Lists of Bests: WORLD Magazine's "Western Culture's Top 50 Books" http://www.listsofbests.com/list/2980 While our list overlaps in part the typical "Great Books" canon, many such lists are drawn up as a secular humanist scripture. This list is different in that these books are not only great but good. Though not all of the books are explicitly religious or even by Christian writers, they show the direct or indirect influence of the Bible or at least a worldview that sees the world as a product of design rather than anarchic material forces. Only one book per author (or in one case, a collection of authors) is listed, though it would be beneficial also to read other books by many of these authors. First comes the top five must-read classics of all time. Then, 45 more, sorted by their time period. From http://www.worldmag.com/articles/7446 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:12:03 GMT en-us 0 50 50 0 0 Holy Bible, King James Version http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/191642 <div id="position">1</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/191642"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0452010624.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1131483631_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anonymous</div> Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3150 <div id="position">2</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3150"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140424393.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Milton</div> King Lear (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/200479 <div id="position">3</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/200479"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1903436591.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Shakespeare</div> The Pilgrim's Progress (Deluxe Christian Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/112457 <div id="position">4</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/112457"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1577489160.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Bunyan</div> The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert (Christian Classic) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839550 <div id="position">5</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839550"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1557252599.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by George Herbert</div> The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2977 <div id="position">6</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2977"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140275363.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1122532534_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Homer</div> Gorgias (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/486132 <div id="position">7</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/486132"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140449043.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Plato</div> Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/60675 <div id="position">8</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/60675"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192835882.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Sophocles</div> The Aeneid: Virgil http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18722 <div id="position">9</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18722"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679729526.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Virgil</div> Sayings of the Fathers: Pirke Aboth/Gift Edition http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839582 <div id="position">10</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839582"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0874414202.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1056503016_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Joseph H. Hertz</div> The Confessions of Saint Augustine http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/56945 <div id="position">11</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/56945"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1591094003.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by St. Augustine of Hippo</div> The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18494 <div id="position">12</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18494"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679433139.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Dante Alighieri</div> The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3149 <div id="position">13</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3149"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140424385.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Geoffrey Chaucer</div> Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table (Signet Classics (Paperback)) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13957 <div id="position">14</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13957"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451528166.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Sir Thomas Malory</div> St Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province) (5 Volume Set) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/26685 <div id="position">15</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/26685"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0870610635.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Thomas Aquinas</div> Dr. Faustus (Modern Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/562385 <div id="position">16</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/562385"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679600426.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Thomas Mann</div> The Faerie Queene (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/224141 <div id="position">17</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/224141"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140422072.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1122532576_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Edmund Spenser</div> Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3707 <div id="position">18</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3707"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142437239.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra</div> Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion (2 Volume Set) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/17357 <div id="position">19</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/17357"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0664220282.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Calvin</div> Fox's Book of Martyrs: A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Deaths of the Early Christian and Protestant Martyrs http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/685291 <div id="position">20</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/685291"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0310243912.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V44442168_.jpg" /></a></div> Devotions upon Emergent Occasions http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839662 <div id="position">21</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839662"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0195041739.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Donne</div> Pensees (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/50394 <div id="position">22</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/50394"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140446451.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1138672761_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Blaise Pascal</div> Two Treatises of Government http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/84081 <div id="position">23</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/84081"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0521357306.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Locke</div> Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3510 <div id="position">24</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3510"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439491.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jonathan Swift</div> Robinson Crusoe (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9355 <div id="position">25</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9355"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375757325.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Daniel Defoe</div> The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman: The Florida Edition (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3525 <div id="position">26</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3525"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439777.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Laurence Sterne</div> The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18470 <div id="position">27</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18470"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679424733.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by ADAM SMITH</div> The Federalist Papers (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3296 <div id="position">28</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3296"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140444955.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1138672761_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Alexander Hamilton</div> Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4334 <div id="position">29</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4334"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0192839780.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Edmund Burke</div> Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3520 <div id="position">30</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3520"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439661.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V46018830_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jane Austen</div> Lyrical Ballads: William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839705 <div id="position">31</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839705"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0415063884.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by R. L. Brett</div> Democracy in America http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13956 <div id="position">32</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13956"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451528123.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1138678101_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Alexis de Tocqueville</div> Economic Harmonies http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839713 <div id="position">33</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Frederic Bastiat</div> David Copperfield (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3227 <div id="position">34</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3227"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140439447.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V42219544_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charles Dickens</div> Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/41500 <div id="position">35</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/41500"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/067978327X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Herman Melville</div> Leaves of Grass (Bantam Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15561 <div id="position">36</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15561"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0553211161.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by WALT WHITMAN</div> Innocents Abroad or the New Pilgrims Progress: Being Some Account of the Steamship Quaker City's Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy Land : With Descriptions of Countries, Nations, Incidents http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13904 <div id="position">37</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13904"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0451525027.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mark Twain</div> Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/315016 <div id="position">38</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/315016"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0143058142.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Fyodor Dostoyevsky</div> Master and Man and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/737639 <div id="position">39</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/737639"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140443312.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Leo Tolstoy</div> T. S. Eliot, the Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950 http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3907119 <div id="position">40</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by T. S. Eliot</div> The Bear http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839762 <div id="position">41</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by WIlliam Faulkner</div> The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/8545 <div id="position">42</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/8545"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0374505241.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Flannery O'Connor</div> The Lord of the Rings (Collector's Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11291 <div id="position">43</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11291"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0395193958.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by J.R.R. Tolkien</div> The Power and the Glory (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3713 <div id="position">44</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3713"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142437301.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Graham Greene</div> The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1992 <div id="position">45</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1992"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0064471195.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by C.S. Lewis</div> Survival In Auschwitz http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19334 <div id="position">46</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19334"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0684826801.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Primo Levi</div> Witness http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/66623 <div id="position">47</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/66623"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0895267896.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Whittaker Chambers</div> The Cypresses Believe in God: Spain on the Eve of Civil War http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839772 <div id="position">48</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/839772"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1586170465.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jose Maria Gironella</div> The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Vol. Set) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11213 <div id="position">49</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/11213"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0394749138.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Shelby Foote</div> The Second Coming: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5945 <div id="position">50</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/5945"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0312243243.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Walker Percy</div>