Booked for life!

When she was very young, my (now homeschooling) daughter came running out after school, eager to tell me: “Mama, do you know there are some children who have never read a book other than their school books??!!” I was so delighted that my little one not only really loved reading like her father and I do, but also understood at such a young age that her peers were really missing out on.  

Our home has more books than kitchen equipment, clothes or gadgets. When people asked me, what they could gift our children, I always said “more books, please.” And over the years, we have built a collection that spans the height and breadth of a wall after continuously giving away books that we are done with and others can now enjoy.

My younger one was a less enthusiastic reader when he began but being surrounded by books and people who love to read, he soon got onto our bandwagon and now enjoys reading as much as we do. Because I never had books while I was growing up, I feel very strongly about giving my children a wide array of books to read from even before they could actually read. I had decided I would give them this, around a decade before they were born, when I learned in my master’s programme that just having reading material and readers around very young children prepares them for a life long love of reading. And I had seen this principle at work with my elders too who had never had the opportunity to read all their lives but took to reading so easily and wholeheartedly in their 70s and 80s.

 Some of our most fulfilling summer vacations have been when the ‘books by kilo’ sale has been announced at the start of summer. We’ve made a family outing of it, parking our car early near the entrance so we can be the first ones to get in and buy literally kilos of books because they were so good and so cheap. In our home, when new books arrive, we all gather around the parcel with glee and take turns to smell the books and pore over them for hours.

 And so today I want to share with you a list of books that God has used to literally change my life. These are books that are not just unforgettable, but their impact on my life and therefore on the lives of my loved ones have been indelible. These are books I have bought countless copies of so that I could gift them to others, recommended them to strangers and never ever tire of re-reading. I’m introducing them to you in the order I read them in:

1.   The Holy Bible authored by the Holy Spirit through different people and compiled by the Catholic Church towards the end of the 4^th century A.D.

 The first time I actually received a Bible as a gift and began reading it was as a 24-year-old at the end of a very stressful day. I had reached home from work to find my mother-in-law looking very strange with one side of her face dropping, rushed her to her doctor and then straight to hospital because she had had a stroke while we were all at work. That night, lying next to her in the hospital, I felt like it was the right time to finally open the Bible that had been gifted to me and I began reading it with a thirst for knowing the One who wrote it. My first reaction to a speed reading of the first book (in what is actually a compilation of books) was this: So many people just getting married and having children!! Is there more to the Bible than this?!

 In the decades that followed that night, I have forgotten how many times I have re-read the entire Bible but I know for sure, that every single time I have read it, the One who has authored it has revealed something completely new to me. There is no end to what you can gain from reading it, because there is no end to the layers of wisdom and insight God can give you through His very own word.

 If I had to run out of a burning building with just one object: it would be a book, actually this compilation of books called The Holy Bible.

 

2.   I married You by Walter Trobisch

This very short, very fast paced narrative is about a western missionary’s adventurous encounters as he teaches about love, marriage and sex in Africa. Through the simple, effective story telling about people who were single, to be married, married, widowed, separated or divorced, I learned so much of the basics about Christian marriage that I hadn’t come across in our marriage preparation course, my Masters dissertation on a marriage preparation course or the experiences of my own marriage. My own understanding about marriage in general and Catholic sacramental marriage in particular has changed a lot since then by reading many other books. But none of them made an impression on me as much as this one because of its simple, effective style of narration.

 3.   Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

A few years later, at a critical juncture in my career, I came across this book which shattered every notion I had about what it meant to have a successful life. I joyfully discarded old ways of thinking about my education, work, career, personal and professional goals after I read this book and discovered that God had created me for a specific purpose that I could discover along with Him by investing in 5 key areas in my life. I won’t tell you what those are so that you can read it and discover the fulfillment of living a purpose driven life too.

 

4.   Go! You are sent by Genie Summers

Again, at just the right time God sent me this book about the amazing life and adventures of Frank and Genie Summers. This book really shook me to the core about what my calling and place was in God’s scheme of things. And what made the book even more meaningful was that over the years I met and befriended many people who have benefitted from Frank and Genie’s legacy and in turn are a big blessing in my own life.

5.   Divine Renovation book series by Fr. James Mallon

A non-Catholic gave me the first in this series of books written by Fr. James Mallon and it caused a seismic shift in my understanding of the identity and mission of the Catholic Church. Deep underneath the surface, something had felt off for many years in ministry, but reading this book helped me finally make sense of what was missing and what I needed to change in my own role in ministry. Since then, I’ve recommended this book and the changes that come with it to many priests and I’m always so encouraged when they read it and see God’s Church the way He wants it to be.

 

6.   Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell

This book gave me a very well researched, well studied, well worked out approach to what I knew was my life’s calling: forming intentional disciples. This book gave me new skills, new ways of thinking through many failed attempts and experiences and boosted my confidence in doing what I was called to do, irrespective of the current context.

 

7.   Catholic Homeschooling: a handbook for parents by Mark Kay Clark.

A year after we began homeschooling, I bought this book because it was highly recommended and was shocked to find that there was a huge overlap between the vows I made at my children’s baptisms and the choice to homeschool them. This book is filled with quotes, explanations and insights into my responsibility as a Catholic parent and how so much of it can be fulfilled through homeschooling. This gave me new fervour and great joy to continue in our own journey of homeschooling, knowing our goal was not a certificate, appointment letter or award but heaven itself. This book is a slow, difficult read, but very worth the effort.

 8.   Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

I really truly wished I had read this book when it was first published. Many of my relationships have ended badly because I hadn’t the faintest clue even about the concept of boundaries, much less that they are Godly and biblical. And to be honest, if this book didn’t come highly recommended from someone I really trust, I don’t think I would be persevering through it either. This book is easy to read but very hard to put into practice. I began it in Jan 2021 and I’m not even half way through the book because I’m taking it in in small weekly doses that my heart can handle. Truly allowing the difficult lessons in this book to permeate my life is taking time. And I’m so glad that I’m making the time to do this now, because I really don’t want to look back with any regrets anymore. But since I now recognize the need of so many people and relationships to have Godly boundaries, I recommend this book to many.

 

9.   The Great Adventure Bible Teaching Kit for Kids by Ascension Press.

This set of books we purchased from the Ascension Press online took forever to reach us and it has been so very worth the wait. This set of books takes the parent/teacher through a chronological narrative of the history of our salvation through 15 narrative books of the bible and helps us understand where in the timeline the supplemental books fit in too. For the first time in almost 2 decades of reading the Bible, I’m now understanding the relevance of many books I had found irrelevant, the connection between different people across history and how these apply to my life today. And it such a joy to share this with the precious children God has brought into my life.

 

I hope that the 10^th book to change my life will be a book that is yet to written. I’m so grateful to God for giving me all these books at just the right time in my life and can’t wait to hear about the books that changed your life in the comments below!