# The 20 most important books you must read before you die.



## Wayne (Jan 14, 2018)

You asked for it.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Jan 15, 2018)

Romans - everyone should read it. Often, too.

Reactions: Like 2 | Amen 2


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## fredtgreco (Jan 15, 2018)

OK, Wayne - what are they?

Reactions: Like 1


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## KMK (Jan 15, 2018)

The Shack and what else?

Reactions: Amen 1 | Funny 6


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## Berean (Jan 15, 2018)

KMK said:


> The Shack and what else?



_Your Best Life Now_

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 3


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## C. M. Sheffield (Jan 15, 2018)

Also... The Circle Maker.


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## TrustGzus (Jan 15, 2018)

Don’t forget “Love Wins.”

Reactions: Like 1


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## KGP (Jan 15, 2018)

The Puritan’s Guide to Sarcasm - 2nd Edition


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reactions: Like 2


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## Jack K (Jan 15, 2018)

Methinks we'd get more responses asking for 20 books you should burn before you die.

Reactions: Like 1 | Amen 1 | Funny 5


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Jan 15, 2018)

https://www.wscal.edu/personal-pages/a-reformed-reading-list
https://reformedforum.org/resources/readinglist/
https://topics.logos.com/Reformed_Theological_Seminary_Reading_List

Tolle lege.

Reactions: Like 1


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## TrustGzus (Jan 15, 2018)

A good place for suggestions is to go to the website for Stephen Nichol’s “5 Minutes in Church History” podcast. He interviews famous Reformed folks asking what books they’d take to a private island.


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## Wayne (Jan 15, 2018)

No, no, Fred. The point was to elicit lists from contributors. 
I guess it's all in how you phrase the question, which by the way, originated on another thread and I was trying to be helpful by starting this one.

So, besides the Bible, name your top twenty must-read books.
Namely, the twenty everyone should read.


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## Edward (Jan 15, 2018)

Wayne said:


> You asked for it.



But we didn't get it.


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## RBachman (Jan 15, 2018)

I’ll start. My list contains books I have read multiple times, and expect to keep reading. I am not a pastor, nor a theologian, just an engineer looking for a job:
1) Berkoff’s Systematic -( honestly, one is enough just read it often, and look stuff up when you have a question. It is very usable)
2) Pilgrim Progress - every time I read it it’s like a new book)
3) WCF and catechisms
4) The Readers Hebrew and Greek Bible (for those inclined)
5) Scoffield Reference Bible KJV ed R Bachman (de-dispensationalized)
6) Mere Christianity - (nothing mere about it. Probably the only apologetics most people will ever need)
7) Lord of the Rings (NB Catholic author, with possible elven ties)
8) Atlas Shrugged (HA - made ya look!)


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## RBachman (Jan 15, 2018)

I know it’s only 7, Atlas Shrugged was a joke ( although a good book). But I’m not good at instruction, and I won’t listen to you whole voice mail either.


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## Ed Walsh (Jan 15, 2018)

Wayne said:


> You asked for it.
> The 20 most important books you must read before you die.



Here's my best serious answer. I have no idea or plan. I just make it up as I go along. I have well over 4,000 books in Logos format which I am devouring at the rate of about 500 pages every 21 days or so. I am reading many different commentaries along with the Bible. I often pray that the Lord would lead me to find the "five smooth stones" from my library. Sorry, but I can't be more specific at this time.


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## JimmyH (Jan 15, 2018)

Twenty is an awful lot to pick out with so many truly important titles. Studies in the Sermon On The Mount by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and his 8 volume collection of Ephesians (counting as one) were very important to me.
Calvin's Institutes of course, and his commentaries for research. I've got works by John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Thomas Boston, Richard Baxter among many others that I've been chipping away at. If I have another twenty or thirty years I may finish reading all I have in my growing library.


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## bookslover (Jan 15, 2018)

When G. K. Chesterton was asked what book he would most like to have if he were stuck on a desert island, he replied: "How to Build a Boat."

