Out of the Best Books

A few nights ago, at Brint and Brea's reception, I ran into a dear friend of Craig's who said to me, "You haven't written anything for awhile in your blog." She was the first one to say anything to me about it, but I realize now it has been nearly a month. So for better or worse, here are some of my thoughts.

Some years ago, I attended a conference of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists in Salt Lake City. Our guest speaker was Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Seventy. He made the remark that the first 100 pages of "les Miserables" had had as profound an impact on his life as anything he had ever read. Shortly thereafter, I began writing a list in the back of my journals of the books I had read while writing in that journal. Next to the title and author, I write a very brief book report of 10 or fewer words. Today, I want to summarize those lists into a "best of the best" list. I read a lot, and I feel like Daniel Webster who said, "I can no more remember the books I have read than the meals I have eaten, but they have made me what I am." Marion G. Romney said, "The older I get, the less time I want to spend reading anything I do not want to remember." I must say that my taste in books has changed over the years, and many of the books I marked as "best" in my first journal wouldn't make the cut today. So with that preface, here is a list of the Best Books I Have Read (Besides the Scriptures) Since 1978 (in order of reading, not in order of importance):

1. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
2. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless - essays of Hugh Nibley
3. The Road Less Traveled - Scott Peck
4. Walden's Pond - Henry David Thoreau
5. Infinite Atonement - Tad Callister
6. The Peacegiver - James Ferrell
7. Bonds That Make Us Free - Terry Warner
8. Leadership & Self Deception (and) The Anatomy of Peace - the Arbinger Institute
9. les Miserables - Victor Hugo
10. The Holy Secret - James Ferrell

That is my Top Ten (OK, it's really 11) out of the total list of 133 books that I remembered to write down in my journal. There are many other that were worthwhile, but these 10 I find myself drawing on repeatedly. There are many books in my list, mostly fiction, that I cannot even recall reading today. Several of them were followed in the listing by the words "absolutely my LAST novel." Not that all novels are a waste of time - "les Miserables" comes to mind as my favorite - but I think most are. Other "book reports" in my journal say "a great cure for insomnia" or "how Western civilization will fall to Islam," but several of the above say, "This Book changed my life!" or "Every missionary should read this book ASAP."

I am so glad that some of my love of reading seems to have seeped in my genetic code in varying degrees to my children. As Mark Twain said, "The man who doesn't read is no better off than the man who can't read."

Just this last week, Jan and I read "The Holy Secret" by the author of "The Peacegiver," James Ferrell. The purpose of the book was to help us learn to really love the scriptures, to love the Sabbath, and to love the Temple. If we don't love what is holy in this life, then we will not like holiness in the next. Our attitudes toward what is holy now tells us which direction we are heading. What is dull to us today will be dull to us tomorrow. If our souls don't yearn to understand the Lord's words here and now, will will not suddenly begin to yearn for them then. It was one of those books that really makes you reach deep inside for an understanding of the principles he is teaching in his familiar, conversational style. This is another book we will be returning to again and again.