Participation Required: Best Books
Of course, we can all say the Bible. But what other books have been the best ever? It can be fiction, or non. Fantasy? Do you like Harry Potter books? (I promise, I won’t tell your pastor) Are Chilton Manuals your favorites? Do you read steamy romance novels? Stephen King?
I don’t get into stories for whatever reason. Books that have a point or 50 are much more up my alley. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology is my favorite book. There are a number of things in there that I don’t agree with, but it is still my favorite. Coming in at a close second is Calvin’s Institutes. I only have the first edition, so I have probably missed quite a bit. Here is an interesting fact, a Calvary Chapel pastor gave it to me. No, George, I am not going to tell you who.
Lets talk about books we love! Participation Required!
Any book by James Patterson.
I used to place those right behind the Bible, but ever since Alex single handedly destroyed the reliability of the Bible – I put James Patterson books right at the top.
For extra-curricular reading:
The Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson
The Orthogonal series by Greg Egan
The Galactic Center series by Gregory Benford
All the Shannara and the Word/Void books by Terry Brooks
The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson
The Expanse series by James Corey
The Entire And The Rose series by Kay Kenyon
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
Etc. those were just the recent ones.
You have my permission to tell my pastor.
The Ragamuffin Gospel has probably had the biggest impact on my life. The over used phase “life changing” is very appropriate here. Otherwise I love to read, and re-read some things. Harry Potter, yes; Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher (MAny of her books to be honest) and I always read books as they come out by MC Beaton, Alexander McCall smith and Kathy Reichs, and Orson Scott Card.
But If I could get everyone in the world to read one fiction book, it would be Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. Brilliant and inspiring…. I don’t really understand why it has such a hold on me. I re-read it every couple of years and love every second of it.
MLD
Trouble maker! 😉
Bob Sweat,
I know, who would have thought that James Patterson books would bring such controversy to a book review thread. 😉
I enjoy reading Michael Connelly books.
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is probably my overall favorite.
Anything CS Lewis ever wrote. Narnia, Space Trilogy, notes on a napkin….anything.
John Phillips commentaries are great.
The Devil in Pew Seven, and I’m Down are two great books from the last few years.
I like reading biographies more than anything else. Serial killers and stuff like that. True crime is OK, but the less sensational the better.
Just picked up my first ever Francis Schaeffer book, The God Who is There. I like it.
Books? When you have the Internet plus DirecTV?
Gomer Girl, I am with you. Manning’s RG set me free from trying to work my way into pleasing God and understanding I am loved completely. From that point on life is a response to that love of wanting to please Him, yet understanding I will stumble, fall, limp, and be left wanting, but He will be right there to pick me up and call me His “Beloved.”
My last book acquisition…was over 300 Marvel comics for free in digital form.
I’d tell you they were for Trey, but I’d be lying. 🙂
Best books:
Art of War (Sun Tzu)
The Art of Rhetoric (Aristotle)
Das Kapital (Marx)
Atlas Shrugged (Raynd)
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (Giddens)
Economics in a Changed Universe (Stiglitz)
Crisis Economics (Roubini)
The Black Swan (Talib)
End the Fed (Ron Paul)
Free Will (Sam Harris)
The Grand Design (Hawking)
On Christian Theology (Rowan Williams)
The Consistency of the Continuum Hypothesis (Kurt Goedel)
Physics of the Future (Kaku)
Situation Ethics (Fletcher)
There’s a Cult Leader in my Kitchen (Dewitt-Bryson)
A Common Miracle (Grenier)
Make Your Own Application (Newnham) 🙂
The last three were humor 😆 (though I did like Esther and Michael’s books).
I read a lot of stuff, these are a short-list of the ‘best’ for various reasons. I’ve read and read (pronounced reed) Church Fathers like Martyr, Origen, Augustine, you name it, I’ve probably reviewed/read their angle. Packer, Chuck Smith, James White, Piper, Warren and all the leading evangelicals of our day. I read Mormon stuff, I read Lutheran stuff, I read Calvin and Luther, I read Catholic stuff, I read EO stuff, I read some of the whacky Charismatic stuff (those are fun, and Joseph Smith gets a bad rap? Yikes! They fill in all sorts of gaps and connect all sorts of dots), I read End Times stuff, I read Wesley stuff, I read Finney stuff, you name it. Always reading.
…but Michael says I need to read more stuff and assumes that when I ask questions it’s b/c I haven’t read enough, when in point of fact, it’s b/c the arguments simply aren’t completely sound after all the reading.
