One stack of books among an arrangement of seven on a table in basement. I have many more books down there and throughout the house. Here are titles from bottom to top.
- Steven Heine, Dale Wright, eds., The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism (NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000)
- Eugene d’Aquili & Andrew Newberg, The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999)
- Robert Short, The Gospel According to Peanuts (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2000)
- Tim Riley, Hard Rain: a Dylan Commentary (NY: Da Capo Press, 1999)
- Joel Kupperman, Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001)
- Marie Dennis, Joseph Nangle, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Stuart Taylor, St. Francis and the Foolishness of God (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997)
- S.E. Gillingham, The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994)
- Stuart Weeks, Early Israelite Wisdom (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999)
- Colin McGinn, The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (NY: Basic Books, 1999)
- Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism (NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998)
- John Polkinghorne, Faith, Science & Understanding (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2000)
- Eric Matthews, Twentieth-Century French Philosophy (NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996)
- W.J. Johnson, tr., The Bhagavad Gita (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994)
- William Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000)
- Albert Low, Zen and the Sutras (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000)
- John Davenport and Anthony Rudd, eds., Kierkegaard After MacIntyre: Essays on Freedom, Narrative and Virtue (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 2001)
- Jo Marceau, ed., van Gogh: A Profound and Tormented Genius – His Life in Paintings (London: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 1999)
- Richard Geldard, Remembering Heraclitus (Lindisfarne Books, 2000)
- John Dart, Ray Riegert, The Gospel of Thomas: Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus (Berkeley: Seastone, 2000)
- Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth McCandless, Buddhism and Zen (NY: North Point Press, 1987)
- Jean Smith, The Beginner’s Guide to Zen Buddhism (NY: Bell Tower, 2000)
- Marshall Johnson, Making Sense of the Bible: Literary Type as an Approach to Understanding (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2002)
- Marvin Meyer, Secret Gospels: Essays on Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark (Harrisburg: Trinity Press, 2003)
- David Brazier, The New Buddhism (NY: Palgrave, 2002)
- Nicholas Fearn, Zeno and the Tortoise: How to Think Like a Philosopher (NY: Grove Press, 2001)
- Stephen Batchelor, Alone With Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism (NY: Grove Press, 1983)
- Martin Marty, Martin Luther (NY: Viking, 2004)
- John Gager, Reinventing Paul (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000)
- Gerard Sloyan, Why Jesus Died (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004)
What is the meaning of this? Get wisdom! Find truth!
If you ask me, did I read all these books, my answer is yes, but not completely. Their effect on me has been varied, learning many small details about religions and philosophy, and acquiring, enhancing respect for writers of non-fiction in different areas. Maybe someday I’ll publish a listing of a stack of fiction I’ve read, for I do enjoy made-up stories too, like The Hobbit by Tolkien. A book, actually a book of many books, I have read in total, is the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, many times. The Bible is a book I keep returning to every day. In the Bible, it is said “of making many books there is no end” (Eccl 12:12). Why this is so is because the kingdom of God is infinite. There is a time and place for rest and sleep.
The End
Paul's Place for Writing 
I was going to say you have an inquisitive mind. .you grandfather told us to read everything.
What did you gain from this one? John Dart, Ray Riegert, The Gospel of Thomas: Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus.😊
My grandfather that is…
Hi Ellie. Thanks for reading this post. That book you mention on Gospel of Thomas is a brief guide (120 pages) to that writing. It contains the text of GTh with short comment on some of its sayings. It devotes about 35 pages to discovery of GTh in 1945 in Egypt, by a farmer digging for fertilizer. What did I gain from reading it? I learned that some of GTh teaching material, not found in NT, may go back to Jesus. Two of its sayings, I’ll mention here, have impressed me by their simplicity and moral or spiritual content as words Jesus may in fact have spoken. These are “become like passersby” (saying 42) and “love your brother like your soul; guard him like the apple of your eye” (saying 25). ‘To become a passerby’ means to me to not get involved with the world or worldly things because the world is bad and is passing away and will be remade when Jesus returns. The other saying is similar to “love your neighbor as yourself” and may show Jesus emphasizing that teaching with different wording. We have the four gospels of NT, which are all we need for salvation. GTh is a writing to be debated and interpreted by scholars and historians. May God watch over you, Ellie.
Thanks for your reply Paul. I’ve heard there was much debate on The Gospel of Thomas and others. I would like to check out some of them. Will one day. Bless you!
Very interesting assortment of literature. Tell me, was Stuart Weeks, Early Israelite Wisdom worth the read?
Hi Claudia, thanks for noticing this post. Early Israelite Wisdom is worth reading for learning how scholars approach the book of Proverbs and its background. It recounts academic debate and hypotheses on the dissemination of wisdom in the Ancient Near East, especially possible Egyptian influence on the origins of wisdom in early Israel, but the book has little to do with practical application of Biblical proverbs in Christian life today. Be ye blessed, Claudia!
A fabulous list – thank you – so many to borrow from the library! Linda xx
Thanks for reading. I’m glad your headaches are going away.
ah thanks! Have a wonderful, wordy, weekend!