My 1000 Page List Explained

In the previous entry, I presented my list of “1000 pages that I think everyone should read”.  Please send me your own lists as well.  In this entry, I’d like to go into a bit more detail about why I chose the 7 books I chose.

“Ecclesiastes”, written by Solomon

          I don’t imagine that a lot of Christians would choose Ecclesiastes on any of their lists of “Books of the Bible to read.”  I struggled myself as to whether to include it because, to be honest, my later selection by Tolstoy is essentially an expanded, more intense version of Ecclesiastes.  But, if Solomon really was the wisest man ever to live, as the Bible claims, then it seems worth reading something he wrote.  Even given that, most people would have picked Proverbs and even Song of Solomon over Ecclesiastes.  But Proverbs is a “middle” book in my mind:  it presents kind of the middle of the road thinking.  I prefer to go to the extremes and get to the point.  I always want to quickly run ahead and find out where a line of thinking is going to lead me.  The reductio ad absurdum really appeals to me.  Ecclesiastes is the extreme of thinking “if I remove God, what’s the point?”  Some people think that the Bible is outdated and out of step with the times.  To that I say: read Ecclesiastes!  Besides, it is by far the shortest book on my list, so it’s a simple read.

“Gospel of John”, written by Apostle John

          Some will say “why should everyone read that fairy tale?” and others will say “why just John – why not the whole Bible or at least the whole New Testament?”  Well, first of all, the whole Bible is more than 1000 pages by any normal-sized page count, so that wouldn’t fit my criteria.  But, more importantly, I focused on the part of the challenge that ways “…everyone should read.”  I think that most of the Bible is written for those who already believe.  I definitely think that every Christian should read the whole Bible – in fact I think they should keep reading it over and over.  But not much of the Bible is really written for “everyone”, in my opinion.  But the Gospel of John was specifically written to describe and present Jesus to the masses.  Certainly, if everyone wants to read the whole Bible, that is fine – that’s great, really…but I’m pretty sure everyone does not!  But I think – and again, this is just my opinion in answer to the question – I think everyone should read the Gospel of John.

          The Gospel of John is, in many ways, one of the most attacked books of the Bible (I suppose outside of Genesis).  But, the bottom line is that it is either:  true and the most important book in the world, or it is a false and intentionally deceptive book.  I think everyone should be forced to make their own decision about it, and I don’t know any other way to decide between those two extremes other than to read it for yourself. 

“Epistle to the Romans”, written by Apostle Paul

          There are two reasons I chose Romans.  First, it most clearly lays out the basic principles of Christian beliefs.  The first eight chapters, in particular, present the logical progression of Christian thinking.  I think everyone should understand that progression, whether they agree with it or not, and so I put it on my list.  Over the ages since it was written, this book has been the most instrumental to many Christian thinkers.  If you were to make a list of the most important books ever written, Romans would surely be on any reasonable list.

          The second reason I put Romans on this list is because it is so unassailable in terms of its history.  Is there any scholar who doesn’t believe that Paul wrote this book somewhere in the 60’s AD?  People frequently argue about the Gospels and who wrote them and when they were written (especially John’s Gospel), but you don’t see arguments about Romans.  Everyone agrees that this is what Paul wrote.  Because of that, I got interested in a line of arguing I called “Paul in 4D” that I put somewhere on this site <*here*>.

          Finally, this is a short book as well.  Just read it.

“Penseés”, written by Blaise Pascal

          I did not come across this book until I was in my 40s, and it was like a lightening bolt.  I have talked about this book elsewhere <*here*>.  Pascal was a contemporary of Descartes (a little younger) and Newton (a little older).  I think he might be smarter than either one of them!  Unfortunately, he died quite young and never finished this book.  So, what you really have in Pensees is a collection of some fairly finished thoughts, some completely unfinished thoughts, and everything in between.  That makes it harder to read than most – it’s more like reading a series of very short essays than a cohesive book.  Maybe just think of it as reading a blog!  The thing is, it was written in the mid-1600s, and is as relevant to today as you can imagine.  I don’t agree with all of what Pascal wrote, but there are some passages there that are just spectacularly deep and important.  It’s well worth the effort to read.

“A Confession”, written by Leo Tolstoy

          No, not “War and Peace” – it’s too long for this list anyway!  “A Confession” is Tolstoy’s brutally honest view of his life up to that point.  It is his summary of the meaning of life.  I hesitated to include this for “everyone” to read because it can be taken as extremely depressing.  If you are depressed before you read this, it might push you over the edge.  However, in my opinion, the antidote for this book is the Gospel of John, which is also on my list, so you should be reading both.  If you’re depressed already, maybe you should read John first…then Tolstoy…then maybe John again!

“Miracles”, written by C.S. Lewis

          I knew that I had to include at least one of CS Lewis’ works in my list.  He was a fantastically clear and accessible writer, in my opinion.  His book “Mere Christianity” is certainly the most well-known of his non-fiction work.  Of course his allegorical “Narnia Tales” are certainly very well-known as well, but I don’t think any fiction should be on a list that “everyone should read”.

          This book is not about whether miracles have happened, but rather it is about whether they could happen.  As I have said elsewhere in this blog, I think that very fundamental issue has to be settled first for every person.  Is that door locked or unlocked?  I don’t know of many books that directly address this very fundamental issue.  Maybe, if you know of one, you should put it on your list.  I’ll definitely read it.

          I think this book is probably the most difficult to read from a purely academic standpoint.  By that I mean that, for many, it’s the kind of book you can’t read all at once and you may have to re-read some passages to understand the point he is making.  But the issue is so critical that it is worth the effort. 

“Being Mortal”, written by Atul Gawande

          I think this is the longest of all the books I chose and it is certainly the most recent.  This book is less than ten years old.  It is also probably much more relevant to Western cultures, and especially the U.S. than anything else on my list.  So, should everyone read it?  Maybe I stretched it a bit with this one.  But if you are alive today and you live in the U.S., I think you should read this book.  It is about how we practice medicine with those who are elderly and dying.  At some point I will do a more proper review of this book in this blog.  But it was a book that really got me to thinking and one that I just had to talk about as I was reading through it.  It is very relevant to today. 

So, now you have my reasons for the books I picked.  I might change my mind tomorrow – who knows!  Anyway, as I said before, I’d be very interested in hearing any such lists that others might have!  Please share them.