In fact, I think before anyone can have a valid opinion on here and be labeled as “sincere” and informed, they need to read all the stuff on my “top” list and more.
Next time you have a question, I’ll tell you to go read a book on logic or economics or sociology etc and assume you’re an idiot and haven’t read anything and can’t have a question until you’re done reading a broad range of stuff.
My faves:
Specifically Christian:
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Fr. Michael Pomazansky
Father Seraphim Rose, His Life and Works, by Hieromonk Damascene
My Life in Christ by St. John of Kronstadt
The Arena by Bishop Ignatius B.
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Jordanville Prayerbook
Psalter from the Holy Transfiguration Monastery
The Hermitess Photini
>>>Sola Scriptura- In the Vanity of Their MInds by Fr. John Whiteford<<<
I think the term "life-changing" as applied to sermons, lectures, retreats and books is vastly over-used but this booklet completely changed the way I looked at the Scriptures and the Church. It was truly life-changing. You can read it here:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/tca_solascriptura.aspx
Christian flavored:
The Bros. Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)
The Name of the Rose (Eco)
Other books I read over and over:
Foucault's Pendulum (Eco)
Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak)
Morte D'Arthur (Malory)
The Eight (Neville)
When I read Chuck Smith’s body of work, I find he is very much a hodge-podge of some rather interesting theories. He still resembles the whacky Charismatics in many of his less-than-orthodox assertions/teachings, yet he has some very conservative-baptist type calminian positions as well.
Chuck Smith is what you get if Kuhlman and Mohler had a love child.
Please don’t let this light-hearted thread become about Alex. Please.
Don’t respond to his taunts.
Yes, to what Xenia said!
They aren’t taunts. and you have the control over whether or not you choose to make it about me.
Alex, what is the best book you’ve read on hermeneutics
Some of my favourite books are by Ken Gire. The “Moments with the Saviour” series is excellent, as well as “Windows of the Soul.” I have read all them several times.
“The Orthodox Church is the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the Truth, and it is both the means by which God wrote the Scriptures (through its members) and the means by which God has preserved the Scriptures. The Orthodox Church understands the Bible because it is the inheritor of one living tradition that begins with Adam and stretches through time to all its members today.”
Oh please. What a bunch of self-serving, “we are the people” self-serving garbage.
How in the world can you believe that?
Downright cultish in fact.
Josh, no singular work that stands out to me as “the bible” on “proper context” and “proper interpretation”…more a series of principles like the discipline of Historical Context, Textual Criticism, Historical Criticism, Cultural Context, etc.
What’s interesting is that outside of the narrow religious bubble is a vast area of science/reason that does what “hermeneutics” claims to do…it seeks to interpret the “context” of a particular historical text.
The mainstream evangelical “hermeneutics” are a rather sloppy function of what science and reason do much more rigorously and much more thoroughly.
“Proper hermeneutics” is like saying “This interpretative model is correct!” when in point of fact, the religious interpretive models I’ve reviewed and seen conclusions from are pretty sloppy and inconsistent.
PP Vet,
Cultish? You should talk. Look at the fleabags you follow. Talk about cultish. Look in the mirror. Bent Toddler and all the rest.
Just because a branch of the Church believes they’re the True Church doesn’t make them cultish. Why not open up your mind a little and consider another POV other than your own.
I think you owe enia (my cap x doesn’t work) an apology for your bad manners.
@ 21 – None of that is interesting. Name any book you’ve read on hermenteutics.
Josh, the other irony, is that “hermeneutics” from a Christian perspective, CLAIM to be applying a reasoned/logical approach to interpreting the text…yet, often, they redefine what science has developed as “reason” and “logic” and proper methodology to scrutinize a particular text.
It’s very funny. Christian hermeneuticists: “We are applying reason!” Yet, then going on to deny some of the core foundational principles with Reason in the process and exercising sloppy “reason” in the process.
Appeal to Reason, yet not accepting the Universally Accepted principles and disciplines within Reason when coming up with their “Proper hermeneutic” framework.
Josh, maybe you missed my reading list above in the subsection.
I’ve read a ton of folks theories of “proper hermeneutics”…Calvin’s Hermeneutical Principles and his theories on ‘proper’ interpretation, Lutherans, Wesleyans etc etc.
Not sure why you are confused about that.
You’ve never read any book on hermeneutics.
