Every year at Christmas, we give a book to each of our children. We
try to choose each book carefully, one which will be of compelling interest to them today, and of permanent value
in the home library sixty years from today. We choose the
best editions we can find. Sometimes we have to go with used copies
from old bookstores or eBay if the book we want is not in print.
The top books I would give this year are by C.S. Lewis: the Narnia chronicles, to tie in with the movie release (!!!), and also Mere Christianity, the clearest and most fascinating exposition of Christian philosophy in print.
The
best history I have read in the past year has to be the new translation
of Ussher’s The Annals of the World, 75% of which is extra-biblical.
In Thomas Sowell’s latest column, he discusses the best books of the year that he would give as Christmas gifts,
as why. It is a nice little list. Thomas Sowell is one of the leading
thinkers in economics and public policy philosophy today, and I have no
doubt that one of his books will end up on a Greatest Books of Western
Civilization list a hundred years from now. His latest book, Black
Rednecks and White Liberals, is on my reading list.
Other book notes: Gene Edward Veith in the latest issue of World asks why Christians leave Christ out of Christian books; Ann Coulter
posts her top ten book list for this holiday season (Mere Christianity is on that too!); and Marvin
Olasky writes about his top ten American history books for high schoolers and adults.