Jamie Greening's Blog, page 61

TOP THREE BOOKS: PREACHING

If there is anything the world needs it is . . . safe, clean drinking water.

But if there is allowance for two things the world needs, then the second one would be . . . freedom from war and violence.

Okay, those are both true, but somewhere in the top ten needs of the world I think one of them should be better preaching.  Having spent most of my life preaching, I am committed to the idea that homiletics matter and can change the world.  We just need better preaching.

By better preaching I don’t mean that every sermon a preacher may preach is a life changing event for everyone–no, that is impossible.  What I mean is that preaching as a whole is suffering from arrogance, insulated thinking, doctrinal narrowness, and neurotic churches.  Having grown up in a time when preachers were competent in their craft, I lament to see the kind of sloppy self-serving sludge (that will preach right there–four s’s in a row) that leaves people either bored to tears or wondering what just happened.

Not all preaching is like this (thankfully our pastor is as solid as they come), but a lot of it is and the worst of the lot seems to demand the most attention, substituting their particular brand of media whore for exegesis, prayer, and careful homiletics.  I don’t really blame the preachers, though.  They haven’t been taught any better and they think they are doing right.

Okay, the rant is over.  Now let me say what could help.  It would help if every preacher in America read and studied at least one, but preferably all three of these, my top three books on preaching.  If you are a preacher, read these.  If you are not, give a copy of one of them to your pastor as a Christmas present.

The Homiletical Plot, Eugene Lowry

Thirty-five years ago Eugene Lowry taught us about his ‘Lowry Loop.’  A good sermon moves, like a great narrative, from Oops (something is not quite right), to Ugh (why is this so), onto Aha (that moment when things are getting clearer as to a fix) then Whee (How the gospel and biblical text impact the issue) and then finally Yeah (denouement–what the implications for our daily live are).  This type of sermon style works for almost any kind of preaching a man or woman wants to do–it fits the great list makers, it fits biblical exposition, it fits topical, it fits narrative–anything you like, it flows.

Lowry’s Famous Loop

The best part about the book for me is nostalgia, a bit.  It is so dated that some of his illustrations from television include the old Jack Klugman show Quincy.  Nevertheless his methods would help a lot of preachers.

Andy Stanley essentially swiped, in a good way, Lowry’s Loop for his book Communicating for a Change.  Except, for some odd reason, Stanley included the weird story about the truck driver.  It must have been to hide the Lowry connection.

Christ-Centered Preaching, Bryan Chappel

This book is boring.  This book is not riveting like Lowry.  However, this book is essential.  Christ-Centered Preaching teaches people how to work with the Scriptures and take the basic idea in the text and form it into something you could share with others.  Chappel’s book is more like a manual.  However, the manual is vital because until you can do the basics, you can’t do the really cool stuff.  A preacher must learn to walk before he or she can sprint and dance.  Part of the problem is too many are still crawling but they think they are pirouetting.

Preaching, Calvin Miller

Miller is the only author who will appear in these lists twice, but that is because he was so gifted that he wrote well on so many different topics.  Preaching might be his greatest gift to the church.  It outlines what he calls narrative expostion–pulling out he text’s meaning with the use of stories.  Over the years it has been my default pattern because it fits me, even before I ever read the book it fit me.  This book just taught me how to do it better.

This last text here also teaches us an important lesson I wish every preacher would learn.  The sermon has work to do, and the preacher’s job is to make certain that work gets done.  That work is communicating the message of the text to the people in a way they understand.  If the sermon fails on either end–understanding the text or communicating to people, then it is a flop.

Okay, so there are my top three books on preaching.  If you want a fourth, I strongly suggest Fred Craddock’s Preaching.  It is pretty awesome too.  While you’re at it, maybe pick up this wonderful survey of preaching styles called Patterns of Preaching by Ronald J. Allen.  Make certain you also get a copy of . . . I’m sorry.  I could go on forever with this list.

I’m curious–do you have a favorite preaching book that has helped you with the craft?  Please share so others can investigate it.

 

Lowry’s Loop image from www.dlbnn.com

TOP THREE BOOKS: BOOKS ON WRITING

There are a lot of books on writing.  I have not read them all, but I very well may before the next four or five years are up.  I still feel inadequate, even after authoring two books and many short stories.  I don’t know if that is writer’s neurosis or if it is the fact I know there is a lot I don’t know.  That is why I keep reading and studying books about writing.  It was tempting to save Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott for this category but I don’t think her book is about writing as much as it is the artists life.  Of course, I could be wrong.

