What to Read...
With so many choices and new books being published each and every day, how does one keep up? To be quite honest, many of the books published are out of print before long and aren't worth your time and attention. On top of this, you only have so much time. If you're forty-years old and you'll live and read until your eighty, how many books will you be able to read over those forty years? Let's say you read 20 books per year (and that's a lot for most of us) - that's 800 books if I'm doing my math correctly. By some measures, more books are published than that each day!
In light of this, here's a working list of books we believe are well worth your time and attention. Some of these are deemed "Classics" and have stood the test of time, but most of them are contemporary and can be found fairly easily. Consider this a work in progress...but here's a few to get you started in no particular order.
Works of Fiction
Les Miserables ~ Victor Hugo
The Testament ~ John Grisham
The Chronicles of Narnia (7 Vol.) ~ C.S. Lewis
The Chosen ~ Chaim Potok
The Giver ~ Lois Lowry
Okay For Now ~ Gary Schmidt
A Prayer For Owen Meany ~ John Irving
My Sister's Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency ~ Alexander McCall Smith
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Eden - Andy Merrit (Wesleyan Pastor!)
Works of Non-Fiction
Forgotten God ~ Francis Chan
Knowing God ~ J.I. Packer
Ordering Your Private World ~ Gordon MacDonald
The Celebration of Discipline ~ Richard Foster
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home ~ Richard Foster
The Life You've Always Wanted ~ John Ortberg
Hearing God ~ Dallas Willard
Mere Christianity ~ C.S. Lewis
Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens ~ Neil Cole
The Return of the Prodigal Son ~ Henri Nouwen
Experiencing God ~ Henry Blackaby and Claude King
Letters From a Skeptic ~ Gregory Boyd
Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace ~ Miraslov Volf
The Seven Story Mountain ~ Thomas Merton (autobiography)
The Hiding Place ~ Corrie Ten Boom
George Mueller's Autobiography
Evil and the Justice of God ~ N.T. Wright
In light of this, here's a working list of books we believe are well worth your time and attention. Some of these are deemed "Classics" and have stood the test of time, but most of them are contemporary and can be found fairly easily. Consider this a work in progress...but here's a few to get you started in no particular order.
Works of Fiction
Les Miserables ~ Victor Hugo
The Testament ~ John Grisham
The Chronicles of Narnia (7 Vol.) ~ C.S. Lewis
The Chosen ~ Chaim Potok
The Giver ~ Lois Lowry
Okay For Now ~ Gary Schmidt
A Prayer For Owen Meany ~ John Irving
My Sister's Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency ~ Alexander McCall Smith
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Eden - Andy Merrit (Wesleyan Pastor!)
Works of Non-Fiction
Forgotten God ~ Francis Chan
Knowing God ~ J.I. Packer
Ordering Your Private World ~ Gordon MacDonald
The Celebration of Discipline ~ Richard Foster
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home ~ Richard Foster
The Life You've Always Wanted ~ John Ortberg
Hearing God ~ Dallas Willard
Mere Christianity ~ C.S. Lewis
Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens ~ Neil Cole
The Return of the Prodigal Son ~ Henri Nouwen
Experiencing God ~ Henry Blackaby and Claude King
Letters From a Skeptic ~ Gregory Boyd
Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace ~ Miraslov Volf
The Seven Story Mountain ~ Thomas Merton (autobiography)
The Hiding Place ~ Corrie Ten Boom
George Mueller's Autobiography
Evil and the Justice of God ~ N.T. Wright
