Tuesday, September 11, 2012

ten life-changing books

I remember the first time it clicked...the putting together of letters and sounds to read words. I can't recall the book or my age though I'm sure it was somewhere around five, but I do remember the startling realization I actually was reading the words and not from knowing the story by heart.

My appetite grew from there.

Anne of Green Gables was the next epoch (one of her words) in my book reading history - the introduction to thick chapter books. I persevered through daunting words and read through the whole series plus other Montgomery classics. There was a time when I looked for the thickest book to read, something to last longer than a few days. Of course, the subject needed to appeal too. War & Peace never did.

And then I fell in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Him couple with ingesting His bestseller, taking it in to the depths of your soul and, well...it alters appetites.

Today, I cannot read a book unless it fits with the season He has me in. I can try to struggle through the pages, but if He doesn't whisper to me through the lines of another, I've learned to put it down. It may get picked up again, when the season fits, but others go the way of autumn, their leaves falling to ground.

And here are 10 of the books He's allowed to change my life, my course of thinking in some way:

1. Left Behind (you'll need to read here why this gets the number one spot)
2. the Bible (read the story behind #1 and you'll see why this is the only reason I put God at #2)
3. Praying God's Word
4. One Thousand Gifts
5. 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess and Crazy Love might be here too, but I haven't finished it yet.
6. The Hole in Our Gospel
7. Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
8. Same Kind of Different As Me & Under the Overpass ('cause they are on similar subjects)
9. Thrive Foods
10. the dictionary (but this is a post-in-waiting)

Honorable mentions include The Case for Christ (because it affirmed that I wasn't believing in another Santa Claus and mirrored my own atheist-turned-believer experience) and many Max Lucado books, among the first I read as a new believer.

How about you? Have any of the above titles changes your life too? What titles would be on your list?

Linking for the first time with:
Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings

3 comments:

Veronica and Daniel said...

What a great list! Many of them would be on my list too, but I would add the Little House on the Prairie series because those were the first books that got me to love reading :) Off to find out why Left Behind is in your #1 spot :)

Jenni said...

Nice list! I'm not much of a fiction fan, but have read most of the non-fiction you listed. :)

Stephanie @ CornAndCotton.com said...

This is a great list! Several I've read, and several will go on my list to read. Your blog is just gorgeous, too. So glad that I found it through Top Ten Tuesday. I'll definitely be reading more. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

~ Stephanie