Books Are Friends

I have read thousands of books throughout my life. If I compare my personal library catalog to my Outlook files, I liken each book to the type of people listed in my address book, some are friends, some, associates and others acquaintances.

Nearly 500 volumes grace the shelves of the sealed bookcase downstairs and the four bookcases in my humble office upstairs from which I pretend to ‘work.’ While the remotest of possibilities exists that I may move on from the house which I currently occupy, the unlikelihood of that happening encourages me to take stock of the hundreds of pounds of books that live with me. It may be time to lighten the load. I will keep the friends and bid an amicable farewell to associates and acquaintances. As I glance to my left, I see a book I have carried with me since college, Swords Into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization by Inis L. Claude, Jr. It is a third edition, published in 1964 and a textbook used in one of my classes at the Air Force Academy. I majored in International Affairs. The original owner inscribed his name and squadron on the inside cover, “Seevers 08.” I purchased it from the surplus book sales that preceded every semester. I suspect Cadet Seevers did the underlining when he owned the book and I added the highlighting.

Something clearly appealed to me about the book for me not to sell it for quick cash to the next guy who would take the course and haul it with me around the United States for 50 years. I will keep it though the world has changed so much that the premises within that volume have long since outlived their original intentions and usefulness.

A year ago, I logged all of my books in an Excel file but have been remiss to enter the new books I acquired during 2018, which include three books by Wendell Berry, a pair by Andrew Krivak and a handful of others.

110, Maybe More… No Fewer

I reviewed my list of 500 and identified those that have had a measurable impact on my life; they are my friends. I include 110 books on the final list, 110 books that my life would not have been as full and complete had I not read them. Three-quarters of the books are fiction, and nearly three-quarters were originally published prior to the 21st century. I include the six novels I wrote on the list; they have made my life more complete.

At the top of my list is Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel by Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis. That is the one book I would recommend to every person on the planet. The number two book and the top fiction book is The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. First published in 1952, I read the controversial book in 1972 when fewer than 200,000 copies had entered the United States. I acquired my copy at a bookstore on 4th Avenue in Anchorage.

The final book on the list is The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux originally published in 1909. The last non-fiction book – The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living by John C. Marshall III published in 2001 – occupies the 97th position.

Stories

I can tell a personal story about each book that I will retain. The first book I read that appears on my list, I read in 1966. I spent many hours at the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield’s public library. It was cavernous and beautiful, academic and spiritual, intimidating yet welcoming… One rainy afternoon as I slowly walked the narrow aisles surrounded by books, I happened to pull Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl from a shelf. I can never explain why a high school senior killing time as he waited for basketball practice would have taken that book from that shelf, much less be in a library in the first place.

Each of us has our personal taste in reading. With the exception of the first book on my list – which is mandatory reading for all creatures great and small – I will not say, “You should read this…” You will read whatever calls you to read it. That said, I offer my list as a curious collection of books that have impacted my life, books that offer value to all who enter their pages.

