The List

So they said I couldn't comment on any of the seven books I would post as most influential in my life.

When have I not commented on anything?!?

First, seven is not nearly enough. Looking at the lists posted by those people I know, I will bet each of you that you grumbled under your breath as you had to trim favorites just to make some arbitrary number like seven books that were your all-time favorites.

I thinking more like twenty maybe or thirty even. That said, here goes:

So the Bible was an easy first choice. Reading it saved my soul. Saved my life. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Hemingway because he showed me early on what real writing looks like; exposition through dialog and this story; because no man is an island.

Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain, need I say more?

Shelby Foote's Civil War Narrative. How can we know where we're going if we don't know where we've been.

Matthew Henry's Commentary. The first book I bought as a Christian. What a guide through Scripture for the beginning student.

Edgar Allan Poe. How do you set a mood in a story? Read Poe.

Field of Blood. Two of the above-mentioned books are on the list not only because I love to read them, but because they present such lessons in writing style. Props to Ms. Jenna Wright, my writing professor at UT Martin. She read my three page short story and encouraged me to further explore the lives of the three main characters. A novel, she said.

After three long years of research and Lord knows how many re-writes, there it is, for better or worse. I done the best I could, Ms. Wright.

BTW, do not propose any such foolish list for movies.

I know where you live.