Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to gift books. Not just any books will do, they have to be books that have moved me or touched my life in some way through the years. I love to read, although I don’t carve out enough time in my life to actually do so. I learned to love reading when I was a child because of my mother. For as long as I can remember my mom has been an avid reader. Every night, without fail, you could find her reading a book before bed. I wanted to be like her so I copied her habits. As a young kid I remember the first time I began reading an actual book for big kids, not just the kind with pictures. It was thrilling to me. I felt so accomplished and grown up. My love for words on the page mimicked my mother’s love for words on the page. I remember often making trips to the library with her as a kid to check out new books and select the stories each of us would get lost in next. I would definitely say I picked up my passion for words from my mother.

Then came middle school and the Accelerator Reader program. The program was designed to encourage students to read more. It was based on a point system, where certain books garnered more points than others upon passing a brief test at the conclusion of reading the book. For me the program did the EXACT opposite of what was intended. Where a love for reading anything my heart fancied slowly diminished, a strong disdain for reading began to grow. No longer was I reading for pleasure, I was reading to earn points by answering silly questions that sometimes had little to do with the overall message of the story. Where I once loved words on a page, I now despised having to read from a pre-selected list of books in order to earn enough points in my class. Reading was no longer fun. And so from the time I was in middle school until the time I graduated from college I never read another book for pleasure. The only reading I did was the reading that was required of me in my classes. Perhaps this is common, perhaps it is not. All I know is that school reading depleted my love for books during some of the most critical years of my life.

It wasn’t until I had graduated from college and was free from the burden of reading strictly to achieve a grade, that I rekindled my love for printed words strung together between two covers. Words. Words crafted so carefully by soulful authors destined to change the world with the outpouring of their hearts onto the pages of their books.

Books change lives. Books changed (and continue to change) mine. This is why I love to read. This is why I love to gift books. This is why I love to write. Words. They have so much power once they come in contact with the human heart.

Because of my love for words, I want to share with you four books that have been quite pivotal in my life. They have played into shaping me as a person, fighting through the resistance within my heart and have become faithful companions continually teaching me how to become a better human being.

1. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE by MATTHEW KELLY

I recall very vividly the book that rekindled my romance with reading. The Rhythm of Life by Matthew Kelly allowed for me to see that I might not have all the answers right now and I might not know how my life would end, yet I can always strive to become the best version of myself. No matter where I am in life, no matter how far I’ve come or how far I’ve fallen, there is always, always room to see how we might be able to become better in our own little ways. These little ways are what make the world a better place. I remember reading this book and thinking, ‘Why am I NOT being intentional about striving to be the best version of myself? Why wouldn’t I want to do that? I can do THAT! I CAN become a better me than the current me. Yeah, I’m going to try to live life with that purpose in mind.’ It was like the light bulb in my brain went off and all of a sudden, I was being reborn as a new person through slow, incremental steps each and every day, striving to be a better me than I was just a moment ago.

2. GUT CHECK by TAREK SABB

I can’t recall specifically when I read this book – it was sometime in my mid to upper twenties though. If you read the front and back cover of the book, you probably would be utterly confused as to what would draw a female to read the book in the first place. The front cover reads, Gut Check —> Confronting love, work, and manhood. Ha! What interest did I have reading a book geared toward men at that time? I will never know, but I was drawn to the book and as soon as I jumped in I was captured. I could relate to so much of the cultural pressures Tarek wrote about – male or female, they exist. The book taught me so much about myself, those pressures, and what is really most important in life. It also revealed the dark presence of the worldly lies so many of us buy into because we so desperately desire to fit in – particularly in our twenties.

3. THE GO-GIVER by BOB BURG and JOHN DAVID MANN

I had once been told to read the book, The Go-Getter: A Story That Tells You How To Be The One. It was a motivational short story about a man that overcame all obstacles to prove his value as an employee. Although it’s a nice little story with good purpose, I think the better approach was outlined in a book I read nearly five years later called The Go-Giver. I will never forget the day I received it, and I did quite literally receive it. I was not hunting for it, but unknown to my head, my heart desired it and God used one of his people to get it to me. I was having a difficult bout in my life with a few things and was in a place of unrest. At this point in time I had begun to occasionally go to daily Mass. I would slip off on my lunch break at work and slink into a pew at the Cathedral of the Incarnation to participate in Mass and one day as I walked out to the parking lot after Mass, a smiling older gentleman who I had never met approached me. He began to talk with excitement about this book he had just finished reading and said he wanted to give me a copy. Not knowing the man at that time, I was a bit unsure of where this was going and was rather curious as to what he felt I needed to read. He went to his car and returned with the book, The Go-Giver. Eventually I got around to opening the cover of the book and began to skim the first few pages, but skimming turned to divulging. I was hooked immediately. The book was like Pringles, once you pop, you can’t stop, man! I found myself picking it up any moment I could steal away and finished it in just two days. The book had a beautiful message – you must first give in order to receive. The message is presented from a business stand-point, but is most certainly a life concept everyone could stand to live by. It was a game changer for me. I had heard it before, but never presented like it was in this book. Quite the eye-opener, and it began to flip my life around.

4. LOVE DOES by BOB GOFF

I have a very dear friend that once opened her home to me for six months to help me out in a transitional stage of life (am I ever not in one of those?). She had a small stack of books sitting on the ledge at the top of the stairs and each day I would climb up or down the stairs I would notice the stack of books. On the top of the stack was a book titled, Love Does. First of all I’m fascinated – maybe even a bit obsessed – with the word ‘love’ so it definitely caught my eye and my heart. One day my friend and I got to talking and through the course of the conversation she told me about the book and how great of a read it was and recommended that I read it as well. It was another book I couldn’t put down once I got started. This book forever changed the way I think about not only love, but life. Bob began each chapter with ‘I used to …. but now I …’ and then the chapter would unfold part of his story, his journey toward learning to love people better. The thing about it that zapped my heart the most was how radical his ‘yes’ seemed to be. He didn’t allow the doubts and fears and worldly ‘can’ts’ or ‘shouldn’ts’ or ‘that’s not possibles’ to get in the way of living out love to its fullest. Love is an action word, not a thought… it does.

These four books are most certainly pinnacle books for my life. They have each changed me in small ways, but those small ways have snowballed into much bigger ways because the knowledge and the lesson has been rooted. Even if you read only one book from this list, I promise you walk away a different and better human being. There are so many other books that are also responsible for shaping and teaching me, but these four books have been cornerstone game changers.

Now that I’ve named the four books above, I want to tell you about four other books – which are a part of a library of books – that are even more significant on my list of reading suggestions. These four books tell me what I need to know about who I am, where I came from, and where I’m heading. These four books continue to teach me new things each and every time I read them. These four books are love letters for me, but they are also love letters for you. They reveal to me the meaning and depth of the word, ‘love’ in a bigger way than I ever will be able to fathom. The books?

MATTHEW

MARK

LUKE

JOHN

Yes, they are the four books that make up The Gospels, which are part of the collection of books known as The Bible. These four books have allowed me to work out who Jesus is, they’ve allowed me to work out who I am, and they’ve allowed me to work out my relationship with Jesus. Even though I began this post with four great books that have no doubt changed my life, there are no four that have revolutionized my being more than these four right here.

So read them. Read them all and come alive!