Reactions: Funny 3


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## JTB.SDG (Jan 15, 2018)

Love but haven't read recently:
*The Bruised Reed, Sibbes
*Personal Declension and Revival, Winslow
*No Condemnation, Winslow
*The Soul Winner, Spurgeon
*A Pastor's Sketches, Spencer

Love that I have read (more) recently:
*The Marrow, Fisher
*A Treatise of the Law and the Gospel, Colquhoun


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## KMK (Jan 15, 2018)

What if you have only read 19?

Reactions: Funny 1


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## VictorBravo (Jan 15, 2018)

KMK said:


> What if you have only read 19?



Well, then you can't die....

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 4


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## ZackF (Jan 15, 2018)

VictorBravo said:


> Well, then you can't die....



I'm worried if I read them I'll croak immediately.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## RamistThomist (Jan 16, 2018)

1. Augustine, City of God.
2. Maximus the Confessor, the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ.
3. Gregory of Nazianzus. God and Christ.
4. Basil the Great. The Holy Spirit.
5. Dostoevsky. Brothers Karamazov.
6. Augustine. Confessions.

Reactions: Like 1


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## greenbaggins (Jan 16, 2018)

Usually these lists typically exclude the Bible and Shakespeare's works (I will also exclude creeds, as they aren't books). So, putting those as "musts" above the rest, this would be my list for lay-people (and I simply have to make multi-volume works into one title, or it's impossible), in no particular order: 

1. Vos's _Reformed Dogmatics_
2. Vos's _Biblical Theology_
3. Schaff's _History of the Christian Church_
4. Calvin's _Institutes_
5. Matthew Henry's commentary
6. Marshall's _The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification_
7. John Owen, volume 5 of his works on justification
8. Van Til, _The Defense of the Faith_
9. Augustine, _The City of God_
10. Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_
11. Dumas's _The Count of Monte Cristo_
12. Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_
13. Copleston's _History of Philosophy_
14. Bauer, _The Story of the World_
15. Boorstin's trilogy
16. Norton's anthology of poetry
17. Encyclopedia Brittanica (just have it and use it; not necessary to read all the way through before death!)
18. Homer
19. Cervantes, _Don Quixote_
20. Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ 

Of course, the only problem with making a list like this is that everyone's opinion will be different on whether such and such a book ought to be included, and whether such and such book ought to be excluded. I dare say that this list would have been quite different even five years ago, and might very well be as different five years from now. This list was chosen to have a balance of theological disciplines, and a reasonable covering of the major fields of literature and history. None of these are hills I am willing to die on (except Vos).

Reactions: Like 1


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## VictorBravo (Jan 16, 2018)

Lane's list is pretty good (because I've read pretty much all of them, but only half of the Encyclopedia Britannica--1973 edition).

But I'd really like to fit Dabney's _Sensualistic Philosophy_ in there somewhere. If you want to see how we ended up where we are, look at the trend lines he identified some 140 years ago and see how they lead straight to post-post modernism.


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## Ryan&Amber2013 (Jan 16, 2018)

Anything by J.R. Miller. He has helped make me a much better Christian.


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## jckdymond55 (Jan 16, 2018)

Baptist piety


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## RamistThomist (Jan 16, 2018)

BayouHuguenot said:


> 1. Augustine, City of God.
> 2. Maximus the Confessor, the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ.
> 3. Gregory of Nazianzus. God and Christ.
> 4. Basil the Great. The Holy Spirit.
> ...



7. Don Quixote (as noted above).
8. Pilgrim's Progress
9. Pilgrim's Regress


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## OPC'n (Jan 16, 2018)

I'll be the sore thumb and add a secular book in. Wuthering Heights. It's not a great storyline, but she's probably the best writer I've ever read. Reading that book is like reading art.