Here I mean books that actually instruct on nuts and bolts, dos and don’ts of writing.  There are three that stand head and shoulders above the rest, in my honest opinion.

The Elements of Style (Illustrated), Strunk/White/Kalman

Let me put the cards on the table.  It is just the tiny Strunk and White that is the real help to the writer, but I adore the illustrated version that came out a few years ago.  It makes me laugh.

It just strikes me as impossible for any writer to seriously discharge his or her duties without Strunk and White nearby.  How else would we keep things in our stories from being incorrectly labeled as inflammable?

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne and Dave King

I wish I’d read this book before I wrote my first book.  Seriously, that book would have been much better had I know all the important things in this book.  It covers everything from voice, point of view, dialogue, and the oh-so-important and often referred to catch-all called show don’t tell.  If anyone wants to be a fiction writer and could only pick one book–pick this one.  It even tells you how to use curse words–if you’re into that kind of thing.

Ernest Hemingway on Writing, Edited by Larry Phillips

Okay, Hemingway didn’t really write this book as one sits down to write it.  This guy named Phillips sifted through Hemingway’s letters, articles and anything else he could find and pulled out things Papa said about writing.  It is a treasure.  Hemingway was a violent, womanizing, amoral man but he knew his craft and a lot can be learned by watching him work.  Consider this little gem:

The hardest thing in the world to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings.  First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write.  Both take a lifetime to learn (p. 26).

Some of you out there might have your favorite writing books.  I’d like to know what they are in case it is something I’ve not read and which would be a help to me.  I can always use the help.

 

 

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: THEOLOGY

Where to start?  Half my library could be shelved as theology, for crying out loud.

How about I start with disclaimers.  First, I am only dealing here with Christian theology books, although I’d like to give a shout out to The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran.  That book is . . . how can one say . . . interesting.  Second, I’m lumping prayer, devotional, biblical studies, and books about church into this category.  That might not be fair, but I have no intention of dragging this out to that level of precision.  I didn’t do it for fiction and I’m not going to do it here.  Third, I recognize that not many people read theology (at least not as many who read fiction or biographies) but since it is an important part of my reading background, I want to include it in this series.  After all, these are my top three books.

Christian Theology, Millard Erickson

The Green Monster, all 1312 Pages of It

In seminary we called this thing the Green Monster, even though my copy is blue.  One should think of this work as more of a reference piece than a theology book you’d sit down and read in a day or two.  Instead, I think every home should have it on the shelf in order to do a study on the Trinity, soteriology, or the divinity of Jesus.  Erickson’s  work is huge, but the chapters are relatively bite size with precise language yet not overly technical.  I also find that he avoids the problems I have with other theologians, which is to say that he is even handed in treating subjects from differing positions without compromising where he really stands on the subject.

The Reason for God, Tim Keller

Tim Keller may well be the smartest person in North America.  He certainly has gotten everyone’s attention with his amazingly successful church in New York City.  The reason I love this book is because it is intelligent and shrewd in dealing with all of the tough questions and criticisms that those of us who believe are often accosted with–faith and science, the veracity of the Bible, and the idea of judgment just to name a few.  I almost listed C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity here instead of Keller.  Lewis, of course, is much more classical in his approach but Keller does for our age what Lewis did sixty years ago and he does it against the backdrop of contemporary culture.

Plus, he quotes Darth Vader.  How can you not love a theologian who quotes Darth Vader.  In fact, I’m so impressed by Keller he gets a line in my new novel.

Worship is a Verb, Robert Webber

Liturgy.  Silence.  Participation.  Beauty.  Time.  Scripture.  These are all foundational elements to Christian worship that are often missing form most evangelical churches.  Robert Webber teaches us that they are important and tells us how to integrate them without (and this is particularly true of my tribe of who are petrified of contemplation and transcendence) frightening everyone.  Most churches get two things wrong:  Worship and spiritual formations which are replaced with a show and programs.  Webber saw all of this coming when he wrote this classic in 1985.  It is a little dated now, but it is still true.

I only have a couple, yea verily, maybe three more of these posts on my top three books left.  But here are three really great theology books that I love and treasure.  I’d like to know what your favorites are.