	Title	Author	©
1	The Joy of the Gospel	Pope Francis	2013
2	The Last Temptation of Christ	Kazantzakis, Nikos	1952
3	Winter's Tale	Helprin, Mark	1983
4	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:	Brown, Dee	1970
5	Water Sounds:	Fritsch, Albert J.	2010
6	The Ragamuffin Gospel	Manning, Brennan	1990
7	Barabbas	Lagerkvist, Par	1950
8	Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae	Pressfield, Steven	1998
9	The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile	Lukeman, Noah	2000
10	The Memory of Running	McLarty, Ron	2004
11	Once An Eagle	Myrer, Anton	1968
12	Travels with Charley: In Search of America	Steinbeck, John	1962
13	Jesus and the Disinherited	Thurman, Howard	1949
14	Jesus, A Pilgrimage	Martin, James	2014
15	The Book Thief	Zusak, Markus	2005
16	Night	Wiesel, Elie	1960
17	The Egyptian	Waltari, Mika	1945
18	Last of the Amazons	Pressfield, Steven	2002
19	Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom	O'Donohue, John	1996
20	Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong	O'Donohue, John	1998
21	The Wisdom of the Native Americans	Nerburn, Kent	1994
22	Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace:	Nerburn, Kent	1999
23	The Polar Express	Allsburg, Chris Van	1985
24	Holy Bible	Anonymous, Anonymous	-
25	Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Bach, Richard	1970
26	The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully	Chittister, Joan D.	2008
27	Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't	Collins, James C.	2001
28	All the Light We Cannot See	Doerr, Anthony	2014
29	Silence	Endo, Shusako	1966
30	Man's Search for Meaning	Frankl, Viktor E.	1946
31	Memoir from Antproof Case	Helprin, Mark	1995
32	Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	1862
33	The Dead Zone	King, Stephen	1979
34	A Book of Hours	Merton, Thomas	2007
35	Befriending the Stranger	Vanier, Jean	2005
36	Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin	Uris, Leon	1964
37	The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle	Pressfield, Steven	2002
38	A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam	Armstrong, Karen	1975
39	Symposium	Kinney, Kuiper, Bloom	1969
40	The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search	Boorstin, Daniel J.	1983
41	Looking ... Seeing: Poems and Song Lyrics	Chapin, Harry	1975
42	Timeless Wisdom: Passages for Meditation from the World's Saints and Sages	Easwaran, Eknath	2008
43	Peace Like a River	Enger, Leif	2001
44	The Way of the Cross	Houselander, Caryll	1955
45	Good Poems: American Places	Keillor, Garrison	2010
46	The Stand	King, Stephen	1978
47	The Hamsa	Kraay, E.S.	2010
48	Tobit and the Hoodoo Man: A Mystical Tale from the Civil War South	Kraay, E.S.	2011
49	Arctic Dreams	Lopez, Barry	1986
50	The Source	Michener, James A.	1965
51	The Hobbit (Middle-Earth Universe)	Tolkien, J.R.R.	1937
52	Traveler	McLarty, Ron	2007
53	A Soldier of the Great War	Helprin, Mark	1991
54	Spartacus	Fast, Howard	1951
55	The Crusader	Eisner, Michael Alexander	1999
56	So Very Much the Best of Us: Songs of Praise in Prose	Doyle, Brian	2015
57	The Haj	Uris, Leon	1984
58	The Dropper	McLarty, Ron	2009
59	The Book of Guys	Keillor, Garrison	1993
60	Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel	Berger, Thomas	1978
61	The Voyage	Caputo, Philip	1999
62	Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War	Manchester, William	1980
63	Wuthering Heights	Bronte, Emily	1847
64	The Theological Implications of Climate Control	Erickson, Brian	2005
65	Fall of Kings (Troy, #3)	Gemmell, David	2007
66	Siddhartha	Hesse, Hermann	1922
67	Hearts in Atlantis	King, Stephen	1999
68	Carry Me Home	Kring, Sandra	2004
69	The Wolf at Twilight:	Nerburn, Kent	2009
70	Neither Wolf nor Dog:	Nerburn, Kent	1994
71	The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo	Nerburn, Kent	2013
72	Killing Rommel	Pressfield, Steven	2008
73	Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino	Rupp, Joyce	2005
74	Uncle Tom's Cabin	Stowe, Harriet Beecher	1852
75	The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood	Pyle, Howard	1883
76	The Voyage of the Narwhal	Barrett, Andrea	1998
77	Cold Mountain	Frazier, Charles	1997
78	The Reed of God	Houselander, Caryll	1944
79	A Prayer for Owen Meany	Irving, John	1989
80	The Olympian: A Tale of Ancient Hellas	Kraay, E.S.	2008
81	My Life with the Saints	Martin, James	2006
82	Flashman	Fraser, George MacDonald	1969
83	Lord of the Silver Bow (Troy, #1)	Gemmell, David	2005
84	The Sixth Day: A 17,175-Word Novella About Creation and Prizefighting	Kraay, E.S.	2012
85	Gaspar: Another Tale of the Christ	Kraay, E.S.	2014
86	Dwi: Dying While Intoxicated	Kraay, E. S.	2012
87	The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great	Pressfield, Steven	2004
88	The Adventures of Don Quixote	Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes	1605
89	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Twain, Mark	1876
90	Look Homeward, Angel	Wolfe, Thomas	1929
91	Lake Wobegon Days	Keillor, Garrison	1985
92	Chronicle of the 20th Century	Daniel, Clifton	1987
93	Shield of Thunder (Troy, #2)	Gemmell, David	2006
94	Works of James Fenimore Cooper	Cooper, James Fenimore	1892
95	Last of the Mohicans	Cooper, James Fenimore	1826
96	Tides of War	Pressfield, Steven	2000
97	The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life	Pressfield, Steven	1995
98	Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance	III, Joseph M. Marshall	2006
99	The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living	III, Joseph M. Marshall	2001
100	Hotel New Hampshire	Irving, John	1981
101	The Odyssey of Homer	Homer, Homer	-720
102	The Call of the Wild	London, Jack	1903
103	The Road	McCarthy, Cormac	2006
104	Paradise Alley	Stallone, Sylvester	1977
105	Works Of Robert Louis Stevenson	Stevenson, Robert Louis	1926
106	Chesapeake	Michener, James A.	1978
107	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Verne, Jules	1864
108	Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea	Verne, Jules	1869
109	Caribbean	Michener, James A.	1989
110	The Phantom Of The Opera	Leroux, Gaston	1909