Dan's Favorite Books


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My Favorite Books

These books are great, and deserve to be in everyone's library. After you read this, you might want to see my current reading list.

Rank	Genre	Book Title	Author	Photo	Description
1	Spirituality	Further Along the Road Less Traveled	M. Scott Peck		The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth - This book is one of the most profound, mature discussions of the spiritual journey I have read. Highly recommended.
2	Vocation	What Color is Your Parachute Workbook.	Richard Nelson Bolles		How to Create a Picture of Your Ideal Job or Next Career - This workbook gives you all the benefits of the full text, without the supplemental (but fun to read) material. The exercises in this book did more to clarify my personal gifts and passions than any other. Highly recommended.
3	Emotional Development	Being and Loving	Althea Horner		Althea Horner writes mostly for psychologists, but she has written this book for the layperson. It is, however, dense reading in which you must understand each sentence or you get instantly lost. However, her discussions of adult emotional problems and their roots in early childhood development are incredibly insightful. You will see yourself, your friends and family reflected in many pages of this book. Highly recommended.
4	Emotional Development	Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian	James W. Fowler		Adult Development and Christian Faith - This great book is poorly named - this book is not so much about christian ideas, as it is about the stages of faith development. In fact, Fowler has written an academic book called The Stages of Faith, which defines stages in a very foundational way, similar to Erik Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development. Fowler actually has an excellent chapter where he recapitulates Erikson's stages. This chaper, along with his abbreviated description of his own stages of faith development, make this book invaluable to the student of human development.
5	Vocation	The Path	Laurie Beth Jones		Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life - This is by far THE best book for helping you to write your own mission statement. It is easy to read, clear, and helpful. Each chapter leads you through the process of defining what you want for your life and why. For anyone who wants to live a life that is more fulfilling and focused, just go buy this book. Highly recommended.
6	Relationship	The Unimaginable Life	Kenny and Julia Loggins		Lessons Learned on the Path of Love - This book contains journal entries from Kenny and his wife during the years of their relationship. It includes discussion around each period of their life, the deep spiritual changes that occurred, and how they navigated the difficult changes with love and frightening openness. Some of the ideas they espouse may sound very new agey, but their example of a spiritual marriage is incredible and inspiring.
7	Self-Help	You Can Heal Your Life	Louise Hay		Besides perhaps the bible, this book has probably initiated more healing journeys than any other. This simple book started my journey. Just go buy it.
8	Vocation	Let Your Life Speak	Parker Palmer		Listening for the Voice of Vocation - This is one of my newer acquisitions, and though it is a small book, it is packed with wisdom about how to find your way in life. Highly recommended.
9	Spirituality	Serene Compassion	Denise Carmody		A Christian Appreciation of Buddhist Holiness - This relatively short book (130p.) is a concise intellectual introduction to the basics of Buddhist thought and practice. The seven chapters cover The Buddha, The Dharma (his teachings, including the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Three Marks), as well as the Sangha, Meditation, Buddhist Morality, and Wisdom. Each chapter ends with a Christian evaluation. However, far from being critical, Carmody gives a respectful comparison, showing where the two faiths have similar concepts, but perhaps with differing language, as well as showing how the two differ.
10	Vocation	First Things First	Stephen Covey		To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy - Second book in the trilogy of books by Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Principle Centered Leadership), it is by far the best book on how to live your mission effectively. Filled with spiritual and practical insight.
11	Biography	Dance of a Fallen Monk	George Fowler		A Journey to Spiritual Enlightenment - George Fowler records his entrance and exit from years of devotion to God as a Franciscan monk. For anyone who has had to leave many years of devotion to God to rediscover and reform their faith, Fowler's very candid discussion of his wrestlings and decisions, including a chapter where he wrestles with his sexual identity, are a comforting companion. Here is someone who was and is devoted to God, but had to step out of his first committment to renew his faith. Powerful.
12	Self-Help	How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have	John Gray		A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Personal Success - Gray (Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus) has really done a great job providing a guide to becoming happy and truly successful (despite the book's awful cover and ungainly title). What I like most about this book is that, though his language is easy to understand (if not flowery and non-academic), the principles he espouses are well anchored in established psychology (Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development are the underpinning to Gray's "10 Love Tanks"). This book should appeal to both men and women. If you don't like academic books on recovery, but want something with real meat underneath, this is your book.
13	Relationship	A Course in Love	Joan Gattuso		Powerful Teachings on Love, Sex, and Personal Fulfillment - This book, based on the priniciples of A Course in Miracles, is all about becoming a healthy person and developing healthy, spiritual relationships. Great book. Highly recommended.