 

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: PERSONAL GROWTH

I’m cheating again.  I called this ‘personal growth’ because I don’t have a better category.  I suppose I could use the catchall ‘self help’ but I deplore that label because it has come to mean pop psychology dribble from the Oprah circuit.  I also considered ‘professional development’ as that is a common label for these kinds of books but not all of them are strictly professional.  I think these books would help anyone anywhere and not just in the realm of our work lives.

So I went with personal growth.  If you have a better idea for a category, let me know.  But now, here goes my top three personal growth books.

Quiet, Susan Cain

Love is not quite the right word for the way I feel about this book.  Need is a better word.  Cain’s work on how introverts are different and how they can cope in a world that glamorizes the ‘extrovert ideal’ is revolutionary, not just to introverts but to those who love them.  As a non-shy introvert I found it very difficult to carry the mantle of extrovert that people demand from their pastor.  It is not evil that they expect it, it is simply the way things are.  Cain’s book is a major help for those introverts who have to live as though they were extroverts.

Getting Things Done, David Allen

I am not a naturally organized human being.  I tend to leave things lying around, make piles of important things and forget about them, and I’m forever scribbling notes and ideas down on something.  Allen’s book puts forward the idea that if you are organized, then you will be more productive.  The time it takes to put your stuff together in a cohesive, well managed, and systematized process will pay off dividends in the long run.

He is right.  He argues for some simple steps that make sense but that most people don’t do because they think that every situation is the exception.

I recommend this book highly for people who work in an office environment, have large amounts of data to deal with (both paper and digital) and students.  I read it first as an audio book and it is only a three hour listen.  Listen to it while working out or driving.  It will help you pull it together.

Who Moved My Cheese, Spencer Johnson

This book is a metaphor shoved inside of an allegory.  What I love about this book is the simple question, What would you do if you weren’t afraid?  Most everyone read this book in the 90′s as it was pushed pretty heavy in professional circles as a marketing book.  I don’t think of it as a marketing book but as a book about finding joy in life.  At its core Who Moved My Cheese is a guide to identifying the rut you’re in and then figuring out how to bravely crawl out of it.

So my top three personal growth books are a personality book, an administrative book, and a leadership guide.  Only Quiet is a long read, the other two are brief, the kind of things you can knock out in a day or two and feel very accomplished about.  It took me a long time to process through Quiet, but I think that is just the nature of that subject material.

What books would you put on your personal growth favorites list?

 

image from citypaper.com

 

 

 

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: BOOKS I SHOULD HAVE READ SOONER

To quote Old Blues Eyes,

Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

A common regret is that every now and again I come across a book I love and kick myself over and over again for having not read it earlier in my life.  I never feel that way about a movie, a television show, a magazine story or any other kind of literature, not even poetry.  It does, though, happen with those magical things called books and those enchanted delights that surprise you and make you wish you’d read it twenty or so years ago.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven

Written four years before I was born, I should have read it in High School.  At least someone should have shoved it in my face at seminary, you’d think.  But no.  It wasn’t until last summer as I was leaving the Northwest to come back to Texas that a dear friend gave me this book as a parting gift to remember him by.  He told he he’d read it as an adolescent.  I wish I had.

The owl eventually calls everyone

It is a spectacularly well told story about faith, ministry, life and death all set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest and the relationships between white settlers and Native Americans.  I think if I’d read this book before I started ministry I’d been a been a better pastor.

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

Every writer should read this book.  Scratch that, every human should read this book.

More than anything else, Bird by Bird is about the creative process and enduring life’s wiggles and jiggles while still maintaining sanity and the creative spark.

It was written in 1994, the year I graduated from college.  I wish I’d read it then when the ink was still drying on the pages.  I would have probably been a more likeable person and definitely would have cultivated my work as a writer earlier in life.  I wasted nearly twenty years when I should have been writing all along.

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

I love a good spy story.  I always have.  I’ve always loved the Bond movies, but until three years ago had never read a single Fleming book.  I picked up Casino Royale (1953) and read it and was overcome by how markedly different the literary Bond was from the one on the silver screen.   Since then I’ve read all of Fleming’s James Bond stories and can honestly say that as much as I love the movies, I love the books more.  Bond is more believable, less likeable, and more vulnerable than anything in the movies.  And yes, for what its worth, Daniel Craig plays James Bond closer to the way Fleming wrote him than any other actor.

If you want to test the movies verses the book, just read Moonraker and then watch the outlandish (fun, but outlandish) movie that is supposedly based on that novel.  They are not even in the same universe.

