Being new at this blog thing, I still feel I’m introducing myself to potential readers.  I see lots of top 25 book lists.  I’m not sure that this is my TOP 25 nor are these necessarily in any priority order.  I might generate a different list tomorrow.  But at least for today, these are some of my favorite books.

1.  The Bible. Certainly, I’ve read this more than any other and reading this has been more transformative than any other book.

2.  J R R Tolkien. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Read through this at least four times and love for the picture of how the ordinary and insignificant defeat the great power of evil.

3.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Life Together. Probably the most profound book on Christian community I’ve read.

4.  Homer.  The Iliad and The Odyssey.  Foundational narratives that explore the human condition.

5.  John Calvin. The Institutes. Bought the Ford Lewis Battles edition with a graduation award from seminary.  A model of rigorous thought, clarity and devotion to the sovereign God.  Don’t judge Calvin by his successors until you’ve read him.

6.  Shelby Foote. The Civil War. Bruce Catton comes close, but for sheer readability and sweeping narrative, nothing beats Foote.

7.  John R W Stott. The Cross of Christ. I am indebted to so much of Stott’s writing but this is his magnum opus in my opinion.

8.  Alan Paton. Cry the Beloved Country. I love the economy of his writing, his love of place and this compelling tale of reconciliation.

9.  J I Packer. Knowing God. Read, ponder, and pray this book and you will at least a bit more.

10.  Barbara Tuchman. The Guns of August. She later wrote of war as the “march of folly”.  She chronicles at length the folly behind the beginnings of World War I.

11.  C S Lewis. Mere Christianity. Hard to pick a single title but this is perhaps the book that most reasonably and clearly articulates what it means to be a mere Christian–apart from all the cultural trappings and denominational idiosyncracies.

12. Wendell Berry. Hannah Coulter. One of his “Port William” novels that deeply captures a sense of place, the passage of time, and the deep woundedness that many bear who fight our nation’s wars.

13. James Sire. The Universe Next Door. Jim has done more than anyone I know to introduce the idea of “worldview” into Christian discourse and this is the book that started it all.

14. Walter M Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz.  Possibly one of the very best science fiction works that explores what a post-nuclear holocaust world might be like.

15. Miroslav Volf. Exclusion and Embrace. Volf explores how we overcome the pervasive alienation from the “other” in the human community.

16. David McCullough. Truman.  I’ve loved everything McCullough has written but I still think of this as his best, introducing me to the last man to be president before I was born.

17. Eugene Peterson. Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity.  Peterson begins this book by decrying the ways American pastors have forsaken their calling and then focuses on prayer, the ministry of the word, and spiritual direction as the core of pastoral work.

18. Stephen Jay Gould. Wonderful Life.  Gould was simply a magnificent science writer!

19. Augustine. The Confessions.  Simply the best narrative of conversion out there.

20. Fyodor Doestoevsky. Crime and Punishment.  Glad I waited until adulthood to read this profound work on human nature.

21. George Marsden. The Soul of the American University.  Simply the best history tracing the foundation of American universities out of the life of the church to the present disestablishment of religion from the intellectual life of universities.

22. John Steinbeck. East of Eden. Magnificent writing retelling the Cain and Abel story in early 20th century California.

23. G K Chesterton. Orthodoxy.  He is wonderful for turning ideas on their head, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek!

24. Winston Churchill. A History of the English Speaking Peoples.  Churchill may not have been the best historian but he could write and he certainly gives one an appreciation for our shared democratic institutions.

25. Francis Schaeffer. The God Who Is There.  Going back, I find ways the book is flawed and dated, yet I am profoundly grateful for having this book in hand during my freshman intro to philosophy to have some framework to think Christianly about western thought since the enlightenment.

As I come to “25” I realize so many I could have included (such as Manchester’s biography of Churchill) and something by Wallace Stegner.  I’ve also omitted the witty writings and drawings of Columbus native James Thurber.

I’d love to hear some of your favorites.  Don’t worry if they are very different than mine.  Booklovers always love hearing about good books and tastes for books are as individual as tastes for ice cream!