Top Ten Favorite Books

Per a recent request of one of my readers, I would like to now list the top ten favorite books that I have already read. I have found this an infinitely harder exercise than the previous one because it necessitates picking and choosing between works of literature and theology, which ought to stand on their own merit and not be judged by such an unworthy and fickle reader as myself. I have found that this list has changed over the years due to the change of my interests, rereads, ruminating on the material, etc. As such, I offer this list with the following caveat: it is not written in stone, and there are many other works that I have read quite deserving of the list. However, thinking about it at this particular point in my life, here are my top ten favorite works in no particular order (though the first two are fairly cemented):

1. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

(Launched a new genre - writing a true event as a story. Beautifully written and spellbounding. Of all the books on this list, I found this one the most difficult to put down.)

2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

(Paints a beautiful picture of the South - and may have begun my love affair with it. Somehow weaves together the two seemingly unrelated stories of carefree childhood summers and racial injustice. It also gives us, in my opinion, one of the great characters of American literature, Atticus Finch. If my wife would let me, I would name my dog Boo Radley.)

(A side caveat, both writers hale from Monroeville, Alabama, the same town from which my great friend Matthew Glen Eubanks hails. I have told people that he will be the third famous writer from that town. A fine biography on Harper Lee, which includes her significant contribution to In Cold Blood is Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields. Though not making my top ten, it is a great read for anyone interested in those two figures.)

3. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Paints a picture of 1920s America almost as effectively as Harper Lee does of the South. Though simple enough for a high schooler to appreciate, the layers in this book are thick. Worth a reread if you haven't read it since high school. We never abandon our first love.)

4. Against Heresies - St. Irenaeus

(Written at the end of the second century to combat the rising heresy of Gnosticism, it is rightfully hailed as the first work of systematic theology. Irenaeus shows how the resurrection is God's redemption of creation, instead of its overturning. This book is one of the reasons I fell in love with theology and the Fathers of the church.)

5. The Confessions - St. Augustine

(This is the first, and still the standard, spiritual autobiography. It shows us that even a giant of the church, as Augustine was, still struggles and still needs to find solace in the grace of God.)

6. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

(A modern classic. Absolutely captivating piece of mystery and historical fiction. I recommend reading it with a group of friends in order to discuss it. This is how I read it and I think it made the read much more valuable.)

7. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

(An allegory of heaven and hell; the symbolism is thick and rich. Paints a beautiful picture of God and his hope for humanity.)

8. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

(Singlehandedly led to meat packing reforms of the early twentieth century. Weaves together historical fact and the struggles of a fictional immigrant family struggling to survive in early America beautifully.)

9. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

(An unbelievably fascinating read. A must for anyone who is the lover of quaint characters and the South, particularly Savannah. The town itself is the main character. Solidified the mystique of the South for me.)

10. The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton

(The late Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk at a monastery about an hour and a half from where I lived in Kentucky. This is the story of his life to the point of his entering the monastery. While Augustine's might have been the first, Merton's in my opinion is the best sample of spiritual autobiography. You will fall in love with the man and, hopefully, his God.)

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As I recently wrote to an anonymous post, I would encourage my readers to post their favorite reads. Sharing our favorites with one another will encourage us to read and spark other ideas of what we have read that we have loved.

Merton's Humility

This quotation, from a man who has become one of my heroes, sums up the way that I feel right now:

"But oh! How far I have to go before I find You in Whom I have already arrived!"
-Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

Biography

I did not intend this, but I realized this morning that the last three books I have read for pleasure (including the one I am currently reading) have either been biographies or autobiographies. Last August, I read Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields (Lee wrote the pulitzer prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird). In September, I read The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf by Mark Frost (Bobby Jones is widely considered the greatest golfer who ever lived). Currently I am reading The Seven Storey Mountain, which is the autobiography of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk.

All three were/are wonderful reads, particularly if you are a Harper Lee fan (which I am) or a golf fan (which I am). With all due respect to Harper Lee and Bobby Jones, however, it occurs to me how different Merton's story is than the other two. While Harper Lee spent her life, or at least her early life, obsessed with writing a great novel and Bobby Jones spent his life, or early life, obsessed with becoming the greatest golfer who ever lived, Thomas Merton, from age 23 on, transfixed all of his energies in experiencing God through spiritual exercises and mystical experience. While Lee's and Jones' biographies focus on their stories and ultimately bring glory to them, Merton's is clearly God's story and merely how he fits into it.

A sobering question I have been pondering: if someone were to write my biography at this stage of my life, would it focus on my pursuits at being a writer or a scholar or some other pursuit? Or would it focus on God and my consuming desire to commune with him. Unfortunately I think the former because those pursuits have truly consumed me, while often I have asked God to fit in their somehow.

I long to think and act like Merton. Like him, I do not want to care whether or not I become a writer or scholar (and for those who have played with me, certainly not a golfer). The only thing I wish is to live for is God and to have all other pursuits fall under that communion.