I wonder, what books have you read later in life that you wish you’d read when you were younger?  I’d love to hear, and I will likely add some of them on my reading list, before its too late.

 

image from

 

THAT SOUND YOU HEAR IS ME BOUNCING UP AND DOWN WITH JOY

It has been a while coming, but I am pleased to announce that my new novel, The Little Girl Waits, is now on sale.  It is available in paperback, and will be available as an eBook soon.

The cover is from a scene in the book

The story is a full length novel, and in many ways it is a sequel to The Haunting of Pastor Butch Gregory and other Short Stories.  It is a sequel in that it weaves together characters and background introduced in some of those shorts.  Yet, it is not precise to say it is a sequel because the novel goes in a very different direction.

The backdrop of the book is the crisis of child sex trafficking.  You have probably read or heard about this awful, horrible, terrible plaque.  The problem is global, as we have recently been made aware of the plight of those 300 girls in Nigera and the #bringbackourgirls campaign.  The novel, though, is set in the United States and focuses upon the issue at a personal level.  Most of us live our lives as if this problem is somewhere overseas, across the border, or only impacts certain kinds of people.  But that is wrong.  It is in every community and can happen to anyone.  We all have a responsibility to do something, and it is that responsibility that fuels the action in the novel.

Learn more at the book’s website, www.thelittlegirlwaits.com.  You can buy the book there, my publisher, online retailers (Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com), or directly from me.  I have a supply of books that I will autograph and send to you at $20 (that includes shipping) each.  Comment below if you want an autographed copy, or you can send a me private message on Facebook or Twitter, or you can always email me at jkgreenings@yahoo.com.  There is also a Goodreads giveaway contest for the book, as I am giving away 25 free copies.  You can click on the link at the books website.

If you read it and like it, I have one simple request.  Please take a moment to rate it and/or review it at amazon.com, Goodreads, and barnesandnoble.com.  Those ratings and reviews do make a difference.

I hope you like it.

 

Screenshot from barnesandnoble.com

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: BIOGRAPHIES

Who doesn’t like a great story about a great life?  Well, almost no one.  That is why biographies and autobiographies have always been and continue to be big sellers.  I have read many bios over the years, but my first one was The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.  I read it for a book report in grammar school.  Years later I saw the movie with Cicely Tyson and that as one of the earliest moments of my life when I was aware of the snobbish feeling of having read a book that lesser people will only experience through the lesser medium of film.  If that feeling is a sin, I apologize for it, but it is still something I enjoy, for one of my favorite lines ever is, “But in the book . . .”

Sadly for Ernest J. Gaines, his history of Jane Pittman does not make my list of top biographies because I later tragically learned that there is no real Jane Pittman, so there is no autobiography.  The whole thing was a novel under the guise of false pretenses, which is very clever way to fool a 5th grader.

You can be sure, though, that my top three biographies are legitimate.

Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas

Metaxas is simply one of the better writers in the world right now, Christian or otherwise.  This exhaustive biography of the German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer brings the background of a familiar story to life.  It is inspiring, convicting, and deeply moving.  Bonhoeffer’s story itself is great, but Metaxas gentle and slowly growing drumbeat to rising action accentuates the tragedy of Bonhoeffer’s death.

My Review of Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

My Review of Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers

Crazy Horse, Larry McMurtry

Of all the biographies I’ve read, this is probably the thinnest.  The truth is we don’t have a lot of information about Crazy Horse, the famed Sioux warrior, but that doesn’t stop McMurtry from making the most of what we do know.  He lays out the lies and betrayal of the United States, the diabolical conundrum before the Sioux and other native peoples, and the inevitable sacrfices of culture that come with the passage of time.

I have another reason for loving this book.  McMurtry relates the devastating toll of relying upon white people with the example of fishing hooks.  For generations past, Native Americans made fishhooks from bone.  When they started trading with white people, they began to use metal fishing hooks.  A generation later, and only a generation later, when conflict arose between the two, the Sioux went hungry because they had already forgotten how to make fishing hooks from bone.  All it takes is one generation for institutional memory and competency to vanish.

I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This, Bob Newart

Memoir would be a better word for this than biography.  Since I will not be having a memoir section, this will have to do.  Celebrities have memoirs, and Bob Newhart is a celebrity.