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## RBachman (Jan 16, 2018)

I find the contributions excellent, although some seem obscure and little known. I was also interested to see a lot of fiction, although I was surprised that Melville didn’t make any List. How do many of you think of books: only factual, diadactic and life transforming? Fiction is okay if transforming? Fiction is okay if beautiful and sublime? How did the puritans think about it? Did they eschew works of fiction (Bunyan excepting) or did they have a more cultured ‘take everything captive for Christ’ view, or ...?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 17, 2018)

1. The Holy Bible
2. _The 1647 Westminster Standards_
3._ Pilgrim’s Progress_ by John Bunyan
4. _Christ Inviting Sinners to Come to Him for Rest_, by Jeremiah Burroughs
5. _Christ’s Righteousness Imputed, the Saint’s Surest Plea for Eternal Life_, by Michael Harrison
6. _Institutes of the Christian Religion, _by John Calvin (outline)
7. _The Glory of Christ_ (Volume 1 of Owen’s Works), by John Owen (excerpt)
8. _The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards_ (out of the 2 Volume _Works _online at APM)
9. _A Treatise on Hell’s Terror_, by Christopher Love
10. _The Marrow of Theology_, by William Ames
11. _Gospel Worship_, by Jeremiah Burroughs
12. _The Death of Death in the Death of Christ_ by John Owen (Volume 10 of his works)
13. _The City of God_, by Augustine
14. _The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man_, by Herman Witsius
15. _The Existence and Attributes of God_, by Stephen Charnock
16. _The Bondage of the Will_, by Martin Luther
17. _The Order of the Causes of Salvation and Damnation_, by William Perkins
18. _The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination_, by Loraine Boettner
19. _Penses_, Blaise Pascal
20. _The Christian’s Reasonable Service_, by Wilhelmus a’Brakel

Keep in mind, this list leaves out a lot of excellent works (i.e. Turretin, etc). See here why.


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## Logan (Jan 17, 2018)

I see a couple people have put Don Quixote on their list and I'm curious to know why. I didn't care for it myself.


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## Logan (Jan 17, 2018)

I'm hard-pressed to come up with a list because while there are definitely retrospectively 20 books _I _should read, I don't know if there are that many that _everyone_ should read.

A few that I feel would be of almost invaluable use to Christians:
Schaff's History of the Christian Church
Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion
Gouge's Of Domestical Duties
Henry's Commentary (at least the book of Genesis to get into a benefiting mindset)
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress

According to goodreads I've got at least 1300 books I've read, 250 of which I've rated 5-star, and picking from those is awfully hard for the above-mentioned reasons.

My favourite classics are probably:
Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
Hugo's Les Miserables
Dumas' Count of Monte Christo
Verne's Mysterious Island

Fantasy:
Hobb's Farseer Trilogy
Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles (if he ever finishes the third book)
Sanderson's Stormlight Archive
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

Non-fiction:
Mukherjee's Emperor of All Maladies (it's superb)
Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (yes, it can happen here too, folks)
(additionally, I do have Gibbons on my to-read list)

Dystopian:
Orwell's 1984
Huxley's Brave New World

Reactions: Like 1


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## greenbaggins (Jan 17, 2018)

Logan, good to see another Sanderson fan on the PB. In my opinion, he is the best fantasy writer alive today.


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## fredtgreco (Jan 17, 2018)

greenbaggins said:


> Logan, good to see another Sanderson fan on the PB. In my opinion, he is the best fantasy writer alive today.


Why would you say that? I'm completely unfamiliar with him. To whom would you compare him (in style)?


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## greenbaggins (Jan 17, 2018)

Fred, Brandon Sanderson first came to fame by completing Robert Jordan's _The Wheel of Time_. In style, I would say that he has some similarities with Jordan, though he has a more natural understanding of conversation, in my opinion. Very similar in style to Tad Williams's _Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn_. However, he can vary his style. For instance, the Mistborn series is dystopian fantasy that has a certain wistful and tragic quality about it, whereas the Stormlight Archive is more Arthurian and heroic, but set in a very non-Arthurian world. The later Mistborn novels have a more Western and even steam-punk style. Sanderson has many different series and stand-alone novels that are all part of a much larger world called Cosmere, a project of such ambitious dimensions that it takes your breath away. He himself is a Mormon, and teaches English at Brigham Young. If you want a taster, get the series of short stories called _Arcanum Unbounded_, which has the very best novella (in my opinion) ever written: "The Emperor's Soul." Sanderson's genius is in his magic systems, which are simultaneously enormously inventive, and yet never overly obtrusive. He writes the most epic of epic fantasy, and he avoids the grittier stuff that Martin writes. Sanderson still knows right from wrong, a quality disappearing from some areas of fantasy writing today. My favorites of Sanderson are Elantris, the Stormlight Archive, "The Emperor's Soul," and the absolutely hilarious Alcatraz series (which I highly recommend for reading to children about 7 years old and up).

