Books to get you started

Here is the final list of books recommended in a discussion thread from WonderCafe. I have included ALL recommendations regardless of who posted them. People like EZ and RevJohn who posted a long list have had their names in the list as recommenders. I have a seperate section for fiction, and the only ranking I've done, other than that is putting the ones I'm familiar with near the beginning. Here it is and thanks to all the contributors!


MonAsksIt: Cracking The Cover - A Beginners Guide To The Bible by Ross Smillie
anything by Madeline L'Engle or Elizabeth Goudge or even Taylor Caldwell's "The Listener" (fiction) and Pilgrim’s Progress, a classic
Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl
The Gospel According to Peanuts


The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg or Reading the Bible Again for the First Time
The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel by Walter Wangerin
This United Church of Ours by Ralph Milton
The Idiots Guide to the Bible
C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
John Shelby Spong's Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Sins of Scripture
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the journals of Kierkegaard.

EZ Answer: "Christianity for Dummies" by Richard J. Wagner ISBN: 0764544829
"The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family" by Mark I. Pinsky, Tony Campolo (Foreword) ISBN: 0664224199
"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore ISBN: 0380813815

Rev John: Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love For Imperfect People by Mike Yaconelli.
Dangerous Wonders: The Adventure of Childlike Faith by Mike Yaconelli
What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey
Grace Abounding To the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan
Calvinism In The Las Vegas Airport by Richard J Mouw

Fiction: A Wrinkle in Time" (and the books that followed it) by Madeline L'Engle
The Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz
Narnia books, Screwtape Letters, the Planet series by C.S. Lewis
Phillip Pullman's Golden Compass

God for Beginners

Stormie Omartian's books The Power of a Praying (includes The Power of a Praying Wife, Parent and Woman).

TRAVELING MERCIES or Plan B by Anne Lamotts

The Purpose Driven Life" by Warren. (note, this is a rather conservative book)

PrazGod: The Word of God first, and then may I recommend the following:
- The Imitation of Christ - by Thomas A Kempis
- The Liturgy of Hours (also known as Breviary, Divine Office) - prayer
- The Perfect Prayer Book: My daily psalm book - arranged by Fr. Frey
- Living Faith day by day: How the sacred rules of Monastic traditions can help you live spirituality in the modern world - by Debra K Farrington
- Diary: Divine Mercy in my soul - by St. Faustina Kowalska
- Practicing basic Spiritual Disciplines - by Charles Stanley
- Catechism of the Catholic Church
- Heart of Joy: The transforming power of self giving - by Mother Teresa
- FromGenesis to Revelatioin: Seven Scriptural Rosaries - by Christine Haapala
- How to Listen to God -by Charles Stanley
-Visions of the Children - by J Connell