Shouldn’t is a very funny book, but that is not the only reason I love it.  I love it because it illustrates that success isn’t always instant and doesn’t always happen when we are young.  In this memoir Newhart details how it was relatively late in life before he had any real success at all in entertainment.  That is encouraging to us all, but especially those of us who are over forty and wondering if the best is not already behind us.

So these are my three top biographies.  What three biographies do you recommend as the best?

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: HISTORY

History was my first academic love, and will always have a dear place in my heart.  It is one of the most unfortunate tragedies of life that most people think of history as boring and irrelevant, when the truth is the opposite.  History is fascinating and prescient.  Most everything that is happening now has happened before and will likely happen again.

More people should read history.  In fact, if I could, I think I would make reading one history book a year a requirement for holding public office (or for voting?)  To that end, I present to you my top three history books.

Empire of the Summer Moon, S. G. Gwynne

Buy it and read it now, before the next Comanche moon.

As a  Texan, this book speaks to my soul.  It pretends to be a biography of Quanah Parker, the legendary last “chief” of the Comanche Indians.  Yes, chief is in qualifying quotes for a reason, but you’ll have to read the book to figure out why.   But the truth is that the book uses Quanah as a template to discuss the history and culture of the Comanche people and their interaction with other Indian tribes as well as white settlers on the plains.  Gwynne is a professional journalist, and his prose has an immediate feel, almost like the events he is recording happened yesterday afternoon, not two hundred years ago.

For the Glory of God, Rodney Stark

Stark is likely the most brilliant sociologists in the world today.  In this book he addresses the role of faith in some of the major movements in world history.  These include the development of science, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and slavery.  What makes Stark so special is that instead of reading other historians and commenting on their work, he goes to the hard data available and counts how many and where.  The results are astonishing.  If I had one book I could put in the hand of every journalist, teacher, and politician in the world it would be this one.

How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill

Quite simply, Cahill is the master of significance, telling us why certain things matter.  Irish is a part of the Hinges of History series, which are all fantastic.  (Disclaimer–those that are available, the set is incomplete.)  However, Irish stands out in that it was the first one and, loosely speaking, it tends to bind the others together by uniting themes found in the Middle Ages, Jewish and Christian legacy, and Greek achievement.  Irish is written the way all good history should be written, with clear everyday language in a witty style.

I have many other wonderful history books that I love.  Some of them are rather technical and curmudgeonly and others are too long winded for popular appeal, like the great Texas history book Lone Star by Fehrenbach, which manages to be both.  If you pinned me down, though, these are the three that I think are the best of the best.  What are your favorite history books?  I might add them to my summer reading list.

 

image from http://www.statesman.com

TOP THREE BOOKS: FANTASY

This post was originally scheduled for next Monday.  However, some exciting things (like my new novel’s release) are taking precedence on Monday, so instead of bumping this one back further I decided to push it up to today.  I hope you will not mind.

The problem with fantasy, like the problem with science fiction, really, is that defining the genre is so blasted difficult.  Then there is the problem that these fantasy books often come in long series.  This makes it exceedingly difficult because a series can be over-the-top great but within the series there is not a single stellar book that would be the best.  I hope that makes sense to you, because it makes sense to me but I’m not sure it makes sense.  And yes, I realize the ridiculousness of that sentence, it accentuates my problem.

Okay, now having said that, here are my top three fantasy books.  As you read, please keep in mind these are not in any particular order.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Book Five of the Chronicles of Narnia), C. S. Lewis

Lewis hard at work

I know that I will get push back on this one.  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is everybody’s favorite.  I love it too, but there is something about Dawn Treader that is marvelous.  I don’t know if it is the rag tag crew, their odd discoveries, dragons, the speculation about heaven or that it is a tribute to The Odyssey but there is something about this book that makes it my favorite in the set.  Plus, it has one of the greatest first lines ever:  “There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Srubb, and he almost deserved it.”

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

If you didn’t like my first pick, I know you’ll not like this one.  The world is filled with Lord of the Rings aficionados, including some of my very best friends, but for my money The Hobbit is a better book than any of those three.  Here are my reasons.  One, it is shorter.  The eventual finished product was longer than the first release, I grant that.  This demonstrates Tolkien’s perfectionist tendencies.  Shorter is better because it skips all that blasted elfin poetry.  Second, its more playful.  The Hobbit is really just a treasure quest tale.  Compare Gandalf  in The Hobbit with Gandalf in LOTR.  He is far funnier and whimsical in The Hobbit.  Third, LOTR is slightly predictable.  You can see it all coming.  The Hobbit, not so much.  These three differences is why I think The Hobbit movies are failing, they are trying to reduplicate LOTR but The Hobbit is a completely different kind of tale.

