Speaking of good reads...

Since I wrote that last blog I have been rolling the idea around in my head of writing out all of the books I would like to actually own.

Usually I'm not very picky about owning a book because I tend to think of it as a waste of shelf space, a display for pride in intelligence, or just plain laziness (not taking the energy to go to a library or read them online). Please don't get me wrong on this point. The above mentioned reasons are my own sinful purposes behind purchasing a book. I am not trying to be presumptuous enough to claim that they are every ones reasons and am not trying to state that anyone with a book collection ought to be ashamed of themselves.

This is why deciding to buy a book is kind of a big deal for me. I usually think long and hard about whether I truly need to own it. This is mostly my criteria:

Will I be tempted to dog-ear the pages?
Am I going to want to highlight sections and jot notes in the margins?
Will I want to pass it along to friends and family?
Will seeing it worn and scuffed heighten my admiration for it?
Is the best way for me to absorb the content going to include re-reading it more than twice?
Is it not readily available to me via other venues, i.e. city library, college library, friends, etc.?
Is it beneficial?

If I answer most or all of these questions with a "yes", then I put the book on my list of books to buy. The funny thing for me is that, since graduating from school, the list has gotten much longer.

Here is the ever-increasing list, in no specific order:

Knowing God, Packer
The Pleasures of God, Piper
Respectable Sins, Bridges
Identity, Geiger
This Momentary Marriage, Piper
A Christmas Carol, Dickens
Why We Love the Church, Kluck & DeYoung
Vintage Jesus, Driscoll
Orthodoxy, Chesterton
God, Marriage, and Family, Kostenberger
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Grudem & Piper
The Attributes of God, Pink
Worldliness, Mahaney

I will probably be adding more books and
taking them down when I get them. :)