Josh, you do understand that each Box and Sect in Christianity pretty much presents it’s own “hermeneutical principles” and framework for interpreting the text…
The problem is not that you haven’t read a book on hermeneutics, but the fact that you won’t admit that you are no expert on the subject.
I’ve read Rhetorical Hermeneutics and other similar works as I studied Rhetorical Criticism as part of my major.
I’ve read a bunch of stuff on “Christian” hermeneutics as well, while at Master’s College and since. I’ll try to pick one for you that stood out, but like I stated, none were as compelling as the one listed above.
Don’t bother. My point is proven.
Josh, my major was Speech Communication, the emphasis was on written text, rhetorical criticism, context, meanings of words, meanings of literary works in the context of their age and culture etc. “Proper hermeneutic” is often a function of Rhetorical Criticism.
You need to read some books on the subject of Rhetorical Criticism, then you’ll understand how it is closely associated with Hermeneutics and how Hermeneutics is included in the field of study.
Clearly, I’m talking about Biblical Hermeneutics, of which you have no clue, and no ability to tell me anything about.
Josh said, “Don’t bother. My point is proven.”
Yes, you proved a point alright, LOL. You don’t understand what hermeneutics is and you don’t realize the discipline was first developed outside of Christianity…and that Christians co-opted a form of the discipline, though in most cases it’s a sloppy form.
Josh, not true, Calvin, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Conservative, Liberal, which Box would you like me to give you a synopsis of their “hermeneutical principles”?
Glad i chimed in early before it deteriorated into name calling and a “whose’s bigger” argument.
(no offence meant to those of a more delicate nature, but really boys…. )
You’ve never even read a book on biblical hermeneutics. Period. Anybody can wikipedia this stuff.
Gomergirl, I understand, and its not pretty, but when someone presents himself as an expert on a subject he clearly has no idea about, it’s kind of embarrassing. I’m done with it. Reuben can delete my stuff from this thread if he wants.
PP Vet, I am happy you clicked on my link. Keep reading! . I didn’t really expect anyone here to agree with the booklet on Sola Scriptura but since this is a thread about our favorite books I would have been dishonest if I hadn’t included it because it’s a fave for sure.
Xenia,
I think it’s great to share the documents from our traditions…thank you for doing so!
“Books”
What a quaint concept.
“A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side.”
~Wikipedia
I usually only do digital nowadays.
I spend 95% of my time doing design, music composition, production, consulting user guides as needed.
Sort of like life, I spend 95% of my time doing life and consulting in real time with The Living Word (Jesus, through prayer, worship and meditation, all day long as my constant Companion) sometimes reading others’ words about Him from the Gospels
…and I’ve also been reading the Silo series by Hugh Howey…
Josh, if you want to get way outside your Selective Fundie box, read Hermeneutics Interpretation Theory. Again, Hermeneutics is largely a function of Liberal vs. Conservative and then it splinters from there. You seem to think there’s one definitive “correct” book on the subject within conservative Christianity, whereas if there is “one correct book/model” on the subject (from a technical perspective) your likely to find it in the non-religious scientific Camp whose principles of reason and logic and scholarship predates “Christian” Interpretive Models and to which “biblical hermeneutics” appeals to (in the context of logic, reason, good scholarship etc).
Some folks live in an interesting world. Ignorance is bliss as they say. Yikes.
I have a Kindle and I subscribe to a email list that sends out links to free or cheap kindle books. Every week I download a mystery or a detective story (I look at the Amazon reviews first to make sure they are appropriate for an elderly Christian lady such as myself) and spend Sunday afternoons napping and reading. My current favorite detective series is the Bernie and Chet books. Chet, the narrator, is a dog.
Alex, you are embarrassing yourself, and speaking on a subject that you know nothing about.
Here’s how easy it is:
What’s the best book on rhetorical criticism? I don’t know. Never read one. Then again, I don’t claim to be an expert, know everyone else’s views or anything like that.
“You seem to think there’s one definitive “correct” book”
Never once even implied that. I asked you the best you had read. You haven’t read one.
How in the world can you believe that?<<<
Because it is true!
Ancient Greek Philosophy developed the principles for what everyone calls “hermeneutics”…it predates the Early Church, the Church Fathers etc.
Everyone’s “proper hermeneutic principles” is built upon Greek Philosophical logic. It’s fact, whether you like it or not.
I’m reading an excellent new book, “Historical Theology”, by Gregg Allison. It traces the development of doctrines from the early church forward.
