Ten Favorite Books of the Protestant Bible

(I read the whole of the Bible in a scattershot way when I was growing up, thanks to nine years of Christian schooling and a whole lot of churchgoing. Then in my thirties, as a New Year’s resolution, I read it again one January from beginning to end, as though it were a novel. Here, in order of preference, are the books that were the most meaningful to me, excluding the apocrypha. This is definitely a fiction writer’s list—I might even say a fantasist’s list—given the strong preference it shows for storytelling, myth, and miracles. The notable exception is Ecclesiastes, which strikes me as the most honest book of Christian or Jewish scripture, and for that reason either the most or the least comforting.)

 

  1. Ecclesiastes

  2. The Gospel According to John

  3. Genesis

  4. Job

  5. Jonah

  6. Exodus

  7. I Samuel

  8. The Gospel According to Luke

  9. Daniel

  10. Ruth

— August 15, 2021


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