The Big 5: Books You Haven't Read

Who doesn't love a little humiliation? 

What are the Big 5 books you are ashamed to say you haven't read?

Admit what you haven't read, books that are supposed to be awesome or "required reading."  You should feel some shame in admitting it.  It should confound your closest friends.  Sure, we know you haven't read a few classical novels that many people have read.  But who cares?  Give us the scoop on the MOST embarrassing books you have neglected.  Who knows?  Maybe it will light a fire under your butt to get'r done.

Comments

[Travis]

I have never read anything from J.I. Packer, Mark Dever or C.J. Mahaney.

[Bart]

City of God by Augustine
On the Incarnation by Athanasius
Cur Deus Homo by Anselm

[Chris Meirose]

Pilgrim's Progress - Bunyan (though I've listened to 50% of it)
Chronicles of Narnia Series - Lewis - I've read 1 book. That's it.
Holiness - JC Ryle
Tipping Point - Gladwell
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

[Thom]

1) Karl Barth- Evangelical Theology
2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer- Letters and Papers from Prison
3) Dietrich Bonhoeffer- The Cost of Discipleship
4) C.S. Lewis- Until We Have Faces
5) Any John Stott book

[Luke Britt]

Knowing God
Any of the big three NT Wright books
God's Empowering Presence

I guess that's 5. What's worse is that I own all of these.

[kim davidson]

1. Pilgrims Progress
2. Confessions - St. A
3. The entirity of RBMW (Piper and Grudem)
4. Christian Institutes (Calvin)
5. Any book by Ed Welch (I'm currently in When People are Big and God is Small)

[Jake Meador]

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God - J.I. Packer
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

'Nother good list, Steve. I'm enjoying these :).

[Warren Kelly]

Blue Like Jazz
The Silmarillion (last time I tried, I made it through about 30%)
Anything by Jane Austin (my wife has been telling me for years that I need to read Pride and Prejudice)
Keller's Reason for God
Wright's Paul: In Fresh Perspective

[Rob]

Holiness and Desiring God are the ones that immediately come to mind. There, I said it.

But I've read plenty of other titles by these authors. And I've been really busy for the last decade or so. (Nothing like a bit of self-justification to soften the sting of shame.)

[Martin Pitcher]

Okay here we go. My Top Five Books:

1. John Calvin's Institutes
2. John A. Broadus' Preparation and Delivery of Sermons
3. C. H. Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students
4. Francis A. Schaffer's True Spirituality
5. Charles Bridge's The Christian Ministry

[Jim U.]

The Gospel According to Jesus - MacArthur
The Pleasures of God - Piper
Institutes - Calvin
Bondage of the Will - Luther
Humility - Mahaney

[John Fooshee]

A cookbook
The Reason for God by Keller
Gospel for Real Life by Bridges
Anything by John Owen
The last 1/2 of just about every book in my library

[Todd Pruitt]

Death of Death... (Owen)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)

The Confessions (Augustine)

Christ and Culture (Niebuhr)

O The Places You'll Go (Suess)

[Carl]

1) Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis (it's next on my to-read list after I finish an omnibus of three books by Charles Swindoll)

2) The instruction manual for my Boss Guitar Pedal system (okay it's not a book but i've been messing with the pedal system {a Christmas gift for myself from about 8 years ago} at home and have never read the silly manual -- it's a Tim Allen-esque guy thing, I guess)

3) Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast -- Tim Hollis

4) Life and Death in a Small Southern Town: Memories of Shubuta, Mississippi -- Gail Graham Yates

5) The Trinity: Evidence And Issues -- Robert Morey (I keep trying to start this one but lose the momentum -- I tend to use this as a reference).

Speaking of books, have anyone checked out the website called Libraything (http://www.librarything.com/) a very cool way of cateloging your books online and sharing your interests with fellow readers. My "library" is at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Beukeboom and I'm still adding to it from time to time. As a free service I'm limited to 200 books but I can pay $25 for a lifetime membership and it's unlimited. I'm enjoying it thus far.

[Carl]

I spoke too soon...Steve already is using LibraryThing. Cool.

[Carl]

One more thing...I just made the mistake of looking at part of Steve's library and now have several MORE books added to my wantlist....I CAN'T AFFORD IT!!! **sob**

[Chris]

Am I really going to be the first to admit it? C'mon there have to be more people out there like me. I haven't read the Bible all the way through yet... and yes, it truly is to my shame. Ever started the M'Cheyne reading program and faded out at about February 3rd?!? Yeah, join the club.

I think I'll go read my Bible.

[Joel]

-Confessions
-Knowing God
-Institutes
-Desiring God
-Anything by Jonathan Edwards (besides Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God)

[Tyler H.]

John Fooshee, I love your #1!

Here's my list:

1. Desiring God
2. Mere Christianity (I don't think I ever finished it, despite starting it at least 4 or 5 times)
3. Pilgrim's Progress
4. Really, at this point I'm tempted to just start listing a dozen authors that I should have read several books by but haven't read any (Packer, Sproul, Mahaney, Augustine, Calvin, ... I could go on for far too long)
5. The book on marriage that my wife and I used for our premarital counselling last year (ooops.)

[Steve McCoy]

This is a fun (read "scary") thread. :) I particularly loved John's answer: "The last 1/2 of just about every book in my library." Sweet. Chris gets the Honesty Award. Congrats. Here's my list, which could be much longer than 5.

Augustine's City of God or Confessions
Van Til's...anything (pieces here and there)
Dostoevsky's...anything
Bosch's Transforming Mission. Got it, read pieces, but not all of it.
Wendell Berry's What Are People For?

[Carl]

Chris, I'll admit I have yet to read the Bible all the way through. I've read the New Testament all the way through several times but to be honest, I haven't quite made it through all the Old Testament. Numbers especially is hardest for me to read without my eyes blurring.

[cavman]

Not much that I'd be embarassed to say I hadn't read.

I haven't read any N.T. Wright, but I've been meaning to.
Haven't read Barth, but I don't know many people who have in my generation so it's not like I'm seriously missing out.

I've read most of the usual suspects.

[DP]

1) Anything by N.T. Wright
2) Anything by Mahaney
3) Institutes
4) Anything by Luther
5) Ezekiel

As encouragement for those that haven't read The Brothers Karamazov...do so. Probably the best book I've ever read.

[Mark Jackson]

- Desiring God (Piper)
- The Divine Conspiracy (Willard)
- Five Smooth Stones (Peterson)

Those are the three most embarassing... there are lots of others.

[Ken in Virginia Beach]

Until reading "Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe" this year, I was ashamed that I had read zero Narnia.

Two painful secrets remain:

1. The Return of The King
2. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Yes, I read the first two "Lord of the Rings" books but never the third. It was 8th grade. I was young and impressionable... A friend told me it wasn't so good, and I just abandoned the project.

And as for #2, well, it is the 4th (add-on) book of the trilogy -- so I don't feel too bad. But a little bad.

Steve: Better off not reading Van Til, it's actually kinda disappointing. Better to read Kuyper before him or Schaeffer after him.

[Brian Hedges]

City of God, Augustine
Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards
Bondage of the Will, Luther
Anything by Barth
Anything by Dostoevsky

[Rob]

Interesting that several people listed Dostoevsky. Not so interesting that people haven't read him, but that they feel embarrassed about it.

If anyone is looking for a shorter work by him -- something to wet your feet with -- I'd suggest Notes from Underground, or perhaps The Gambler. Both fantastic works that don't require nearly the commitment that Brothers K or Crime and Punishment do, though both those longer works are more than worth the time investment.