The Fantastic Five

When you meet several hundred people over the course of several weeks (eg: Freshman Orientation days), I’ve found that there are several questions that are relatively consistent in the introductory process:

What classes do you take?  What do you do for fun?  If there is more time, other questions emerge:  What do you like to read?  What is your favorite movie?  Who do you like to listen to?

These questions have their uses, but they are introductory at best and superficial at worst.  One of the best questions, however, that I have been asked as a preset of conversation and interaction was posed by my friend Karen:

“If you could pick five books that define who you are or who you want to be, what would they be?”

1.  Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton is an inspiration.

His articulate verbal jousting can provide an interesting twist or a deeper insight into the most seemingly inane of topics. His way with words makes me want to have an outlook on life that is full of wild wonder and unquenchable hope.  One of my favorite quotes of all time stems from its deceptively few but very dense pages:

“Can he hate it [the world] enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.”

2.  Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Lewis is a foundation.

Where Chesterton inspires and revives, C.S. Lewis serves to lay the groundwork for much of what I believe.  His reasoning, arguments, and even phrasing have helped me to better understand and articulate what I believe.  This is my most commonly recommended book here at Willamette University … and probably will remain high on the list for years to come.

3.  Witness by Whittaker Chambers

Chambers is a model.

His autobiography details his years working as a communist spy for the Russians during the Cold War.  His decision to renounce communism eventually culminated in the famed “Alger Hiss Trial.”  His willingness to stand in the dangerous and unpopular witness box is fundamentally motivated by his faith in Christ.  His point, essentially, is that:

“A man is not primarily a witness against something. That is only incidental to the fact that he is a witness for something.”

4.  Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy is a painter.

By painter, I mean more that his words are so apt a demonstration and description of life that it is hard to refer to his work as anything but a portrait of how we ought – and ought not – to live.  If you aren’t put off by its hefty weight (or its hefty length) it is well worth reading.  As Isaac Babel put it, “If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy.”

5.  The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett

Pratchett is a bard.

I’ve enjoyed almost every single one of Pratchett’s Discworld fantasy series … but The Last Hero stands as one of my favorites.  He somehow captures an entirely epic and heroic feeling all while remaining utterly hilarious and mostly farcical.  Someday, I want to become a bard and travel around telling stories with both a compelling and inspiring point and a goodly amount of good humor.

What are your five?