Highly recommended!
The other stuff on my iPad today…
“The Fight To Save Juarez”
“Remember You Are Dust” by Brueggemann
“Engaging The Written Word of God”by Dr. Packer
“Taking God Seriously” by Dr. Packer
“Secrets In The Dark” by Buechner
Josh, I named several. You aren’t listening.
Michael, that book by Allison sounds interesting. Can I have it when you’re done 🙂 I’ll trade you for something 🙂
I’m reading (cover to cover) three commentaries on Proverbs.
Yeah, I’m that boring. 🙂
“Engaging The Written Word of God”by Dr. Packer
That sounds good. Have you read enough of it to comment on it yet?
Steve, have you ever read John Phillips commentaries?
Steve W, LOL. Proverbs sucks. It’s like reading fortune cookies and horoscopes mixed with Confucius.
I’m going to start reading some of Chuck Jr.’s stuff. I’m going to consider his angle. His approach, while many would cry “Emergent! Of the devil!” may have truth in it as he seems to example Jesus much more than some others.
…at least the Gospels Jesus, not the OT Jesus or the Revelation Jesus.
Josh,
Taking into account my love for Packer when assessing my opinion…I think it’s the best book I’ve ever read on all the issues that surround the Bible.
It’s not always an easy read…Packer has written so much lay level material that people forget that he is a formidable scholar.
I highly recommend it.
Josh, as an early Christian I devoured his Romans commentary. Read it many times and enjoyed it. I haven’t read his stuff much lately – as there are only so many commentaries I buy and typically I focus on a few key series and get whichever author wrote that book for that series.
“Silence is a true friend who never betrays.”
Confucius or Proverbs? 🙂
Steve – my pastor knew him well. I never heard of him until this week when I picked up his commentary on John. SO rich.
I definitely realize it is more fundie, less scholarly, type stuff, but I am finding it very filling.
@ 57 -Was that the latest one he wrote, and some were mad it wasn’t a systematic?
Alex,
My version is on Kindle…I can’t afford real books anymore. 🙂
“Silence is a true friend who never betrays.”
I don’t know, but I wish you would practice it.
Josh,
No…Packer has always written extensively on textual issues and language.
To me, this is a compilation of his thought in accessible form.
Thank you, Michael. I’m gonna put it in the cue.
Michael, LOL. Kindle rocks. It’s like the invention of cocaine for us information junkies.
Enough, I’m sure you would, which is why I’ll never shut up, ever 😉
It’s kind of fun knowing that there are stalkers out there who read my every word, some even say they print out the pages. Stalkerazzi.
1984-George Orwell
The Bad Guys Won, it’s about the1986 Mets
Playboy Gary Hart’s autobiography, one of the ebst books about wrestling ever
Chokehold by Jim Wilson, Exposes the corrupt and monopolistic National Wrestling Alliance
Wrestling at the Chase by Larry Matysik, it’s about St. Louis Wrestling during the Kayfabe years.
Bruiser Brody’s autobiography by Larry Matysik
The Worst team money could buy about the 1991 or 2 New York Mets
Xenia,
Your link is a fascinating read, wow! Thanks.
Gonna have a re-read and make some time for pondering my own shortcomings in light of Fr. Whiteford’s article.
Alex,
ChuckJr’s a great continuing source of awesomeness.
Remove the mislabel of “emergent” and simply take it all as the perspective of a fellow traveler. He doesn’t self-identify with that movement. its a pejorative that Jackie Alnor and her late husband slapped on him when she was picketing us at Capo, when he dared to simply hug a wider group of professing believers in Jesus (those outside of the Costa Mesa approved mindset). Look at him instead as merely one who has something to offer with no demand that anyone sign up. 😉
also the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, debuted late 82 and still goes strong today, my collection is from late 82 thru spring 86
I remember enjoying Chuck Jr’s book Epiphany.
Is Jackie a CC product?
Josh,
I cannot speak directly to whether or not Jackie is a CC product. Others who know her or of her better could probably answer better. However, at the very least, I do know that she and her husband did attend my CC for a period of years when they lived on the East Coast. This was before I began attending.
Noble of you, L#22, to come to “enia’s” defense, and I was a bit churlish, but actually I am already much more scared of her than I am of you anyway. 🙂
Yes I do have a fondness for weirdos, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Mitt Jeffords, and Jessica Jones.
