2025 Update

This year felt different. I didn’t blaze through as many books as I hoped at least, not the kind with spines and page counts. Instead, 2025 became a year of deep dives, academic rabbit trails, and intellectual excavation. I found myself absorbed in research on alternative forms of marriage and the psychology of influence and control, which meant my reading diet tilted heavily toward journal articles, studies, and old theological papers I hadn’t touched since graduate school. It felt a bit like working on a dissertation again, minus the deadlines and the tuition bill.

Along the way, I revisited familiar intellectual companions. Some books become something like spiritual landmarks, places we return to not because we’ve forgotten them but because they help us remember who we are. One of those for me is Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling by James W. Sire. I have the 2000 softcover copy not the newer 2022 IVP Signature version. My copy is a battlefield of highlights, flags, underlines, and sticky notes with every page carrying marginalia from earlier versions of myself. Sire’s liberal sprinkling of well-placed quotations shaped the way I now weave quotes into my own writing. If you’ve ever wondered where I picked up that habit, look no further.

I also added a new favorite quote to my growing collection, a line that lingered with me long after I closed the book:

“Learning to think conscientiously for oneself is one of the most important intellectual responsibilities in life. …carefully listen and learn, strive toward being a mature thinker and a well-adjusted and gracious person.” — Kenneth R. Samples

If 2025 had a theme, that might be it: thinking conscientiously, listening carefully, learning slowly.

I’m also trying to be more intentional about reading at least two classics each year. I’ve been doing it informally for a while, but this year I made it a deliberate practice. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson was a delight, the kind of book that makes you wish you could be twelve years old with a flashlight under the covers again. McTeague by Frank Norris was… something entirely different that was gritty, unsettling, and unforgettable in its own stark way. I’m not sure what next year’s classics will be. A few years ago, I spent the week between Christmas and New Year rereading The Hobbit and loved sinking into that uninterrupted stretch of story. Maybe I’ll try something like that again.

Below is the list of books I completed or revisited in 2025—a mixture of theology, psychology, sexual ethics, adventure, history, fantasy, and a few oddities that simply caught my curiosity. In other words, a very on-brand year, all over the place.

Last Year’s Update: Reflections on Reading: Two Years of Books

2025 Books

• A Quantum Case For God, by Dennis Zetting and Randi Zetting
• Energy Is, Therefore God Could Be: Modern Science Refutes Atheism by Patrick McGrath
• Think Differently Live Differently, by Bob Hamp
• Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan
• The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt
• Know How We Got Our Bible, by Ryan Matthew Reeves, Charles E. Hill, Justin S. Holcomb
• The Canon of Scripture, by F.F. Bruce
• Hellfire Deconstructed: An In-Depth Study of the Bible Verses About Hell by Eitan Bar
• Under the Black Flag, by David Cordingly
• We Who Wrestle with God, by Jordan B. Peterson
• Bisexual Married Men, by Robert Cohen
• Bi, by Julia Shaw
• Polysecure, by Jessica Fern, Eve Rickert
• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Great Heroes and Heroines of Hawaiian Heritage, by Leilani Basham, The Great Courses
• Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha
• Reconnect with Nature: Lessons from the Natural World, by Jennifer Verdolin, The Great Courses
• The New Testament for Everyone Audio Bible, Third Edition, by N. T. Wright
• Open Monogamy, by Tammy Nelson PhD
• Robot AL-76 Goes Astray, by Isaac Asimov
• The Abolitionists, by Kellie Carter Jackson, The Great Courses
• The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
• Insatiable Wives, by David J. Ley
• Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl, by Julie Kagawa
• Clear Thinking in a Messy World, by Kenneth R. Samples, Mark Perez
• Early American Sex Scandals, by Cassandra Good, The Great Courses
• Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
• The Cult of Trump, by Steven Hassan
• Separation of Church and Hate, by John Fugelsang
• The Intellectual Life, by AD Sertillanges
• Perichoretic Salvation, by James D. Gifford Jr.
• McTeague by Frank Norris
• A Short History of Role-Playing Games, By Jamin Warren, The Great Courses
• Sex Scandals of Ancient Greece and Rome, by Monica Silveira Cyrino, The Great Courses
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson PsyD

Excerpt

2025 wasn’t a year of volume so much as depth. Instead of racing through books, I found myself tunneling into research, revisiting old theological notes, and rediscovering intellectual landmarks. It became a year of slow thinking—of listening, learning, and returning to the works that continue to shape who I am becoming.