Recommended Reading – My Top 11 Favorite Books

Recommended Reading – My Top 11 Favorite Books

my-top-11-favorite-books-of-all-time

I love making lists of things, and it’s about time I make one on what I consider to be my all-time, top 10 (alright, 11), crème de la crème, favorite, most important books ever written. These encompass what I think is recommended reading for all my blog readers. When I compiled these, I noticed that all but one have to do with spirituality and that they are all non-fiction (with a fictional devotional story comprising of the second half of one of them).

Here are the typical disclaimers:

  • The following are my top reads outside of the Bible, which of course is in a league of its own.
  • These books are listed in no particular order.
  • I selected eleven instead of ten because of two things: I’m paying tribute to Nigel Tufnel, and because I’m being wishy-washy and sometimes can’t pick just ten things.
  • This list can change next week or next month.

What books do you recommend? Tell me about them in the comments below!

These are my current top 11 favorite books:

The System – Tom “Doc Love” Hodges

Yes, this is not a Christian book.

Doc Love’s “The System” is certainly the odd duck here. Since this is admittedly a secular dating and relationship book, it may appear to be totally out of place on this list, like a headbanger wearing a Slayer t-shirt would be at a Catholic ecumenical council meeting. Plus, with a title like “The System,” and its cover artwork displaying a pair of female legs, this may look like a sleazy and misogynistic “pick-up artist” guide. So, what’s the deal?

“The System” actually encourages monogamous relationships and marriage. The aim of the book is to tell you why women act the way they do and what raises or lowers their interest level in men, in a way that produces a “light bulb turning on” moment on every page. If guys studied and practiced the philosophies offered, the divorce rate in Western society would plummet.

Not everything presented in this book comes from a Biblical viewpoint, so keep in mind that God’s Word usurps anything suggested by it. Know your Bible! That having been said, this publication is an absolute goldmine. “The System” should be required reading for every single man on the planet, no joke.

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Driven by Eternity – John Bevere

This book is not for the spiritually squeamish. Yet it contains a message that has everlasting consequences for everyone. Bevere urges everyone to look at their lives with an eternal, Kingdom of God perspective as opposed to focusing on this temporary, earthly existence. Although we are saved by grace, Jesus’ followers should have a true faith that produces works and the fruit of the Spirit.

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The Spirit-Filled Life – Charles F. Stanley

The Holy Spirit is an oft-neglected Person of the Trinity. That’s a shame, for He is necessary for salvation and Christian living. After all, He is God! Charles Stanley’s classic here is one of those books that you’ll want to read and re-read again as it perhaps like no other book explains the Holy Spirit’s role and helps you to recognize His fingerprint in your life.

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Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

It’s difficult to choose from any of Lewis’ classics as being better than the others. But I’d have to say that “Mere Christianity” is my favorite. This elegant masterpiece lays a clever and logical defense of Christianity as it meets philosophy, morals, and religion.

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The Reason for God – Belief in the Age of Skepticism – Tim Keller

A 21st Century, spiritual “offspring” of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” Keller’s “The Reason For God” at times strikes a similar tone at tackling numerous philosophical and societal reasons why believing in God and Christ makes sense. Whereas Lewis wrote to deal with the Modernism of the mid-20th Century, Keller addresses for more of a Postmodernism view we face in modern times. A compelling, well-thought-out, solid read.

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Soulcon Challenge –  Cody Bobay

Absolutely one of the best, most challenging, and important books any Christian man could ever purchase. Navy vet, personal trainer, and Christian speaker Cody Bobay takes a “special forces” approach to physical, mental, and spiritual discipline through this 6-week guide to bringing men closer to Christ.

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Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream – David Platt

We’ve sadly watered the Christian faith to fit our modern, cushy, comfortable, middle-class culture in the United States. Platt urges us to give up our self-gratifying and lukewarm lives, and instead be willing to give up our creature comforts and pick up our crosses and follow Jesus every day.

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Evidence That Demands a Verdict – Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, PhD

The greatest book ever written on factual Christian apologetics. If you need encyclopedic evidence that Jesus was a real man, that the Bible is reliable, and that Christianity is indeed true, then the ridiculously exhaustive wealth of information found in this should satisfy and soothe almost any doubt you could conjure. This was a life-changer of a read in high school. This fully-expanded and updated 2017 edition has writer Josh McDowell joined by his son, Dr. Sean McDowell, in meticulous research and co-authorship.

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Knowing God – J.I. Packer

Nothing is more important than knowing and understanding God (the latter, at least in terms of how He reveals Himself to us humans). Packer takes the reader on a thoughtful, biblical expedition through several of God’s characteristics and attributes, and ultimately points back to the fact that everything in the universe should point back to Him.

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Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes – Brandon J. O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards

O’Brien’s and Richards’ book is not one I always agree with, but it still offers an irresistible and sobering look at the fact that we here in America and the rest of the Western world often twist the words and the concepts of the Bible to fit our 21st Century culture and worldview.

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I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist – Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

More than just another apologetics book, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” lays a basic foundation of questions and answers, and carefully and logically builds a case that truth can be determined, that God exists, and that the words of Jesus Christ can be reliable and trusted. I love the fact that it builds on top of the previously discussed truth before eventually narrowing things down to Christianity. If I were to give a book to an open-minded doubter or skeptic to consider, it would be this one.

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What books do you recommend? Tell me about them in the comments below!

2 Comments

  1. Debby Hartinger

    I’ve read some of them. I love Pratt, Josh McDowell, and CS Lewis. I really got a lot from the Radical book. And I try to re-read The Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters yearly. I also like the children’s version of Pilgrim’s Progress. I can see times when I am where Christian was. I’m especially grateful for the image of going across a bridge at night. Hinds Feet in High Places is another one. God gave her Sorrow and Suffering as companions. The books illustrate what God writes in the Bible – whether we want to accept it or not.

    Which book would you recommend after the three I’ve read?

    • Scott Roberts Author

      Hi, Debby. The Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters, and Pilgrim’s Progress are all classics!

      Hmmmm…what would I suggest next for you out of the ones I’ve mentioned? I think it depends on what you are searching for. Perhaps it would be Charles Stanley’s The Spirit-Filled Life to help you in your spiritual walk.

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