15	Spirituality	The NIV Student Bible	Multiple		This is by far the most helpful bible I have ever seen - it has so many sidebars with explanations, exercises, and overviews, along with the clear language of the New International Version (NIV) translation. If you only want one bible in your house, even if it is just for occasional superficial study, get this one. This is great for people with little knowledge of the bible or Christian living. If you want to do indepth bible study, try getting a study bible in another translation, like the NKJV or NRSV.
16	Vocation	Ordering Your Private World	Gordon McDonald		This book transformed my view of life, showing me that all of my life springs from my inner world - no inner life, then no outer life. This is a Christian book, but its pages contain incredible illustrations, and great wisdom for running your life from the inside. Inspiring.
17	Emotional Development	The Seasons of a Man's Life	Levinson		This very academic book represents one of the top five models of human life stage study (along with Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development, Hudson's The Adult Years, Fowler's Stages of Faith, and perhaps the works of Piaget and Donald Super). Gale Sheehey's books (Passages) are based on Levinson's work. What moved me most was his description of the "Thirty Crisis" - similar to mid-life crisis - it clearly put my own struggles at that age into perspective. Tough but very rewarding reading..
18	Spirituality	A Path With Heart	Jack Kornfield		A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life - Jack Kornfield is one of the best-known American Buddhist authors. I must admit that I have never finished this book, but it is full of deep and simple truths about the spiritual path.
19	Emotional Development	Homecoming	John Bradshaw		Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child - Bradshaw, seen often on PBS Television, is the father of the inner child movement. This, his seminal book, based on Erikson's Stages of Development, has great exercises to help you determine where you were injured as a child, and how you can resolve those issues as an adult in order to be free of your childhood wounds so that you can have successful and happy relationships and spiritual growth. If you feel as though some early wounds are holding you back, get this book.
20	Self-Help	Healing for Damaged Emotions	David Seamands		This very Christian treatment of emotional healing accomplishes two feats - firstly, it introduces the Christian reader to the ideas behind healing early childhood emotional injuries within a Christian context. Secondly, he deals with some specific common doctrines that keep Christians from deep inner healing - like overemphasis on denying the self instead of loving, cherishing, and developing the created self (the real you) in order to give yourself. Healthy self-love is not selfish, it is essentialf for being able to give love.
21	Art	Addicted to Mediocrity	Franky Schaeffer		20th Century Christians and the Arts - Can you tell I've had to recover from some spiritual injury in the church? This classic, witty, at times acrid little volume discusses the modern christian doctrines which have kept the Christian perspective out of the arts, sciences, and politics - but mostly, this is about the arts - his main point is that the arts are not merely tools to be whored out for evangelism's sake - they are tools for expressing beauty and truth, not to be limited to the utilitarian view that says "if it don't preach the gospel, it ain't no good," Franky is the son of the late, great Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer.
22	Spirituality	Spiritual Leadership	J. Oswald Sanders		Principles of Excellence for Every Believer (Commitment to Spiritual Growth) - Sanders, a lifetime missionary, has written the most incredible book on leadership I have ever read. The chapter on "The Leader and His Reading" is my favorite, in which he offers many helpful suggestions for effective and thorough reading, including the idea that it is better to read a few excellent, timeless books many times than to read many ephemeral works only once.
23	Creation Science	Bones of Contention	Marvin Lubenow		A Creationist Assessment of the Human Fossils - I am a creation science buff, and this book is one of the most honest, non-preachy books on the subject - he almost never (I said almost) digresses to writing "it's true because the bible says so". He only bows to this level, which is not science, in a chapter that intentionally deals with creation science, evolution, and the Christain faith. Otherwise, this book is deep in its presentation and application of scientific principle, it is well documented with scientific references, and provides overwheling evidence that man could not have evolved from lesser simians, but most likely, appeared all at once, fully formed. Fun reading for the science-minded. If you love this subject, you should also examine: The Biblical Basis for Modern Science (academic, philosophical overview of all the sciences from a biblical POV), Men of Science, Men of God (a middle-school level book on great scientists who were biblical Christians, including Lister, Pascal, Newton), Evolution - the Fossils Still Say NO! (a classic), Darwin's Black Box (a genetic argument against darwinism), Algeny (a classic book by anti-genetic engineering activist Jeremy Rifkin - in arguing against social darwinism and gentic human tampering, he does a great job of decontructing darwinism - out of print), Evolution, a Theory in Crisis, Darwin on Trial (intellectual, but well known - the late Phillip Johnson examines the evidence for evolution from a lawyer's perspective)
24	Self-Help	Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality	Joseph Nicolisi		This out of print book is THE best treatment of recovery from homosexuality. Although I did not come out of that lifestyle, I have friends who have, and have had many of the emotional precursors to homosexuality in my history. Reading these books has helped me become a healthy man. Other useful books, not as scientific or complete as Nicolisi's are listed below. However, most or all of these invoke Christianity and doctrine (a.k.a. "conversion therapy"), where Nicolisi's book remains purely clinical and psychological in outlook. Healing Homosexuality : Case Stories of Reparative Therapy (by Nicolisi and still in print) Counseling the Homosexual Pursuing Sexual Wholeness (great chapter on gender identity malformation and healing)