Five books

Again I find myself in the position of ripping off my good friend Greg; his post on the five books that had most influenced him influenced me, so here's my doubtless inferior effort.  I've probably averaged 100-150 books a year over the last 20 years, and I rarely reread anything.  These are the ones that I have read, some dozens of times, and that have helped to shape me into the person I am today.


1.  The Bible

Come on, you knew that had to be the first one.  I'm one o' them Bible-thumpin' Southern Baptists, after all.  Until a few years ago, though, I'd barely cracked one open.  When I did, and actually read what it said, it turned my world upside down.  It pretty much wrecked me, and for that I'm profoundly grateful.  The fact that I live in a place where God's Word is available to everyone is one of the greatest blessings in my life.

2.  The Hobbit

And now for something completely different.  I first read this one around the age of ten, and have read it probably 20 time since.  It's a perfect adventure story, and it introduced a quiet, nerdy little kid to the idea that if the world you live in isn't one you like, you can make your own.  A lifelong love of reading (and occasionally writing) fantasy was born here, as was a realization that there was a longing in me that this world just couldn't satisfy.

3.  Mere Christianity

My journey to faith in Jesus Christ wasn't exactly direct.  I had spent some time in church as a child, but by the time I reached high school I only occasionally went, and then only to get out of the house and check out girls.  At some point around the age of 15, I found a beat-up paperback omnibus edition of C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and Miracles.  I tore through the first, plodded through the second, and never actually read the third until years later.  Though there it took a decade or more for me to actually understand and surrender to the Gospel, Mere Christianity was the turning point.  It was the first thing I'd ever read that made me think about what I believed, rather than just accepting what I'd been told.

4.  Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up

Unlike the books above, this one isn't a masterpiece of prose, a paragon of logic, or the infallible Word of God.  It's short, indifferently-written, and fairly obscure.  It also shook me in a way that nothing short of the Bible ever has.  When a friend named David Lee gave me this book one night in 2004, I wasn't a Christian.  Less than a week later, I was.  It shattered everything I'd thought I believed and encouraged me to examine myself and my faith.  It got me to open the Bible and read it for the first time.  I've since read better books, but few that did more to help save my soul.

5.  The Jesus I Never Knew

Most "Christian" books are, in a word, crap.  They're cliched, insincere, and fairly useless to anyone trying to get beyond the most basic understanding of the faith.  The Jesus I Never Knew isn't most "Christian" books, simply because it's unflinchingly honest.  Yancey was the first Christian author I read who dared admit that he still sometimes questioned God, and his books carried me through that process.  When he brought me out the other side, I had a better understanding of what I believed, and more importantly why I believed it.

How about you?  What books have been most helpful in drawing you closer to Christ?