Below is a list of some of my recent and fairly recent book acquisitions (in no particular order), some of which, when I look at them, I feel guilty for not already having read them through. But as I’m currently involved in other guilt management catchup reading, there is no escape!
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
Michael Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology
Bishop AUGOUSTINOS (Kantiotes), A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture. (Two volumes, one each for OT and NT. His Grace provides short introductions to all the books of Scripture, including the anaginōskómena, the “apocrypha”.)
Fr Eugen Pentiuc, Long-Suffering Love: A Commentary on Hosea with Patristic Annotations. (Recommended by our beloved Esteban.)
Grant Frame, Babylonia 689-627 B.C.: A Political History
G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Donald B. Redford, The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III
James K. Hoffmeier, The Archaeology of the Bible
Mafred Bietak, Avaris: The Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dabʿa
Mordechai Cogan and Dan’el Kahn, Treasures on Camel Humps: Historical and Literary Studies from the Ancient Near East Presented to Israel Eph‘al
Peter Der Manuelian, Studies in the Reign of Amenophis II
Jacob Neusner, A History of the Jews in Babylonia (five volumes), with the companion volume Aphrahat and Judaism: The Christian-Jewish Argument in Fourth-Century Iran, The Transformation of Judaism: From Philosophy to Religion and its companion volume Sources of the Transformation of Judaism: From Philosophy to Religion in the Classics of Judaism, and The Theology of the Halakhah
Rabbi Nosson Dovid Rabinowich (translator/editor), The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon
Susannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany
Paula Fredricksen, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism
Huub van de Sandt and Jürgen Zangenberg, Matthew, James, and Didache: Three Related Documents in Their Jewish and Christian Settings
M. A. Knibb, The Septuagint and Messianism
Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village, Marking the Hours: English People and their Prayers 1240-1570, and, of course, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580
Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform: 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Tobit (from the DeGruyter Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature)
Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization
Adrian Murdoch, Rome’s Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoberg Forest, and The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West
C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (the new, unabridged translation by Burton Raffel)
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (the annotated and illustrated edition edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer)
Eric Ormsby, Facsimiles of Time, and Time’s Covenant
D. J. Enright, Collected Poems 1948-1998
Zbignieuw Herbert, The Collected Poems 1956-1998
If someone would invent a pill that would safely remove my need for sleep with no deleterious effect on reading capability, I would very much appreciate it.
In my defense, I will say that I have always made it a habit to read, at the very least, the preface and introduction of every book that comes my way. And in several of the above-mentioned books I have made substantial, if only occasional, progress. I have always preferred to read my books straight through. Perhaps I am now in a period of transition, and am becoming one of those people who reads a number of books at a time. It seems that way.
In any case, from the parts of the books above that I have read, I can recommend them all, with greater or lesser enthusiasm depending upon the title.