If you don't read books, that's fine. We don't have to. We will just always be morons. We're always going to be idiots, watching our favorite TV shows and doom scrolling our lives away.
Books do something fundamentally different to us. They unlock something. They expand creativity. They cause our brains to light up in ways that nothing else really does.
The goal of this list isn't books I liked. It's books that truly impacted me. I was different once I finished reading them. Here they are.
Mere Christianity — C.S. Lewis
A 30,000-foot overview of the philosophical presuppositions of the Christian worldview. This isn't getting all Sunday school on you. It's real heavy thinking that makes the case that the Christian worldview is the most tenable, the most plausible. Incredibly important work.
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way — W. Cole
This one is an allegory, an old book, and it is so important to me that I loaned it out to a bunch of people and had them sign the back after they finished it. Think of it as a more masculine Pilgrim's Progress. Though I love Bunyan's work, I think this one is even better.
A quick note on fiction: A lot of people think fiction is a waste of time. I used to think that too. Give me the hard stuff, the non-fiction, the brass tacks data. But fiction takes you places non-fiction can't. It opens creative avenues. It lets you experience different worlds through different perspectives. Fiction grows you in a way non-fiction just really can't. Not all fiction. But the right kind is powerful.
Till We Have Faces — C.S. Lewis
This is my wife's favorite book. She reads it every year. C.S. Lewis considered it his favorite work. It's a myth retold and it rewards patience. When I first read it I didn't fully get it. The second time through I understood you have to enjoy the journey, not just wait for the destination.
Church History in Plain Language — Bruce Shelley
This is a history book that reads like a novel. Ancient, medieval, Reformation, modern, all of it covered in a way that's genuinely enjoyable. I'm a church history nerd, so this one was right in my wheelhouse. Really really great book.
The Francis Schaeffer Trilogy — The God Who Is There / Escape from Reason / He Is There and He Is Not Silent
Whereas C.S. Lewis laid the intellectual underpinnings of my Christian worldview philosophically, Schaeffer became my master with this trilogy. Fair warning: this is heavy. Schaeffer assumes you already have a working knowledge of Renaissance art, European history, and secular philosophy.
When I first went through it, I'd read a page and spend an hour doing backtrack research just to understand what he was talking about. But man, every page is a new argument. Schaeffer is the consummate greatest of apologists. I dare anyone who rejects the Christian worldview to tackle this trilogy.
The Bible
This one is more special than all of them.
When I went into the military I had an encounter with Jesus. I got saved around May 20th, 2001, picked up a Bible, and started reading. The copy I still have has 100 mph tape keeping the box it came in together.
It went with me in my ruck through three combat deployments. There's a death letter I wrote tucked inside it. Old photos. This specific Bible is sacred ground to me. I took a different Bible on my subsequent combat tours.
One day my boys are going to have to fight over which of my two Bibles they get to keep. Read the Bible, it will undoubtedly change your life.
Ben-Hur — Lew Wallace
My favorite book outside of the Bible, and I own a first edition from the 1800s. This is the book that made me fall in love with historical fiction. If you think Ben-Hur is about a chariot race, you need to read it because it is nothing like the movie.
Historical fiction takes certain liberties so you actually get to go there and experience the thoughts, the emotions, the pains, the joys of the people in it. This book is wild and powerful and it has been my favorite for a long time.
How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie
It takes a certain amount of humility to pick this one up because it feels like an admission that you don't know how to be around people. If you can stomach that, it will change your life. The core question it forced me to answer was: do I want to make a point, or do I want to actually influence someone's perspective?
Most people, especially on social media, just shout everyone down. You may be right, but if your delivery is terrible you're not changing anyone's mind. You're making points but you're not influencing people. This changes that. I've read it five or six times. I'm about to read it again because I've grown some thorns as I've gotten older and I need them shaved off.
The Chronicles of Narnia — C.S. Lewis
When my boys were born I was already chomping at the bit to read these to them. I had to wait until they were nine and ten because if you read it too early they won't remember it.
The journey I took my boys on with these books was so good. And don't think it's just for kids. As the parent reading it, you'll realize you love it just as much as they do. It will enrich you in ways you probably wouldn't expect.
Systematic Theology — Wayne Grudem
This is technically a textbook. I inhaled it like a novel and finished it cover to cover in less than two weeks. Systematic theology answers the question: what does the entire Bible have to say about a given subject?
Grudem brings all the relevant passages together on any topic, marriage, salvation, the church, all of it, and builds your theology in a coherent and organized way. This book rewired my theological brain.
A Note on Audiobooks
I'll settle this once and for all. Listening to an audiobook counts as reading it, provided you're not multitasking and actually missing the content. If you're driving and genuinely tuned in, it counts. I claimed this. It's like calling shotgun. Beyond dispute.
That said, something like the Schaeffer trilogy you cannot do on audio. You need to go slow, underline, and work things out on the page. Ben-Hur on audiobook is wonderful. Use your judgment.
Conclusion
I could have made a much bigger stack. But the goal wasn't books I liked. It was books that transformed me. Jump in the comments and tell me yours. Not books you enjoyed. Books that wrote you.
And click here to check out the Warrior Poet Reading List page on Amazon. I've been curating it for years across philosophy, theology, great fiction, war books, history, homeschooling, and protection. It's all there.
Remember, Train Hard. Train Smart. And read books. Let's not be dummies.
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