The Big 5: Short Books

I love short books.  Really love them.  I think too many times authors write "book-length" books because that's what you do.  But when I find a good short-and-to-the-point book I not only get something worth reading, but also giving away.  As a pastor, finding shorter books that are quick reads to give away is something I search out.  So...

What are your Big 5 short books/quick reads? (Please list exact # of pages)

I almost called this the books under 100 pages, but that's too narrow.  For example, Mahaney's Living the Cross Centered Life is about 150 pages.  But it also has small dimensions, so it would read like a wider & taller book at 100 pages or so.  Pick books that feel like quick reads, that you might give to someone who isn't a reader.  Get it?  Go!

Comments

[matthewsmith]

Seth Godin - The Dip (80 pages)

[Steve McCoy]

Matthew, good one. I may have to adjust my list!

[Aaron]

1.) Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ - Piper (128 pages)
2.) Pursuit of God - Tozer (84 pages)
3.) Cross-Centered Life - Mahaney (96 pages)
4.) The Life of God in the Soul of Man- Scougal (160 pages, but it reads like 60!)
5.) The Four Loves- Lewis (156 short, short pages)

Maybe I just suck at reading books under 100 pages...

[Chris Meirose]

Cross-Centered Life - Mahaney (96 pages)
The Supremacy of God in Preaching - Piper (110 pages)
Fifty Reason Why Jesus Came To Die - Piper (122 pages)
Basic Christianity - John Stott (179 pages)
If Stott is too long:
The Problem of Pain - CS Lewis (154 pages)

Big Chris
http://wasecachurch.org

[Chris Meirose]

9 Marks of a Healthy Church - Mark Dever (61 pages) would be a good one, but I don't know if it counts as a book or as a booklet.

Big Chris

[68guns]

Going to Church in First Century - Robert Banks (48 pages)

Pastoral Visitation( A Pocket manual) - David Short with David Searle ( 110 pages)

[Dan]

1. How Good Is Good Enough?(Andy Stanley- 93)
2. Humility (Mahaney-47)
3. Baptism and Fullness- (Stott-86)
4. Making Vision Stick- (Andy Stanley-80)
5. The Pursuit of Holiness- Bridges-179)

[Jon]

Write the Vision: The Church Renewed - Wilbert Shenk, 110 pgs

Believing in the Future: Toward a Missiology of Western Culture - David Bosch, 69

[Brian Moats]

in no particular order

1. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad, the story is around 95 pages, usually comes with commentary etc, which makes some versions longer
2. Living the Cross Centered Life - CJ, 158 pgs
3. Justification and Regeneration - Charles Leiter, 164 pgs(highly recommended)
4. The Great Divorce - Lewis 128 pgs(very fun read)
5. He is There and He is Not Silent - Francis Schaeffer 77 pgs (had a great impact on me and its contents come out often in evangelism

[Jeff Patterson]

Pursuit of God - Tozer // 84 pp
On Being a Servant of God - Warren Wiersbe // 147 pp
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ - Piper // 128 pp
The Dangerous Duty of Delight - Piper // 91 pp
The Master Plan of Evangelism - Robert E. Coleman // 126 pp

[Ken in Chesapeake]

Can't believe someone else beat me to two favorites ("Great Divorce" and "He is There and Is Not Silent") -- Brian Moats, nice job!

I'll note these five:

- Found: God's Will (John MacArthur), 61 pages
- Walk on Water, Pete! (Luis Palau), 87 pages, helped me as a new believer - details Jesus' interactions with Simon-renamed-Peter
- The God Questions (Hal Seed), 187 pages allegedly (that can't be right), a devotional for non-believers believe it or not
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 160 small pages, eye-opening.

And I'm still reading --

- The Unquenchable Worshipper (Matt Redman), 126 pages

[Anikisan]

For the Life of the World - Alexander Schmemann (151 pp.)
Against Christianity - Peter Leithart (154 pp.)

