My 10 (or 11) Most Formative Books

There's a 10 Most Influential Books meme going around in social media.  Thought I'd play along.  I'll narrow the selection down to the 10 that I have read cover to cover (as opposed, for instance, to books that were read to me as as kid).  There will also be many books that I think are objectively more important which I have read that do not make the list, books which, if I would have read them at a different time or in different circumstances would have made the list (Plato's Republic, for instance).

The order here is more or less chronological.  I'm sure I will leave books out that should be in the list.  Nonetheless, here goes:

1. The Bible  
This should go without saying but I'll say it nonetheless.  My worldview (I'm happy to use this oft maligned term) has been shaped by it.  And I have read it cover to cover.

2. Where the Red Fern Grows
This is the first book I remember reading of substantial length (for a kid).  And I liked it!

3. The Hobbit
I remember reading this in my room as a young lad and having my imagination opened to unknown possibilities.  It seemed real.  I wanted the story to have happened.  I wanted it to be real.  It seemed TRUE.  (I still hold out hope that it happened or will happen, but even if not, I know that it's true).

4. The Chronicles of Narnia
OK, so it's not a book but a set of books.  So sue me! I read them all in 6th grade and I understood a bit of the theology.  This was the first set of books that I could tell had a bit of depth to them.  There were places to go but also things to think about.

5. Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October
I picked this book up at the high school library out of the blue. It was placed right next to my table.  I wasn't much of an avid reader at the time (and wouldn't be for a while). But I remember feeling for the first time that libraries contained hidden treasures.

6. The Lord of the Rings
I read the Trilogy in the Army.  They helped me pass some dark days and indelibly set in my soul a love of reading. (Waldenbooks, I regret that I lifted those without paying.  I was a different person then.  As well, I'm sorry about your liquidation and the fact that in a small way I contributed to it.)

7. John Irvings's A Prayer for Owen Meany
This book sparked a spiritual longing in me, though I don't know if I knew it at the time.  Who knew that a story with a couple of cussing teenagers could do that?

8. Steinbecks's The Winter of Our Discontent
The same soldier that put me onto Irving's book (the same one who broke my nose in a fist fight) put me on to Steinbeck.  This was the first time I read a book that I believed learned people considered to be serious literature, and I enjoyed (and could understand it!)

9. C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis awakened my intellect.  "Reading theology and philosophy might be interesting.  I might be able to read something other than novels for enjoyment.  And I might learn something!"  I would go on to read everything Lewis has written that could be purchased in a store.

10.0  Pascal's Pensees
I had to throw in a work of philosophy at some point!  I don't know why I picked this book up in college from the library.  I had heard of Pascal in math classes.  The old cover looked (un)inviting. Here were maxims and aphorisms to live by from some mysterious dead mathematician I knew nothing about.  I knew for certain that there were weighty words here, but I could barely understand them.  I decided then that I would not be caught dead without a book nearby.  I would carry a book with me wherever I went, starting with this one.  Idle time sitting in the waiting room would be reading time.  There would be no more boring moments.  I would read books until I understood them.

10.1 Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs
 Wolterstorff's work helped me get clear on some issues for my dissertation regarding the nature of rights and justice.  It kick-started the revision of two chapters mired in a mental morass. It's a much under-appreciated work.  My view on ethics was sharpened if not transformed from careful study of that book.  I think so highly of it that I teach it in one of my classes.  (Monash will no doubt be bored by this fact, but Monash can be an intellectual philistine.  Yes, Monash, I will finish A.S.U. even though there's no theory of rights therein.)