In recent weeks Lynn Gehrmann, administrative assistant at our associational office, has been keeping a list of every book I’ve pulled off the shelves and laid on the table for pastors to pick over. We’ll figure out some kind of IRS deduction, I hope, and if they audit or ask questions, we’ll need some kind of record as to what those books were.

Better these books were blessing current and future pastors than gathering dust in my garage.

My hunch is the number of books we’ve given is now close to five hundred. That’s not counting those I gave to pastors who happened to be in my office and I said,”Look around. What books would you like to have?”

Five years ago, when I transitioned from pastoring to the associational office, we must have given away two thousand books, including numerous sets of commentaries.

I do love a good book.

Even so, Margaret could not believe the boxes of books we hauled home last week, now occupying precious space in the garage. I told her something similar to what Charles Haddon Spurgeon said to a woman who criticized him for his use of humor from the pulpit. “You’d appreciate it a lot more if you knew how much I controlled.”

There are a couple of shelves in my home office (study, library, whatever) filled with books I’ll not be giving away to anyone. These are the ones that have impacted my life in ways that made the books permanent friends.

Here are a dozen of them. Readers will recognize that I’ve mentioned some of these before.

“How to Really Love Your Child” by Professor and Psychiatrist Ross Campbell gave me a handle on how to help a child develop a healthy self-esteem. My copy is dated 1992. A line on the cover says this is one of a million copies in print. I figure I’ve given away about half that number to young parents over the years.

“How Do You Say ‘I Love You’?” by Judson J. Swihart is the forerunner of Gary Chapman’s “Five Love Languages.” Gary freely admits his debt to Swihart. Actually, the earlier book is still my favorite, but it is long out of print. Gary took Swihart’s points and refined them, added his own thoughts, and then did a better job of marketing the results.

“A Man For All Seasons” is a play by Robert Bolt. After running on Broadway, it was turned into the 1968 movie starring Paul Scofield as Thomas More. Not surprisingly, that’s my all-time favorite movie. The subject, of course, is Thomas More’s resistance to (and subsequent beheading by) Henry VIII in 16th Century England. Bolt, who confessed to being an unbeliever, nevertheless gives some incredible lessons on integrity, even if he did exaggerate More beyond what he was in real life.

“Tales I Have Told Twice,” is a personal memoir by Roy L. Smith, a Methodist minister who died in 1963, before this volume was published. I have enjoyed going back and re-reading his wonderful stories. In the inside front, decades ago I wrote: “The best spent dollar!”

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” by Stephen Brown (of KeyLife radio, some will know), has as its subtitle “Saying Goodbye to Doormat Christianity.” I love everything about the way Steve writes. Here’s a sample. “Our prayer ought to be the prayer of a sea captain in the middle of a hurricane: ‘O God, help us, and come yourself because this ain’t no time for boys.'” I appreciate–and need–every reminder to stand up straight, speak out boldly, and not wimp around in my discipleship.

“Learning to Manage Our Fears” by James W. Angell was published in 1981. In the front, I have written, “Father, thank you for this book. How many times I have read it!” Angell tells of the time G. A. Studdert-Kennedy was going off to war and asked his small son to pray that God would “make Daddy brave.” He pointed out it would be all right to pray for his safe return, but that should not be the first request. “Daddy dead,” he said to the child, “would be Daddy still. But Daddy dishonored would be another matter.”

“Don’t Park Here” by C. William Fisher (the paperback was given to my wife by Karen Baxter in 1974) lists a number of places in life where one does not want to set up housekeeping: Do not park by your handicaps, your suffering, your failures, that sort of thing. I have marked it up and found wonderful sermon illustrations throughout its pages. In the inside, I once wrote, “Very solid. Good book.” Then later, I see where I wrote, “Well, pretty good. His authority is always ‘experts’ and intellectuals. Rarely God!” Even so, it’s well worth reading.

“Your God is Too Small” by J. B. Phillips was a phenomenon when it appeared in the early 1960s. Phillips was the Anglican priest who translated the New Testament into modern English during World War II for the benefit of the British youths he was working with. The Phillips Translation also became a phenomenon, although I assume it’s out of print now. I have an old copy. In this book, Phillips takes on caricatures of God current in our culture: God as a resident policeman, parental hangover, grand old man, meek-and-mild, pale Galilean.

“Peace Child” by Don Richardson. This missionary made a discovery that has benefited every generation of cross-cultural disciples ever since the book appeared in the early 1970s. Working with a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea, Richardson was having trouble breaking through with them until he found that warring tribes had a custom of one tribe giving the other group a baby, called “the peace child.” So long as that child lived, peace prevailed between them. Richardson used that as a springboard for introducing the natives to a God who sent His Son as the Peace Child. Later, in “Eternity in Their Hearts” Richardson told similar stories from foreign tribes and nationalities through which the Holy Spirit had laid the foundation for the coming of the Gospel.

“None of These Diseases” by S. I. McMillen was a life-changer for me. This missionary doctor tells how God’s revelation throughout Scripture preceded important medical discoveries by centuries. Anyone would do well by living by the Bible’s teachings just for his health and longevity.

“The Heretics” by Walter Nigg was a purchase I made as a seminary student 45 years ago, thereby setting a practice I’ve lived by ever since. (That is, when I read about a great book that appealed to me, I ordered it.) Nigg does something I’d never seen done before and hardly since: wrote of the various followers of Jesus the church branded as heretics from their point of view. He presents their side so you can see that “no small soul became a heretic.” Then, at the end of the chapter, he shows in what ways that individual was off the mark. (My son Marty has that book and I’m missing it!)

Anything by C. S. Lewis. I’m not big on his fantasies and allegories (Narnia included, I admit), but am always blessed by his writings on the Christian faith, the church, and various insights from the Bible. For beginners, “Mere Christianity” is the ideal starting point.

I like to point out that old books are now available through any number of on-line sources. My favorite–and I’ve never had the slightest problem with them–is www.alibris.com.

John Piper said in one of his books that books do not change lives; paragraphs do. And in some cases, it’s just a sentence that works the magic. Or even one word.

That’s what keeps people writing…and keeps me reading.