Thursday, February 11, 2010

Most Influential Reads In My Library ...

Okay. Melanie gave me a Porter Cable six-gallon air compressor with two nail guns for Christmas. The day after Christmas, I made the trek to Home Depot and bought wood to begin working on her Christmas present in return. Six weeks later, my project was complete! Here's a picture. It started out simple, but after looking at more and more pictures, the design became much more complex. By the way, I didn't make the doors. My router broke, so I mail ordered them.

Anyway, it was fun putting all my books in one place and I realized that I have a fairly substantial library. Here's an overview of what's on the shelves. The lists are not in any particular order, I'm just perusing. Also, most of these books were obtained since moving to Little Rock. At various points, we've cleared out tons of books between moves.

Bibles:
Large Print NASB (my preaching Bible!), Key Word Study Bible, NIV/The Message Parallel Bible, The Comparative Study Bible, The MacArthur Study Bible, NIV Study Bible, Narrated Bible, The Mosaic Holy Bible (New Living Translation), The Amplified Bible, The Open Bible, A New Scofield Reference, and The Way (Living Bible -- one of my first Bibles, circa 1970's).

Study Resources:
MacArthur New Testament Commentaries (27 Volumes), Vine's Expository, Word Study Greek-English NT, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, Zondervan Topical Bible, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Systematic Theology (Grudem), an assortment of various hard and soft cover commentaries (45 titles).

Most Influential Nonfiction: These books have either changed my thinking, have led to some important change in behavior, or have simply provided deep insight that I greatly appreciated.

Swindoll, Great Lives From God's Word series; volumes on David, Elijah and Joseph.
Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
Allender, Leading with a Limp (insightful guide to pastoral leadership)
Allender, Wounded Heart (insightful guide to understanding abuse)
London, Pastors At Greater Risk
Stanley, Communicating For A Change
Chang, The Chinese in America
DeYmaz, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church
Susek, Firestorm: Preventing and Overcoming Church Conflicts
Jackson, Heroes in Black History
Swenson, Margin
Gardner, Torn Asunder: Recovering From Extramarital Affairs
Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Bounds, The Complete Works of EM Bounds on Prayer
Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
Most enjoyable fiction: McMurtry, Dead Man's Walk (prequel to Lonesome Dove).

Most heart wrenching story: Ilibagiza, Left to Tell (story of Rwandan genocide)

Most intriguing book that I own, but have not read: Lawson, Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians (1911).

More than personal books:
Cheng, Guang Hua Medical College and Holt Cheng (The story of my Grandfather)
Baker, Li, & Boyce, CMOS Circuit Design, Layout and Simulation (my first geek book!)
Li, A Noniterative DC Analysis Program for Analog Integrated Circuits (my dissertation)
DeYmaz, Li, Ethnic Blends (just released!)

Oldest Book: Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (vol 1), 1868.

Most turned to books (apart from a Bible or commentary):
Grudem, Systematic Theology
Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (1001 Sermon Illustrations)

Most humorous book: Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader

Biggest nontheological book: Martha Stewart, Homekeeping Handbook (Melanie's)

Largest topical sections:
Theological Resources (commentaries, dictionaries, etc)
Marriage & Family
Pastoral Development (how to be a better shepherd!)
Ethnic and Culture
Discipleship
Apologetics

Electronics: Samsung 26" LN450 LCD HDTV.

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