I am less inclined to the work of Ananias the High Priest and the other noble and respected whited sepulchres that entertain the carnal minds of the religious.
I am pretty sure Jackie is a product of CC. I remember seeing copies of Bill’s “Christian Sentinel distributed back in ccphilly.
I don’t know if one can fairly say that anyone is a “product” of anything, but she is fiercely loyal to CCCM, and highly seasoned with the late Dave Hunt’s influence.
There isn’t a ministry outside of dispensational pre-trib evangelicalism she approves of, which I find crushingly sad. I have been told by AB that she is affable but I have found her to be completely unyielding and strident.
I hope she can find happiness and love in this season of her life.
Alex –
I snorted when reading this: Chuck Smith is what you get if Kuhlman and Mohler had a love child.
I have completely lost respect in Grudem’s works when I saw this most ridiculous list about what women can and cannot do in church/ministry: http://goo.gl/K0BzU I can’t wrap my head around such crazy.
Former pastor Matt Redmond just did a blog post on Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel book. I haven’t read the book, but reading his post makes me want to. http://goo.gl/UhxtK
Is Jackie into the UFO phenomena as was her husband? I always kind of felt embarrassed taking my friends to church when UFOs where the table talk of the day.
I don’t believe she is into the UFO thing. Here’s her site…
http://www.apostasyalert.org/
She’s also a huge supporter of http://moriel.org/
And she has a radio program…
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rapturereadyradio/2013/01/26/apostasy-alert-wih-jackie-alnor
http://rrrapostasyalert.blogspot.com/2011/02/february-11-show-ufos-supreme-being-or.html
…and I’ve probably done more to promote her in the past few minutes than I should have ever done 😉
Julie,
Grudem’s work you cited is an example of a reason why we’re seeing a whole generation of thinking spiritual people reject evangelical religion specifically and Christianity generally.
There is absolutely no legitimate reason to me why women cannot pastor, teach or lead in a church, but I admit being in a minority position among those who insist that our religion has evolved in this and other subjects.
Why can’t we recognize that barring women is the moral equivalent of slavery?
Pilgrim’s Progress in today’s English I’ve read at least ten times. Bunyan told a timeless story and created characters that Christian met along the way who still walk among us.
The Kneeling Christian by the unknown author is another book that has had a huge impact on me.
I read all 12 Left Behind books and enjoyed them. I read them as a fiction and it was an enjoyable journey for me. I do think that the series could have been better served by reducing the 12 to maybe 9 volumes. Stone me if you want!! 🙂
Of Mice And Men. The Grapes Of Wrath, and David Copperfield were books I enjoyed a lot.
Guilty pleasure…. Used to knock off a Mack Bolan novel in about a day and always wonder why he never made it to the silver screen!
I am already much more scared of her <<<
I'm just a harmless little fuzzball.
A Think Piece:
Watchman Nee.. Sit, Walk, Stand
Andrew Murray, The Release of the Spirit
Anything by Edith Schaeffer
Devotional:
Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest
The Puritans, The Valley of Vision
Vacation Reading:
Michael Crichton…anything he wrote
Michael Connolly…just about anything
Nevada Barr
Tony Hillerman
For Laughs:
Carl Hiassen
Janet Evanovich
Ok, so I’m low brow 🙂
Oh, just thought of some others….
West with Night, Beryl Markham
Out of Africa, Isak Dinnesen
Shining River, Precious Land, Kathryn Sergeant
anything about Mary Colter, architect
Linnea!! Great to see you. I too loved West With Night–amazing book.
Some others–The Yearling (Rawlings) City of Thieves (Benioff) To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) Angle of Repose (Stegner) Name of the Rose (Eco) Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
Yep, read all the Harry Potter books, and, like e-runner, most of the Left Behind series. One set remains on my shelves, the other was given as a white elephant Christmas gag…
Gave Courson’s commentaries away as a white elephant gift too…
for the most part these are sad and sickening.
Feel free to explain why…
Ahh! Judge John awoke early only to find the people of freedom reading what ever they want. Drat! Where are the mind police when you need them?
RE: Julie at # 76 & (|o) at # 83:
Church and para-church organizations that continue to deny women the freedom to teach the Bible in their corporate settings and who continue to exclude them from positions of leadership will not survive the 21st century.
“Church and para-church organizations that continue to deny women the freedom to teach the Bible in their corporate settings and who continue to exclude them from positions of leadership will not survive the 21st century.”
