, starting to pursue a new degree (MLIS), the usual demands of the pastorate, more Covid, and so forth.

In light of that, I'm reasonably confident that 80 is a realistic goal for this year, provided coursework doesn't kill me.

I begin with the following:

1) Eve's Children: The Biblical Stories Retold and Interpreted in Jewish and Christian Traditions (Themes in Biblical Narrative 5), edited by Gerard P. Luttikhuizen

2) Summa Theologiae, vol. 25: Sin (1a2ae.71-80) by St. Thomas Aquinas and translated by John Fearon

3) The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science is Rewriting Their Story by Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse

4) Summa Theologiae, vol. 26: Original Sin (1a2ae.81-85) by St. Thomas Aquinas and translated by T. C. O'Brien

5) Summa Theologiae, vol. 27: Effects of Sin, Stain and Guilt (1a2ae.86-89) by St. Thomas Aquinas and translated by T. C. O'Brien

6) The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation by Andrew Ter Ern Loke

7) It Is Right and Just: Why the Future of Civilization Depends on True Religion by Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley

8) Perelandra: A Novel by C.S. Lewis

9) When Did Eve Sin?: The Fall and Biblical Historiography by Jeffrey J. Niehaus

10) The Church as Paradise and the Way Therein: Early Christian Appropriation of Genesis 3:22–24 by Christopher A. Graham

11) From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology by John Dyer

12) When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine of Original Sin by Loren D. Haarsma

13) Summa Theologiae, vol. 28: Law and Political Theory (1a2ae.90-97) by St. Thomas Aquinas and translated by Thomas Gilby

14) Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution by Daniel W. Houck

15) The Pope: His Mission and His Task by Gerhard Ludwig Müller

16) The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Early Periods, vol. 1: Presargonic Period (2700-2350 BC), edited by Douglas R. Frayne

17) Bound for Beatitude: A Thomistic Study in Eschatology and Ethics by Reinhard Hütter

18) That I May Dwell among Them: Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative by Gary A. Anderson

19) Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature by Peter J. Leithart

20) Cain and Abel in Text and Tradition: Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the First Sibling Rivalry (Themes in Biblical Narrative 14) by John Byron

21) The Literature of Ancient Sumer, edited by Jeremy A. Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gábor Zólyomi

22) The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Beyond by David Fohrman

23) New Treasures of Sumerian Literature: 'When the Moon Fell from the Sky,' and Other Works by Mark E. Cohen

24) Luther's Works, vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis 1-5 by Martin Luther and translated by George V. Schick

25) Looking for Information: Examining Research on How People Engage with Information by Lisa M. Given, Donald O. Case, and Rebekah Willson

26) Toward a Poetics of Genesis 1-11: Reading Genesis 4:17-22 in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context by Daniel DeWitt Lowery

27) Philo of Alexandria, vol. 2: On the Cherubim; The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain; The Worse Attacks the Better; The Posterity and Exile of Cain; On the Giants (Loeb Classical Library 227) by Philo of Alexandria

28) Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins by Paul Pettitt

29) They Flew: A History of the Impossible by Carlos M.N. Eire

30) Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, vol. 1: Sources From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by John C. Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed

31) Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant

32) God, Technology, and the Christian Life by Tony Reinke

33) Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal by Craig M. Gay

34) The Gift of Infallibility by Vincent Ferrer Gasser and translated with commentary by James T. O'Connor

35) Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift, edited by Darrell L. Bock and James H. Charlesworth

36) The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4: Analysis and History of Exegesis by Jaap Doedens

37) Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective by Mariusz Tabaczek

38) Primeval History: Babylonian, Biblical, and Enochic: An Intertextual Reading by Helge S. Kvanvig

39) Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder

40) Dying and the Virtues by Matthew Levering

41) The Art of Dying: A New Annotated Translation, translated by Columba Thomas

42) How Old Was Father Abraham? The Genesis Lifespans in Light of Archaeology by Craig Olson

43) Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels: Reminiscences, Allusions, Intertextuality, edited by Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Gabriele Boccaccini

44) The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions, edited by Angela Kim Harkins, Kelley Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endres

45) Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ by Michael S. Heiser

46) 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation, translated by George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam

47) Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences, edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck, and Enrico Morano

48) The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel by Brian R. Doak

49) The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts by Loren T. Stuckenbruck

50) The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate by Tremper Longman III and John H. Walton