Now Read This

I have always loved getting my hands on a good book. For me, it's like treasure. I love the smell of fresh print and feel of a good trade paperback (sorry, e-readers)! Here's a few books you should take your last buck and buy (or seek tirelessly in a library). I hope to keep adding to this list as I can. These are not all Christian books, which is okay.

Read these:

• The Bible, in an easy-to-understand translation like the New International Version, New Living Translation or English Standard Version. Begin in Matthew, not Genesis. Read a section every day until you're through Revelation. Then start Matthew again. Later, go to Genesis! 

• The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you want to escape from your tiresome life, here's the place to run. Some say, "I can't get into elves and dwarves and hobbits." I look at you with pity. While Tolkien was a Christian, these are fantasy books, for enjoyment only. 

• A Scandalous Freedom, What Was I Thinking, and Three Free Sins by Steve Brown of Key Life ministries. Steve has more grace in his little finger most of us pastors have in our whole bodies. If you, like me, have been victimized by legalistic, fear-driven churches, these are for you. 

• Best devotional in the world: Sarah Young's Jesus Calling. Be sure to read the introduction. 

• Radical by David Platt. More than Sunday go-to-meetin' religion, it's what we Christians should look like at our best. 

• Also, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. 

• Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien, the first of a series of 21 books on two friends in the British Navy of the 1800's. If you liked the movie, these are for you. Classics! 

• The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. Have a purpose! Great for "baby" Christians.