From Our Bookshelf

I continue to marvel at the power of the written word: how it leads us to truth, how it instructs our minds towards following the right path, how it equips us to give reason for the hope that is in us, how it displays the Sovereignty of God, how it inspires us to exemplify the heroic lives of great men who have gone before us, and how it invites us into the lives of others so that we may think and feel as they did. Reading stimulates and stretches our minds to think deeply. The very word “literature” emits a luminous air of intrigue. While each work stands as a threshold to new horizons, it is upon these thresholds that our family gathers together in body, mind, and soul to embark on delightful journeys to venerable places of truth, to distant shores, and into the lives of others.

Continually distracted by the urgencies of the moment, we long for that feeling of splendid leisure, when time stands still as we laugh and rejoice and mourn and cry and discover and truly understand, unconsciously weaving our souls together as we move effortlessly through the hours. We move effortlessly and joyfully because of a constant and continual thread of reading to each other that Jon and I began weaving from the beginning of our union. From birth, each child becomes a part of our reading circle, which continually forms around the dinner table, in the car while traveling, and on the bed. Even when our children were toddlers, they sat for hours listening while playing quietly at our feet.

We have such a love for good literature that with 15 bookshelves (both here and in our country home) we still do not have enough room for all our books. So the following is just a sampling of a very few of our books. I just took a quick look so that I could recommend some of our favorites.

The King James Holy Bible

The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

By This Standard by Greg Bahnsen

Sketches from Church History by S. M. Houghton

For the Temple, St. Bartholomew’s Eve, By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic and other books by G. A. Henty

The Great Christian Revolution by Otto Scott

The Door in the Wall and Yonie Wondernose by Marguerite de Angeli

Medallion by Dawn Watkins

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

The Blood of the Moon and Carry a Big Stick by George Grant

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

The Scots Worthies by John Howie

Ink on His Fingers by Louise Vernon

The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O’Dell

The Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thompson

The British Josiah by Dr. N. A. Woychuk

Martin Luther by Stephen Nichols

For Kirk and Covenant: The Stalwart Courage of John Knox by Douglas Wilson

The Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin

America’s Providential History by Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell

The American Covenant by Marshall Foster

The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel

The Minute Boys of Lexington and The Minute Boys of Bunker Hill by Edward Stratemeyer

The Boys of ‘76 by Charles Coffin

The Making of George Washington by William Wilbur

The Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton

John Adams by David McCullough

Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Latham

Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry

John Newton: The Angry Sailor by Kay Strom

Stonewall Jackson by Robert Lewis Dabney

Call of Duty by J. Stevens Wilkins

Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith

Storytime with the Millers, Wisdom and the Millers, and Prudence and the Millers by Mildred Martin

Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys by J. E. White

Grandma’s Attic series by Arleta Richardson

The Basket of Flowers and The Lost Ruby by Christoph von Schmid

The Hedge of Thorns by John Hatchard

Christie’s Old Organ by O. F. Walton

Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

Farmer Boy and Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Hind’s Feet for High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings

Irish Red, Big Red, and Outlaw Red by Jim Kjelgaard

Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight

Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Milly-Molly-Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley

Boys of Grit Who Became Men of Honor by Archer Wallace

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

The Cozy Book by Mary Ann Hoberman

The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen

Billy and Blaze series by C. W. Anderson

Minnikin, Midgie, and Moppet by Adelaide Holl

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Cowboy Pup by Carole Etow

The American Boy’s Handy Book by Daniel Beard

Tan Your Hide by Phyllis Hobson

The Handbook of Knots by Des Pawson

Back to Basics Reader’s Digest Building with Stone by Charles McRaven

Cache Lake Country by John Rowlands

The Great Illustrated Classics by Baronet Books (unabridged) make excellent readers for beginners

In 2004, we purchased an acquisition that Jon and I have wanted for a long time—a set of beautiful mahogany bookshelves. When they arrived, we lovingly admired and patted them and then happily skipped off to select the books that we wanted to honor by placing them on our lovely shelves. Of course, we selected only those that would lend both beauty and prestige to our library shelves. Now we have other bookshelves, both built into the walls and free standing, but none so beautiful and “Victorian library like” as these.

It is Jon’s and my desire that our children inherit from us a well-stocked library of the best theological, historical, and biographical books ever written, including those fictional books we enjoyed reading throughout their childhood; therefore, Jon and I give our children precious books all the time. When studying a theological book like Arthur Pink’s Collection or Calvin’s Institutes on Christian Religion, we give each of the children a copy so that long after we have studied it together as a family, they will have their own book to study with their own families. This is also true of historical books like The Great Christian Revolution by Otto Scott, Sketches from Church History by S. M. Houghton, The American Covenant by Marshall Foster, and The Life and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by Dr. J. W. Jones. Not only does this enable them to follow along as we read, but also it gives them the opportunity to return to these books time and time again for reference. Once they have children of their own, these books will help them guide their own children to truth.

**************************************