Both are very thought-provoking books to be mulled over from a sacramental perspective.

[Chris Walls]

The Reformed Pastor--Baxter (not sure how many pages. just moved and can't find my copy.

[Carl]

Is this a trick question? How about these:

The Guidebook Of British Dentistry

Beauty Secrets by Janet Reno

Things I Love About Bill by Hillary Clinton

Things I Can't Afford by Bill Gates

Things I Would Not Do For Money by Dennis Rodman

America's Most Popular And Ethical Trial Lawyers

Detroit - A Travel Guide

Dr. Kevorkian's Collection Of Motivational Speeches

Everything Men Know About Women

Mike Tyson's Guide To Dating Etiquette

The Amish Phone Directory

My Plan To Find The Real Killers by O.J. Simpson

My Book Of Morals by Bill Clinton (with an instruction by Jesse Jackson)

Heh-heh

[Luz]

Thought I'd add some short pleasure-reading books in the mix as well. Pastors need short bits of entertainment, too.

1. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Elliot (56 pgs. The one with Edward Gorey's illustrations is the best edition.)

2. The Cross and Christian Ministry - D.A. Carson (144 pgs.)

3. How To Absolutely Everything - Jennifer McKnight-Tronz (255 pgs., but it's a tiny book and all pictures! 5 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches)

4. Platitudes in the Making Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk: Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk - G.K. Chesterton (98 pgs. gotta love Chesterton's green wax pencil)

5. Prophetic Untimeliness - Os Guiness (128 pgs.)

[Luz]

Thought I'd add some short pleasure-reading books in the mix as well. Pastors need short bits of entertainment, too.

1. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Elliot (56 pgs. The one with Edward Gorey's illustrations is the best edition.)

2. The Cross and Christian Ministry - D.A. Carson (144 pgs.)

3. How To Absolutely Everything - Jennifer McKnight-Tronz (255 pgs., but it's a tiny book and all pictures! 5 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches)

4. Platitudes in the Making Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk: Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk - G.K. Chesterton (98 pgs. gotta love Chesterton's green wax pencil)

5. Prophetic Untimeliness - Os Guiness (128 pgs.)

[David Reimer]

1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (86 pp, including Bethge's 20-page "biographical sketch")

2. Paul Geres, Prayers for Impossible Days (64 pp)

3. Bruce Wilkinson, Secrets of the Vine (128 of those little Multnomah pages)

4. Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians (56 pp)

5. C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses (cheat: I have the 1965 edition with five addresses, at 66 pages; current revised and expanded edition is listed at Amazon as 208 pages. Still a "quick read" -- but oh, so suggestive -- IMO!)

[Steve]

1. Flatland (Abbott? I think)
2. The Mark of a Christian (F. Schaeffer)
3. A Tale of Three Kings.
4. Batman: Year One. (Frank Miller) Best Batman graphic novel of all time and one of the 3-4 sources for Batman Begins.

That's it. No #5

[Steve McCoy]

Very interesting lists all. Hope more keep coming. I do want to add that there's no way The Reformed Pastor should be on this list with 250 pages of small font. But I forgive you Chris. :)

Here's my list...

Power Through Prayer by EM Bounds (80)
The Practice of the Presence of God by brother Lawrence (88)
Humility by CJ Mahaney (157, reads very fast)
The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn (85)
The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes (128, slowest read of the bunch, but so pastoral and most accessible for non-Puritan readers)

[chris]

This is not an ordered list, just what comes to mind first.
Praise of Folly- Erasmus
Utopia- Thomas More
(I love the fact these two were buddies and wrote these books to make each other laugh)
Timaeus- Plato (profound pagan)
MacBeth- Willy Shakespeare (human nature at its best and worst)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (subtle Christianity, rich storytelling)

[chris]

Steve,
Funny to see the Watchmen on your reading list. How do you like it? Great story. I read it back in '86 I think. I still have a button with the blood drip on it (which I have been tempted to e-bay). I always wondered how they would pull the film off with Rorschach's face. But now… no problem!

