Books Read in 2012

Here are the books I read in 2012. Even when you take into account that many of these were slim Kindle Singles, given how busy I've been over the last year, I'm impressed by the numbers...

The Books

1. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli
2. A Feast of Crows by George R. R. Martin
3. Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
4. The Quantum Universe (Or Why Anything That Can Happen, Does) by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
5. Lying by Sam Harris
6. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
7. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
8. A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss
9. Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer
10. The Flinch by Julien Smith
11. Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning by Sugata Mitra
12. One Way Forward: The Outsider's Guide to Fixing the Republic by Lawrence Lessig
13. Living Architecture: How Synthetic Biology Can Remake Our Cities and Reshape Our Lives by Rachel Armstrong
14. Homo Evolutis: Please Meet the Next Human Species by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans
15. Free Will by Sam Harris
16. Thor Meets Captain America by David Brin
17. What the Plus?: Google+ For the Rest of Us by Guy Kawasaki
18. What's Killing Us: A Practical Guide to Understanding Our Biggest Global Health Problems by Alanna Shaikh
19. Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
20. The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi
21. The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell
22. Even Mystics Have Bills to Pay: Balancing a Spiritual Life and Earthly Living by Jim Rosemergy
23. Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy by Bill Clinton
24. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles edited by Gregory Bassham
25. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
26. The Evolution of Faith by Philip Gulley
27. Laches by Plato
28. Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization by Parag Khanna and Ayesha Khanna
29. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandra Robbins
30. The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It by Philip G. Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan
31. Believe in America: Mitt Romney's Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth by Romney for America
32. Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, From A Game of Thrones to A Dance With Dragons edited by James Lowder
33. It's Dangerous to Be Right When the Government is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom by Judge Andrew Napolitano
34. The Void by Frank Close
35. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
36. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
37. Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space by Lisa Randall
38. Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies for Modern Life by Sakyong Mipham
39. Humanism as the Next Step by Lloyd & Mary Morain
40. Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Education Are Everywhere by Will Richardson 
41. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain 
42. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
43. Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us Smarter? by Howard Rheingold
44. Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country by William F. Buckley, Jr.
45. If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person by Philip Gulley & James Mulholland
46. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt 
47. If God Is Love: Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World by Philip Gulley & James Mulholland
48. Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics by Jim Al-Khalili 
49. The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World by Sean Carroll
50. The Many Lives of Lilith Lane by E.V. Anderson
51. Smile by Ron Gutman
52. When I'm 164 by David Ewing Duncan
53. The Happiness Manifesto by Nic Marks
54. Beware Dangerism! by Gever Tulley
55. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
56. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff 
57. A Haystack Full of Needles: Cutting Through the Clutter of the Online World to Find a Place, Partner, or President by Jim Hornthal
58. The Falling Machine (Society of Steam Book One) by Andrew P. Mayer
59. Hearts of Smoke and Steam (Society of Steam Book Two) by Andrew P. Mayer
60. Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World by Lisa Randall
61. The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever edited by Christopher Hitchens
62. Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson
63. Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives with Design-Based Education by Emily Pilloton
64. The Constant Art of Being a Writer: The Life, Art, and Business of Fiction by N.M. Kelby
65. Energy For Future Presidents by Richard A. Muller
66. Citizen Advocate: How to Get Government to Move Mountains and Change the World by Omar Ahmad
67. Hacker Mom by Austen Rachlis
68. Power Under Pressure (Society of Steam Book Three) by Andrew P. Mayer

Analysis

Format:

• Audiobooks: 8
• Kindle: 42
• Kindle Singles (mini-books/solo essays): 27
• Kindle Serials: 2
• Kindle Lending Library: 3
• Google eBooks: 1
• Dead tree books: 17

My number of audiobooks has dropped dramatically for two reasons: I no longer commute and I now listen to several podcasts, in place of my audiobook time. For those audiobooks I do listen to, I've begun using Audible.com a lot, and some books that I've really enjoyed (mostly non-fiction), I've bought the book in both Audible and Kindle formats, so that I can synchronize between them using Amazon's Whispersynch for Voice, switching between listening and reading as time permits. (This also allows me to conveniently highlight passages even if I only have time to listen to the book on audiobook.)

Subjects:

• Total Fiction: 18
• Science Fiction: 9
• Fantasy: 11
• Epic Fantasy: 4
• Young Adult: 2
• Steampunk: 5
• Non-Fiction: 51
• Science: 26
• Physics: 9
• Psychology: 9
• Biology: 4
• Technology: 5
• Religion: 8
• History: 3
• Politics: 7
• Education: 6
• Business: 6
• Philosophy: 12

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas. For example, I determined that Sam Harris' Free Will fell under both the Psychology and Philosophy headings and, frankly, I could have justified also counting it as a Religion book, while a book about Buddhism is classified as both Religion and Philosophy ... and could probably also be classified as Psychology!

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

• 2011 books read
• 2010 books read
• 2009 books read
• 2008 books read

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise record, so they aren't listed anywhere.

The Philosophical Christian: 5 Reasons Not to "Fear God"

Today I finally got back on Facebook for the first time since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I've been intentionally avoiding it. It's made my wife cry multiple times already and, since we don't have television, I was able to have a nice weekend without being confronted with the tragedy continuously.

When I finally did log on to Facebook, I was prepared for the assorted pro- and con-gun control/Second Amendment posts ... but I was not prepared for the bizarre religious trend to many posts. I was not prepared for the proclamation, from seemingly sane friends of mine, that this sort of thing happens because God is absent from schools.

And perhaps most bizarrely, I was not expecting the post which said the problem is that children are not taught to "Fear God." (The above picture isn't the one from Facebook, but you get the idea.)

The entire notion of "God-fearing" has never resonated with me, but to invoke it in the wake of this tragedy is absolutely perplexing to me on a number of levels. Specifically, I can think of 5 huge problems with it:

1. You Can't Love What You Fear - You cannot have a healthy, loving relationship with an entity that you fear. You can certainly have strong emotions, but if you love someone and fear them, then your relationship is dysfunctional. Most people who believe in God have a dysfunctional relationship with the notion of God because they hate and fear it at the same time. Unless you drop the notion of God entirely, the best approach I've seen is to let go of the fear part.

2. The Best Christians Don't Fear God - If you look at the Christians who are worthy of the name - including the big J.C. himself - you'll find very little "fearing" in relation to God going on. They exalt God, because they believe in a God who's worth exalting.

3. It's Blasphemy - The phrasing "Fear God" should be absolutely offensive to any God that's worth worshiping, and equally offensive to his followers. If you're going to use "fear" and "God" together, it should be as a negation, such as "Because I believe in God, I fear no evil" or something like that. If you believe in a God who relishes that those who believe in him fear him, I humbly submit that you worship a psychopathic bully.

4. God Didn't Do This - Specifically in the wake of these shootings, this comment to fear God is especially bizarre, because the implication is therefore that God was somehow behind the shootings. Or, at the very least, he removed his hand of protection from innocent children because of offenses committed by others. Most Christians would, I believe, find this highly offensive as well.

5. In conclusion, children (and the rest of us) certainly have enough to fear in this world. There's no need to add God to the list.