I finally made a New Year's resolution

I generally avoid making resolutions, mostly because that seems to be the absolute worst way of ensuring that I do whatever it is I resolve to do.  I've found it works much better for me and my perverse self-defeating streak to just say that I'm going to try and do something.




For example, I'm just going to try to write a page of crap fiction every day.  I'm going to try and read/comment on a chapter of Scripture every day.  I'm going to try to post here and at COBRASAURUS!!!!! three times a week.  I'm going to try and drop a few stone of weight this year.  All good ideas that I have in no way resolved to do before December 31.

But as I was looking through my books -- which these days means more browsing of the Kindle than of the bookshelf -- I realized that there are quite a few books that I've started and never finished.  This used to never be the case.  I was a fanatic for finishing a book or even a whole series of books regardless of how bad it might be.  For a fan of epic fantasy, which thrives on very long series of very long books, this meant a serious commitment of time.

This was fine when I was in the Navy and had to deal with long stretches of boredom on deployments, but was a little difficult to maintain while working swing shifts, going to school, and trying to do all that fatherly stuff.  As a result, I got out of the habit of reading for long stretches, and tended to get bored more easily.

But now I'm resolving to finish those long, and long-unfinished, books:

A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Eifon Evans, The Welsh Revival of 1904
James Leo Garrett, Baptist Theology:  A Four-Century Study
H. P. Lovecraft, The Complete Collection
George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture
H. Leo McBeth, The Baptist Heritage:  Four Centuries of Baptist Witness
Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You
N. T. Wright, After You Believe:  Why Christian Character Matters

Maybe I'll even write reviews.  For now, though, I'll just ask:  which one should I finish off first?