I debated whether to include an exhaustive (and exhausting) recommended reading list in this book. A reading list can be helpful if it curates high-quality books. But I decided not to include a long recommended reading list after I reread Alan Jacobs say this:
Don’t turn reading into the intellectual equivalent of eating organic greens, or (shifting the metaphor slightly) some fearfully disciplined appointment with an elliptical trainer of the mind in which you count words or pages the way some people fix their attention on the “calories burned” readout. . . .
I find such suggestions [i.e., from Amazon.com—“People Who Bought This Item Also Bought . . . ”] irresistible, even when they are auto-suggestions, which is why, I think, I have come so passionately to distrust reading lists. I used to try to determine in advance what books I would read over the summer, but eventually realized that to put any book on such a list nearly guaranteed that I would not read it. No matter how anxiously I had been anticipating it, as soon as it took its place among the other assigned texts it became as broccoli unto me—and any book not on the list, no matter how unattractive it might appear in other contexts, immediately became as desirable as a hot fudge sundae. And over the years I have decided that this instinctive resistance to the predetermined is a gift, not a disability.[1]
1. Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 17, 145.
It’s not hard to find expertly curated reading lists. Mortimer Adler, for example, concludes How to Read a Book with “A Recommended Reading List” of 137 items—Western authors whom he lists chronologically.[2] Many of the authors have multiple books after their names, and some of the numbered items are titles instead of authors—such as “The New Testament.”
2. Adler and Van Doren, How to Read a Book, 347–62. On the recent trend to demote the West—including Western literature—see Douglas Murray, The War on the West (New York: Broadside, 2022).
There are even entire books devoted to giving you a reading list. Two examples are The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and John Major and The Joy of Reading: A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World’s Best Authors and Their Works by Charles Van Doren.[3]
3. Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major, The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classic Guide to World Literature, 4th ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1997); Charles Van Doren, The Joy of Reading: A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World’s Best Authors and Their Works (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2008).
What should we make of such reading lists? On the one hand, I find them fascinating and motivating. But on the other hand, such lists can suck the joy right out of reading. A detailed reading list can lead you to think of each great book as a dutiful project to tackle—something to tick off your list. I decided not to include a detailed reading list because I don’t want to steal your reading joy.
Some of my friends pushed back at my decision, so I decided to compromise. Instead of sharing an exhaustive and exhausting list of what I think you should read, I’m sharing a short list of some of my favorite books. It’s not a comprehensive list, but it’s something. My attitude in sharing this list is not “You should read every book on this list if you want to be a decent human being.” Instead, my attitude is “Hey, here are some books I love. The Bible is the only must-read book on the list, so don’t feel like you must read any of the other books. But for what it’s worth, I enjoy these books, and you might enjoy them, too.”
Here’s one caution as you read a list like this. What you prefer in a book may not be identical to what I prefer, so don’t think there’s something wrong with you if you read one of these books and don’t love it. I’ll give you two personal examples.
First, for the book Disciplines of a Godly Man, Kent Hughes surveyed some Christian leaders to see what books have most influenced them.[4] R.C. Sproul listed Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick as his favorite novel. Many call it the greatest American novel, and Sproul agrees. He says that the novel “has been unsurpassed by any other.”[5] That fired me up to read Moby-Dick. I spent over twenty-one hours listening to an audiobook of Moby-Dick. And I’ll never get those hours back. I kept thinking, “R.C. Sproul loves this book, so it must be good. Keep going. It’s got to get better.” Well, it didn’t get better. I dutifully finished the book, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Meh. I admit this probably says more about me than the book. But there it is.
4. R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, 3rd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 297–308.
5. R.C. Sproul, “The Unholy Pursuit of God in Moby Dick,” Ligonier Ministries, August 1, 2011, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/unholy-pursuit-god-moby-dick.
Here’s a second example. I heard John Piper rave about how much he enjoyed Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead. So my wife and I read it together. And we didn’t like it. It was less enjoyable than eating a bland muffin. We enjoy gripping stories, not fluffy streams of consciousness.
I share those two examples to illustrate that there’s not necessarily something wrong with you if you don’t love a book that I put on this list (with the exception of the Bible). These are simply books that I enjoy and love to commend to others. My list may not meet your standard for a book list, but this is simply a list of forty of my favorite books. I’ve kept it very simple—twenty books in the category of exegesis and theology and twenty books in the category of fiction.
Exegesis and Theology
1. The Bible
2. The ESV Study Bible
3. The NET Bible notes
4. Augustine, Confessions
5. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
6. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God
7. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
8. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4 vols.
9. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
10. Stephen J. Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ
11. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
12. J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
13. R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God
14. John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God
15. John MacArthur, Faith Works: The Gospel according to the Apostles
16. D.A. Carson, The Gospel according to John
17. D.A. Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson
18. Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 2nd. ed.
19. Douglas Wilson, Father Hunger: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their Families
20. George M. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life
Fiction
21. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
22. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
23. C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
24. C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
25. C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
26. C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy
27. C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
28. C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
29. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
30. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
31. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
32. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
33. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
34. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
35. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
36. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
37. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
38. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
39. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
40. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
***
Editor’s Note: This piece is an excerpt from Andy Naselli’s How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers. It has been republished here with permission of the author.