Reactions: Like 1


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## Logan (Jan 17, 2018)

greenbaggins said:


> Logan, good to see another Sanderson fan on the PB. In my opinion, he is the best fantasy writer alive today.



I'm assuming that includes Robin Hobb? I'm hard pressed to decide because I really love her books, particularly the way she captures emotion.

I got into Sanderson around 2011 and since then I've read single everything he's published, including the stuff only on his website. I agree about Emperor's Soul, I recommend it constantly. And about the Alcatraz series. And waiting patiently for the Rithmatist sequel...


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## greenbaggins (Jan 18, 2018)

Logan, I've read a decent amount of Hobb, and I really like her, especially, as you say, her treatment of the character's emotions. However, Sanderson is just more epic than Hobb, no matter how you slice it. And when it comes to epic fantasy, it has to be epic to grab me: the bigger the canvas, the better I typically like it (though this isn't always true).


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## Logan (Jan 18, 2018)

Fair enough, I guess I find Hobb's writing beautiful, though I like some of her books much better than others.

The 16 books in her Elderlings world was pretty impressive in its scope though: a first trilogy in one part of the world, a second in another part, a third back in the first part, then a set of four in the second part, and a final trilogy that ties up all the loose ends, character arcs, and foreshadowing that began way back in the first book. It stunned me, honestly, though Sanderson may yet beat that with his Stormlight Archive, which is certainly more "epic".

Have you read Malazan Book of the Fallen? I read the first book and gave up on the series when I was told it wouldn't start making sense until the third or fourth book. But I still hear fantastic things about its intricacy and scope.


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## greenbaggins (Jan 18, 2018)

I have read into book 4 of Erikson. He is a magnificent author in many ways. If you get to book 4 or so, then you should start over, and _Gardens of the Moon_ makes SO much more sense. The problem with the series is that it focuses way too much on the military. While I don't mind having some battles (looking at you, Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields!), having all military is a bit too bloody (not to mention the fact that the magic always serves the military). Erikson does have some of the best humor in fantasy, though. Dry and sly. It is very disorienting, though, to feel like you're right in the middle of the story in volume 1, and he doesn't explain anything!


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## RamistThomist (Jan 18, 2018)

I've read Robert Jordan's stuff, most ofit, at least 7 or 8 times. Not every book is great, and he overplays the "Men are from Mars/Women Venus" theme to exhaustion, but some passages are simply glorious.


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## WRB (Jan 19, 2018)

Just a newbie here and to the Reformed persuasion as well, but (and I know this response is not in the exact format as requested);
Scripture - KJV, NASB, and now enjoying ESV
Dogmatics - Bavinck, Calvin
Commentaries - Calvin
Human Condition - Dostoevsky, Hemmingway, Kipling, Cheever, Bronte, Marquez, Wiesel, Solzhenitsyn
Reformed - Luther, Calvin, Owen, WCF (LC/SC too), Schaeffer
Fathers - Augustine
Poetry - Snyder, Plath, Levertov, Frost
Catch All - The American Tradition in Literature, Norton's Anthology of English Literature
Biographies - Any of the U.S. Presidents, Cicero, Napoleon, Bonhoeffer, Churchill, Augustine, Calvin, Oecolampadius, Luther
History - Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Creeds and Confessions, Colonial Presbyterianism, Undaunted Courage, Thud Ridge
On Christianity - Lewis, a Kempis, Bunyan
Technical - USAF F-16 C/D Dash 1

Not included of course, are so many not yet read but with a desire to, not to mention so many more I have yet to be introduced to.
Thanks for the thread! "Books are my friends."


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