[adam clark]

I love short stories for this exact reason. But most authors publish them in collections that are more than 100 pages, so I guess they don't count. But most short stories are less than 100 pages and my favorites are by Stephen King, Raymond Carver, Flannery O'Conner, Johnathan Lethem and Michale Chabon.

The same could be said for collections of sermons. If like me, you love that sermon high, I have several collections of Spurgeon's sermons that are like spiritual crack.

For non-fiction, here ya go (though most of these have already been mentioned):

Randy Alcorn: The Treasure Principal
Louie Giglio: The Air I Breath
C.S. Lewis: The Great Divorce
E.M. Bounds: Power Through Prayer
C.J. Mahaney: The Cross-centered Life

[Carl]

Really answering this time:

"Winning Others To Christ" by Roland Q. Leavell (picked this book published in 1936 and just started reading it - I'm about a third of the way through it)

"Oysters & Politics" by J.O. Wintzell (founder of Wintzell's Oyster House in Mobile, Alabama -- a very tongue-in-cheek book)

"Spring Creek Chronicles" by Leo Lovel (an autobigraphical book about Lovel's experiences growing up and living in the Florida Big Bend region)

[cavman]

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic? by Walter Chantry - a bit dated in terms of what he's arguing against but still good.
Grow in Grace by Sinclair Ferguson
Children of the Living God by Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God by Sinclair Ferguson

For fun....
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

[Adam Tisdale]

Here are a couple that jump to mind:

In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
(I think Humility will probably end up here as well)

Called to the Ministry by Edmund Clowney
("When he gives, he calls; when he calls, he gives" may be my all time favorite quotation)

[Jared Wilson]

I'd second lots already mentioned.

Would throw in one I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke

[KDS]

Of what I have not seen:
The Religious Life of Theological Students - B.B. Warfield - 15 pages and a great companion to A Little Exercise... mentined above

Reaching Out - Henri Nouwen 162 pages

Holy the Firm - Annie Dillard 84 pages

[KDS]

Of what I have not seen:
The Religious Life of Theological Students - B.B. Warfield - 15 pages and a great companion to A Little Exercise... mentined above

Reaching Out - Henri Nouwen 162 pages

Holy the Firm - Annie Dillard 84 pages

[limpdance]

Any of the single Narnia books - C. S. Lewis
The great divorce - C S Lewis
The Dangerous Duty of Delight - John Piper
Love and Freindship - Jane Austen
The treasure principle - Randy Alcorn

[Rob Freire]

Grow in Grace (Ferguson)
The Cross-Centered Life (Mahaney)
The Stranger (Camus)
Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky)
The Lord is My Shepherd (OK, this is a children's book -- one of those Golden Books, in fact. It's basically Psalm 23, with illustrations, and a musical version of the Psalm at the end. I read it with my three-year-old son regularly, and he loves it. Nothing has helped me to absorb and appreciate the message of this psalm more than reading, praying, and singing it with my boy.)

[Thomas]

The Old Man and the Sea
The Horse and his Boy
The Pursuit of God
The Master Plan of Evangelism

[Ben Pun]

In the Name of Jesus -- Henri Nouwen (101 pgs.)
Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God -- CJ Mahaney (127 pgs)

havent read these, but they look great --

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God -- JI Packer (126 pgs, big font)
Driscoll's new "books you will actually read"

[Steve McCoy]

Wow, some brilliant answers. Driscoll's new books are spot on for this post. Didn't even think of them and I own three! The Old Man and the Sea is an inspired choice.

[Paul Wilkinson]

Surprised nobody mentioned Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips.

[Roisin]

I can think of four books off the top of my head. These books have been of enormous value in my spiritual growth.

How to Pray - R.A. Torrey
Knowledge of the Holy - Tozer
Master Plan of Evangelism - Coleman
Fireseeds - Hayes