If you’re one of the many people who regularly think, “I wish I read more,” then this article will only heighten your guilt. The number of books, and good ones at that, can be oppressive. The book publishing industry in the U. S. exceeds $100 billion per year. That’s about $308 worth of books per person. Here are some books you won’t want to miss with your budget.
1) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Three-quarters of this novel is a conversation between young English women. It’s some of the wittiest dialogue you’ll ever read. And please watch the 2005 film version with Keira Knightley.
2) Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis. Being inside the mind of the main character whose sole mission is to get human souls into hell can be exhausting and disturbing, but this inventive set of fictional letters between two demons is an enlightening look at spiritual warfare.
3) Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller. The subtitle Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality is a pretty good description of the author’s stories and adventures as a young man struggling with and growing in his faith. You’ll also fall in love with Portland, Oregon.
4) The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer. Just kidding. But once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop.
5) Gilead, Marilynne Robinson. A dying Iowa pastor writes his young son one of the most sublime accounts about life, mortality, and faith. If you can’t get enough of Robinson, then pick up her first novel Housekeeping.
6) Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton. No one turns a phrase quite like Chesterton: “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” Chesterton’s romantic exposé on Christianity is both entertaining and life-changing.
7) No Man Is An Island, Thomas Merton. Merton talks about the Christian life with the mind of an intellectual, the concern of a pastor, the style of a poet, and the profundity of a monk. This one reads well as a devotional.
8) The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Yeah, it’s a classic. The famous chapter “The Grand Inquisitor” will make you rethink everything about the return of Christ. This novel is dense, intense, and will challenge your faith.
9) Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow. It’s the biography that inspired an entire nation to start caring about American history and Broadway musicals. Hamilton taught himself law, made it onto the ten-dollar bill, and died in a duel. Plus, Chernow is an awesome biographer.
10) Bonus round: Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer. It’s a real-life story about twenty-two-year-old Chris McCandless who leaves behind his money and promising future to venture across the country, ending up in Alaska. Counter-cultural icon? Foolish dreamer? Self-reliant drifter? You’ll have to decide for yourself.
Don’t worry about not getting around to reading everything that everyone says you should. Instead of keeping up with the Joneses, just look forward to what the next six dollars could get you.
Featured Image by Inaki Del Olmo
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