I don’t have time to get all the links but here goes …?
The Bible, by definition The Book, is top of the list for influence and desireability (my first answer for no. 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9). However, since it transcends the rest of civilization’s library (and was omitted from the 54-volume Great Books of the Western World series because it was simply assumed that you already had it; it was also one of the only books you could take with you for military survival training), I’ll enter this?disclaimer (or cheat) and give?my list of other volumes.
1. One book that changed my life: The Way Home by Mary Pride. A radical feminist is converted to Christianity and becomes an apologist for natural childbirth, large families, home education, and entrepreneurial living. This brought together a number of practical family issues at a crucial time in my life; if you know me, you know what I’m talking about.
2. One book I’ve read more than once: John Adams by David McCollough. Go ahead, Jon, you need to read it. I’d recommend American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis for a chaser; it vividly illustrates from the other side why Jefferson was such a frustrating friend for Adams to have.
3. One book I’d want on a desert island: Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry. The best, most warm-hearted, all-around exposition of the Bible I’ve found; I liked it so much I named my third son after its author. And I want the whole six volume set in the original, though the very thick single-volume edition will do in a pinch. Lacking that, Volume 1 of The Practical Works of Richard Baxter.
4. One book that made me laugh: 1066 And All That by Sellar and Yateman. My favorite teacher in high school recommended it, and it was A Very Good Thing. Another like unto it is The Decline and Fall Of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy.
5. One book that made me cry: All Creatures Great And Small and everything else by James Herriott. Something about animals and people. I’ve read Herriott’s earlier books so many times I’ve practically memorized passages.
6. One book I wish had been written: The one I’m planning to write … something of a theological unified field theorem of family life …
7. One book I wish had not been written: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. This is just representative as a book whose time had come historically, but the modern acceptance of the ancient falsehood that man as just another animal species underlies so much philosophical decay, institutionalized slaughter, and downright society rot in the past century and a half.
8. One book I am currently reading: In Search of History by Theodore H. White.
9. One book I’ve been meaning to read: Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.
