I'm currently reading Richard Gaffin's book, Resurrection and Redemption.

One thing that sticks out so far is the mirroring or parallelism between the Fall and the Resurrection in terms of the inner man and outer man.

Consider:

In giving the Law to Adam, God said essentially, "if you eat, then you will certainly die." Although Adam's body did not immediately suffer death, his inner being (or mind, soul, heart as synonyms) was destroyed--he no longer possessed true righteousness and uncorrupted knowledge. The body, though not dead, began to suffer decay as a result of sin, and perhaps as a sign of the inner corruption of the soul. Because Adam was our federal representative with regard to God's Law, we all stood condemned with him and subject to his death and the curse of sin.

Christ, in taking upon human flesh, became for us a second Adam, so that all those represented in Christ are counted with Christ with regard to God's Law. Thus Christ's obedience is ours, Christ's death is ours, and Christ's resurrection is ours. When we are united to Christ through regeneration, we are raised from the dead in our inner man--given new life of the soul which was destroyed by sin. Our outer body remains corrupted, yet within our new life grows according to the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing our minds to knowledge and true righteousness.

Here is the mirroring:

The immediate death of the soul in sin is mirrored in the immediate life of the soul in regeneration.

The gradual process of bodily decay as a result of sin is mirrored in the gradual process of renewal of the inner man, which results in gradual mastery over the body, which Paul says is the source of sin and corruption (not because the body is itself evil, but because evil desires come through the weakness of the body--think, for example, how hard it is to control our emotions when we are tired, sick, or hungry; sin, taking advantage of the weakness of our flesh, succeeds in tempting us to gratify its corrupted desires).

Whereas sin destroyed our willingness to obey God's Law, regeneration renews our willingness to obey God's Law--where we once had no power over sin, we now are masters over our corrupted bodies. Whereas before we could no help ourselves to righteousness, we now have within us the will to do all that God commands. We have the will because we have the mind of Christ. It is only when we betray the inner man through thoughtlessly giving heed to the fickle changes of state in our bodies (everything from our most basic emotions like hunger and thirst to more complex emotions like the desire for recognition or comfort) without using our knowledge of the truth to determine how our emotions are to be controlled or directed in God's service.

Carnality in the Christian is a contradiction, not because Christians are sinless, but because Christians, in their sinning, betray the very thoughts of their inner man, the mind of Christ (cf. Romans 7, not omitting Romans 8:1!). The expectation of sinless perfection does not account for the gradual nature of the full effects of our redemption. But on the other hand, the failure to expect ever-increasing (not necessarily an unbroken incline, but yet always with progression) mastery over or mortification of sin. With the mind of Christ, what power can attain victory over the true Christian? It is the opposing side of total depravity that many Reformed folks need to recognize today. Victory has been achieved in our inner man, and all that awaits is the disciplined effort of mastery--as Paul said--the beating of our bodies into submission to the will of God expressed in His commandments.

Last year my book goal was to read one fiction book per month. I managed to fulfill that goal, by virtue of a science fiction kick I got into last year.

This year my goal is to finish my dissertation in 8 months, which will mean that you will be seeing a lot more "academic" books on my lists. However, as a side-project, which is also tangentially related to my dissertation, I'm hoping to read through some of the "classic" texts in the history of rhetoric. Most of the classics I've read at least portions of, but only a few of them have I read all the way through. For example, I've never read the entire Institutes of Rhetoric written by Quintilian (you'll notice from December that I've already started it). After Quintilian I'll be taking on the Rhetoric Ad Herennium, which I've read portions of before. Then I'll move on to Cicero and Isocrates. I'd like to get my hands on Peter Ramus's works as well, since one of the figures for my dissertation was a Ramist.

If all of this sounds boring, rest assured that I'll continue to mix in a fiction book here and there, as well as my usual theological fare.

I've posted one list of favorite books over at Brian's blog.  Here's a categorical list:

The best fiction book I read this year: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.

The best history book I read this year: The Reformation of Rights by John Witte.

The best theology book I read this year: Absolute Predestination by Jerome Zanchius.

The best economics book I read this year: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

The best commentary on Scripture that I read this year: Joshua: No Falling Words by Dale Ralph Davis.

The worst book I read this year: The Shack by William Paul Young.

The most difficult book I read this year: Theodicy by Gottfried Liebnitz

The easiest/most fun book I read this year: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

"It is precisely this which Satan is attempting in assailing infant baptism with such an army: that, once this testimony of God's grace is taken away from us, the promise which, through it, is put before our eyes may eventually vanish little by little.  From this would grow up not only an impious ungratefulness toward God's mercy but a certain negligence about instructing our children in piety.  For when we consider that immediately from birth God takes and acknowledges them as his children, we feel a strong stimulus to instruct them in an earnest fear of God and observance of the law.  Accordingly, unless we wish spitefully to obscure God's goodness, let us offer our infants to him, for he gives them a place among those of his family and household, that is, the members of the church."

Institutes Book 4, chap. XVII, sec. 32

57. Rediscovering Catechism - Donald van Dyken
58. Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert
59. De Dialectica - Augustine
60. John Calvin: Humanist and Theologian - Basil Hall
61. First John - Gordon H. Clark
62. Chapterhouse Dune - Frank Herbert