The Singer Trilogy, Calvin Miller

I will not have a “Christian Fiction” book category in these lists.  The main reason is my strong conviction that Christian literature doesn’t exist.  There is only literature.  Christian writers should strive to create works of art that stand on their own merit as they reflect a biblical worldview.  The Singer Trilogy (originally released as  three small books, The Singer, The Song, and The Finale) does that.  It is outstanding artwork and poetry that casts Christ as a troubadour singing an eternal song.  Calvin Miller was a teacher and hero of mine, but that is not why this book is on my list.  It is on my list because it is a great work.  That it is biblical is a bonus.

So these are my three fantasy book favorites.  What are yours?  What do you think of mine?  I’d love to know.

The Most Influential Books

Top Three Books:  Classic Fiction

Top Three Books:  Contemporary Fiction

Top Three Books:  Science Fiction 

 

 

TOP THREE BOOKS: SCIENCE FICTION

The first book I ever read, from cover to cover was H. G. Well’s War of the Worlds.  From that moment on, I was hooked.

It is dangerous to compose a list of favorites for science fiction because sci-fi readers are the most opinionated and passionate there are.  I’ve seen near death blows exchanged as people argue over the right genre category for something.

“It’s dystopia, you idiot,” he replied.

His friend, undaunted, said, “Moron.  Any fool can clearly understand that this is science fantasy.”

Their co-worker called out in an angry voice from across the room, “Both of you are unlearned Philistines.  This bit of speculative fiction is neither.  It is quite simply superhero fiction.  There is nothing science about it, I will admit to a layer of fantasy, but that is merely an homage to Tolkien.”

These divisions can be as angry and emotional as theological debates between Calvinists and Arminians.  I’ve never seen Sherlock Holmes fans go after Harry Potter fans fans like that.

On top of that, most people have their favorite work or writer to whom they are loyal.  Stalwarts will point to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and say that after them, everyone else is just a copycat.  People who love Frank Herbert’s Dune will never back down from the opinion that it is the greatest science fiction ever, just as those who think that Authur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is the best ever will never admit anything other than that could possibly be worthy of honor.  Into this contentious field, I now submit my three favorite science fiction books.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

The cat in this photo creeps me out

Fahrenheit 451 is not the most enjoyable Ray Bradbury book for me.  that would be The Martian Chronicles.  I really enjoy The Martian Chronicles, they are fun and playful. However, Fahrenheit 451 is rated above it because deep in my gut I appreciate the societal commentary and meaning of it.  Fahrenheit 451 is therefore a better book than The Martian Chronicles and bumps it up on my favorites list.

A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller

A Monk in Texarkana

I love this book for three reasons.  The first reason is that it seriously deals with the tension, in metaphor and in plot, between science and faith.  The second reason is that as a historian, the book credibly and I might add, persuasively, creates a historical timeline of societal progress.  The third reason is that the name of the kingdom that emerges from post-atomic war America is called Texarkana.  As an East Texas boy, all I can say is that is very cool.

Nightfall, Isaac Asimov

Okay, I’m cheating here.  Nightfall is not a book.  It is a short story that Asimov wrote in 1941.  Fifty years later it was turned into a novel, but I’m not interested in that.  The short story Nightfall is perhaps the most fully developed and well told short ever.  In that single work we can find all of the themes that later will find their way into Asimov’s Robots and Foundation novels–the tension between science, belief, and the dysfunction of human society.  Nightfall is sometimes referred to as the greatest science fiction story every written.  I do believe that given the body of work, Asimov stands head and shoulder as the greatest science fiction writer ever.

As you can probably tell, I have a specific taste for science fiction of the mid-20th century.  There was something about the intensity of the writing during that time period that was fresh, innovative, and if I may be so bold, prophetic.  It was as if these writers, with one foot in the pre-technological world before mass communication and atomic weapons and one foot in it, are giving scalding commentary on the modern life we now live.  We can’t see ourselves today as clearly as they saw us 60 years ago.

The Most Influential Books

Top Three Books:  Classic Fiction

Top Three Books:  Contemporary Fiction

So these are my top three science fiction books (well, two books and one short story) and I would love to know what yours are.

 

images from favimages.com and wikipedia