Kevin Stilley

by

Tales from the Script – The Book Meme Revisited

I was privileged to sit through a class recently with Dr. Siegfried Schatzmann. A couple of times along the way he was asked for book recommendations. In response he gave what I believe to be some very good advice.

Dr. Schatzmann suggests that when a book is recommended to you that you make a mental note of it, but don’t purchase it yet. There are too many good books to read them all, so read the “really” good books. If a book is exceptional it will eventually be recommended to you more than once, so wait until you have at least two recommendations from people you respect before before spending your money and taking up shelf space.

I think that is generally good advice.

So, I was curious about the books recommended by those who completed the Book Meme that was initiated by Ben Myers. How many of the books on the lists received multiple recommendations? So, I did a little backtracking and offer you below the findings from my survey.

Of the 275 participants whose results I reviewed, there were 141 titles that were mentioned positively more than once. The top ten book titles (or series titles) each received at least 10 positive comments.

The number 1 title (excluding the Bible, per the original rules) received 48 positive comments. The most recommended title was:

1. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Other books (or series) in the top 10 were: (the number of positive recommendations is in parenthesis)

2. Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis (19)

3. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (19)

4. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen (14)

5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (14)

6. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (12)

7. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling (12)

8. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (10)

9. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien (10)

10. Confessions, by Augustine (10)

Books mentioned postively at least 9x:

  • Institutes of Christian Religion, by John Calvin
  • Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller


Books mentioned postively at least 8x:

  • Desiring God, by John Piper
  • The Little House Books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • The Complete Works of William Shakespeare


Books mentioned positively at least 6x:

  • Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton
  • Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
  • Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan
  • Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott


At least 5x:

  • Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
  • Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
  • The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, by John Frame
  • Dune, by Frank Herbert
  • Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson
  • The Sovereignty of God, by A.W. Pink
  • Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
  • Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis
  • A Day No Pigs would Die by Robert Peck
  • All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
  • Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
  • The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom


At least 4x:

  • Knowing God, by J.I. Packer
  • The Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther
  • The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks
  • Let the Nations Be Glad, by John Piper
  • What’s So Amazing About Grace, by Phillip Yancey
  • Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
  • Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
  • The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  • East of Eden, by John Steinbeck


At least 3X:

  • A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, by Jonathan Edwards
  • The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • To Own A Dragon, by Donald Miller
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
  • The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen
  • Jesus and the Victory of God, by NT Wright
  • The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur
  • Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
  • Watership Down, by Richard Adams
  • Confessions of a Reformission Rev., by Mark Driscoll
  • Bridget Jones Diary
  • The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
  • A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis
  • Old Yeller’, by Fred Gibson
  • The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
  • Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe (if you read this book make sure you get the unabridged version that doesn’t leave out all the spiritual content)
  • Don Quixote, by Cervantes
  • The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
  • Goodnight Moon
  • Emma, by Jane Austen
  • The Diary of Anne Frank
  • The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers
  • The Stand, by Stephen King


At least 2x:

  • John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides
  • The Last Sin Eater, by Francine Rivers
  • The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer
  • Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water, by Susie Lloyd
  • Right Ho, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
  • Lament of a Son, by Nicholas Wolterstorff
  • Pensees, by Pascal
  • The City of God, by Augustine
  • A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson
  • Exegetical Fallacies, by D.A. Carson
  • Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, by John Grogan
  • Green Eggs & Ham, by Dr. Seuss
  • The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald
  • Bored of the Rings, by National Lampoon
  • Brothers Karamozov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
  • Lord of the Flies by William Goldman
  • Til We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis
  • The Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton
  • My Utmost For His Highest, by Oswald Sanders
  • Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, by Michael Horton
  • The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • Miracles, by C.S. Lewis
  • Heretics, by G.K. Chesterton
  • Dubliners, by James Joyce
  • Fidelity, by Douglas Wilson
  • Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
  • A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
  • A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken
  • Texas Baptist Crucible: Tale From the Temple, by James Spurgeon
  • The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Preaching & Preachers, by D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
  • Lectures to my Students, by C.H. Spurgeon
  • Motification of Sin by John Owen
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
  • The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
  • The Gagging of God, by D.A. Carson
  • The Nancy Drew Mystery series
  • Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy
  • James and the Giant Peach
  • The Doctrine of God, by John Frame
  • Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
  • Treasure Island
  • The Summa Theologiae, by St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Crime & Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • The Swiss Family Robinson
  • The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
  • The Republic, by Plato
  • Fun With Dick and Jane
  • The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton
  • A Gentle Thunder, by Max Lucado
  • The Secret Garden
  • His Needs, Her Needs, by Willard Harley
  • The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey
  • Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan
  • Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
  • The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul
  • The Sugar Creek Gang Series
  • God’s Smuggler, by Brother Andrew
  • The Mitford series
  • Too Busy Not to Pray, by Bill Hybels
  • Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby
  • Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
  • The Purpose Drive Life
  • The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
  • My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok
  • The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis
  • The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  • Redeeming the Time by Russell Kirk
  • Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon


Just a few observations:

There was only one book mentioned more than once with which I was not familiar – – A Day No Pigs Would Die. I guess I will have to buy it and check it out.

There were a good number of authors that were mentioned numerous times but for a variety of books so their works do not appear on the list as often as one would expect. Authors falling into this category included Bill Bryson, Agatha Christie, Max Lucado, P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen King and others.

There were numerous books that some individual listed as great while others wished they had never been written.

Interestingly enough, four of the six books that I think were probably mentioned most frequently for question #7 “One book that you wish had never been written:” were books written by Christian authors for Christian audiences:

  • The Purpose Drive Life, by Rick Warren
  • The Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
  • The Prayer of Jabez, by
  • The Schofield Reference Bible
  • The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
  • The Koran

Several places along the way, individuals made changes to the meme questions. One such question was, “One book that you wish had been written.” However, before it was changed there were some very funny, and very interesting answers that I will post in a separate article.

Well, I found lots of interesting things along the way, and a few things that I raised my eyebrows over, but I guess there were really only two things that surprised me:

(1) I was surprised at the number of times that the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was listed. I never read the book, but it must be much better than the movie. When I saw the movie I thought it was one of the worst I had ever seen. Yes, I know that some books don’t translate very well to the big screen. And,

(2) A certain Methodist preacher listed a book of the Bible, Revelation, as the book he wished had never been written. Hmmmm……..

I have attached here a list of the participants whose results I surveyed:

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