What does the Bibile say about that tho? The true Chruch (body of believers not denominations) will not go away and will be here until the Lords return
john mushenhouse…participation, not condemnation required. What books do you recommend we sad-sacks and sick-o’s should read to reach your enlightened state?
Reuben,
Yes, I love my 1970 Chiltons Auto Repair book covering American cars and Volkswagon from 1963 to 1970. I still own two cars within those years, so I’m keeping it I’m case……….
It wasn’t too hard to find on my bookshelf – big with 1412 pages, orange cover with grease smudges and full of lots of memories. Lots of good expanded diagrams, numbers and pictures. I haven’t used it for a long time, but now I’m remembering installing synchronizers in the transmission of my long gone 1963 Rambler. Those old tune-ups, gaps, dwell, timing……….. the good old days?
Toward an Exegetical Theology by Walter Kaiser really inlfuenced approaching scripture for me.
Paul The Spirit and the People of God by Gordon Fee, opening me up to the Holy Spirit; see Jim Hamilton’s God’s Indwelling Presence also.
The Temple and the Mission of the Church by GK Beale making me rethink some stuff.
The Cross of Christ by Stott. Obvious influence.
ooh and i got Allison’s book on kindle last week on kindle also. $5.99
“The Orthodox Church is the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the Truth, and it is both the means by which God wrote the Scriptures (through its members) and the means by which God has preserved the Scriptures. The Orthodox Church understands the Bible because it is the inheritor of one living tradition that begins with Adam and stretches through time to all its members today.”
I am not Orthodox, but I do believe that is a true statement. The Greek speaking (EO) Church did preserve the Word of God for us in the original Greek form. The Scriptures were written by men who lived in the Middle East, the realm of the OC. Those men were part of the body of the EOC.
Also, the Orthodox Church does have an unbroken line from the Apostles. I don’t have any problem agreeing with the above and I am a Protestant.
“I don’t know if one can fairly say that anyone is a “product” of anything, but she is fiercely loyal to CCCM, and highly seasoned with the late Dave Hunt’s influence. ”
Jackie is only loyal to one part of CC, She doesn’t care for the emergent and Calvinist parts of CC. She tells them they need to hit the road Jack…
My books? Anything by NT Wright. Even the occasional and rare thing I might not agree with.
I just finished “It’s So Easy And Other Lies” by Duff McKagen, former bassist for G N’ R. It sits alone on my bookshelf beside “All Is Grace” by Brennan.
Glen @95,
Chiltons are the best ever. I own a Subaru one somewhere, used it quite a bit. I would love to have a Volkswagen Chiltons. I have a deep longing desire for a westy microbus.
I cannot pin down one favorite book. I read a lot of different stuff. I’m reading Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson – The Art of Power’ right now. It’s a little light in historiographical terms, but a good read. I just finished Jeff Utt’s “Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron” (A history of the US Navy during the War of 1812), which is a book I would highly recommend. I’m going to start re-reading “Moby Dick” tonight.
I read the Bible every night because It keeps my head straight.
I’ve virtually given up reading any contemporary Christian authors for the time being. I grew tired of feeling like I was a market target. And, I felt like I was reading the same thing over, and over again.
I read so much that I am not going to pin down any specific book, but share some I have enjoyed this past year.
1. The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest
2. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
3. A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin
4. Fever Season by Jeanette Kieth
5. Anabasis by Xenophon
6. Hiking Through: One Man’s Journey to Peace and Freedom on the Appalachian Trail by Paul Stutzman
7. Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
8. The God of the Mundane by Matt Redmond
9. Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler
10. Generous Justice by Timothy Keller
Would have included Michael’s book, but I think read it more than a year ago. 🙂
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes. ~Erasmus
BTW
For anyone looking for free kindle books follow this link.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store/zgbs/digital-text
To sort through by genre:
Go to the left side of the page where it says >Any Category
Click on Kindle ebooks.
It will give you a new column that will allow you to sort by genre.
The free books are in the right column in the middle of the page under TOP 100 Free
My wife and I use this to great advantage, but it usually leads us to buy more from Amazon though, so actually it is a clever marketing ploy. So don’t feel guilty about it. 🙂
Started reading this last night.
http://www.amazon.com/AWOL-Appalachian-Trail-ebook/dp/B003JMFKRE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366676991&sr=1-1&keywords=awol+on+the+appalachian+trail
Gonna start prepping for a thru-hike. Planning and such. I want to get that done in the next 2 years.