Great Books?
I love to read. I love to sit down with a great book and become engrossed in the story. For me reading is often restful and entertaining at the same time – I can lose hours and days in a good book, and come out refreshed and ready for anything.
So this year, I would like to read some more great books. Any suggestions?
Biographies and Testimonies.
I love these kind of books. I am almost finished re-reading Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy again. It is without doubt a great book (I reviewed it here).
Some other books like this I have read and remain in my memory are Mover of Men and Mountains – the story of RG Le Tourneau. It was at least 10 years ago but this still remains a powerful memory. Another very long time ago was ‘Vanya‘ – the story of a Soviet Christian in 1970 who was also a Red Army soldier. Lastly, I still remember Shadow of the Almighty being a very powerful book – the story of Jim Elliot. It might be time to find and read that one again!
I know I have read plenty more, but those ones remain even despite years intervening – I am sure It was about 1991 when I read Vanya!
So knowing there is many more out there, any suggestions?
Fiction
I love a good fiction book. Lord of the Rings is without question my favourite series. There is a problem with this though – it sets such an impossibly high standard that sometimes I read books and just shake my head, wishing authors would continue to take 20 years to write 3 books, rather than 3.
But I know there are other good books out there. I also love Perelandra by CS Lewis, not to mention Narnia.
The problem with fiction is finding good, clean fiction! You know what I mean. Books don’t need swearing. They don’t need illicit relationships, and even less, intimate descriptions of them. They don’t need a lot of the things people put in for ‘excitement’. The other problem these days (and now I am just ranting) is the use of an authors name but the book is written by someone else. I used to read Clive Cussler all the time, but now, they all have his name in big, bold letters, but are written by someone else, and the quality has drained away. They were never ‘great’ books, but they were at least a good read (if not unfortunately having undesirable elements), but now they aren’t even that. And he isn’t the only author whose name is being used for profit…
So help me out – rather than read Lord of the Rings 3 times this year, what can you recommend?