When I am in an airport, sitting in the blue vinyl chairs (why are they always blue?), and one person out of the 200 surrounding me is reading a book, I am immediately curious about that person – and their book. I try to get a peak at the cover. I walk by just to get a closer look.

I have been borrowing library books ever since I was an elementary school student, when I would walk a mile downtown just to get to the library! Books have played a major role in my life. They have delighted me, instructed me, corrected me, angered me, and haunted me.

What is the book you most enjoyed reading? For me, it was The Lord of the Rings, which I read in my early 20s, then read again a few years later, then read to my sons a decade after that. I’ve now lost track of how many times I have read LOTR.

What is the book (besides the Bible!) that has helped you most spiritually? This is a hard one. I would like to mention a dozen, at least, but I will limit myself to one: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart.

What is the book that bored you most but that you finished nonetheless? For me, it was Moby Dick. A hundred pages of details about whales teeth and the shapes of their heads was just too much for me. (Okay. Maybe it was only twenty pages, but if seemed like a hundred.)

What is your favorite children’s book? For me, it was Winnie the Pooh. I read the stories so often to my children – and laughed out loud while reading – that I had most of them memorized. (Note: I do not count C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia here, for it is hard for me to regard them as children’s books. Rather, they are beautiful books that can be read profitably by children and adults alike. I do not include Wind in the Willows, At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, etc. for the same reason.)

What book was recommended to you that you would never recommend to anyone else? There have been so many such books – pastors are constantly being given books – that is it hard to choose just one. Besides that, I usually forget those books the moment I close them. One that comes to mind, though, is Johnathon Cahn’s, The Harbinger. The friend who gave it to me loved it. I did not. I’ll leave it at that.

So, here are the categories: Most Enjoyable; Most Helpful Spiritually; Most Boring; Favorite Children’s Book. Tell us yours (from any or all of the categories) in the comment section below. Then we can enjoy – or avoid – them too.