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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Books

Books

21 Influential Books

By Steve Laubeon July 18, 2022
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There is a shelf in our living room where I have placed the books that had the most influence on my spiritual growth. I call them my “Punctuation Marks” because in a metaphoric way some books were a comma, some an exclamation point, and some a period or full stop.

The beauty of having them all in one place is the visual reminder of those moments when God reached out through the pages of creative people who listened to the call to write and thereby touched me. It is a large part of why I have been involved in the book business for more than forty years.

Here are the books in no particular order:

Knowing God – J.I. Packer
Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster
Green Letters – Miles Stanford
Lectures to My Students – Charles Spurgeon
Knowledge of the Holy – A. W. Tozer
Foundations for Reconstruction – Elton Trueblood
Much More – Jack R. Taylor
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
Taste of New Wine
– Keith Miller
Barabbas: A Novel – Pär Lagerkvist (Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1951)
No Longer Strangers – Bruce Larson
How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong? – Lewis Smedes
Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I and Thou – Martin Buber
The Timeless Moment: Creativity and the Christian Faith – D. Bruce Lockerbie
Loving God – Charles Colson
The Denial of Death – Ernest Becker
Making All Things New – Henri Nouwen
Waiting on God – Andrew Murray
The Struggle of Prayer – Donald Bloesch
Making Sense of Suffering – Peter Kreeft

I hope you scour the list and find a title or two unfamiliar or currently unread. That is why I like to read similar lists: to peer into the mind of a fellow traveler and learn something new.

Your Turn

What books are on your “Punctuation Marks” shelf?

 

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Category: Personal, Reading, TheologyTag: Books, Reading

What’s on Your Shelf?

By Steve Laubeon February 12, 2018
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A series of interview questions that dig into my reading life. What’s on your nightstand right now? I am an extremely eclectic reader and have dozens of books waiting for attention. In fiction I’m currently reading Run Program by Scott Meyer a science-fiction story of a newly developed artificial intelligence program that “gets out” of the lab and is now running loose on the Internet – with all …

Read moreWhat’s on Your Shelf?
Category: Personal, ReadingTag: Books, fiction, Nonfiction, Reading

Don’t Let Anything Happen to That Book

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 5, 2017
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Awhile back I asked everyone to name a book that changed their life. Today I want you to remember a book that means a great deal to you. It doesn’t have to be the same book. My mother will tell me not to let anything happen to Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories. She’s been passing off lots of objects to me for some time. As I write this, I’m cooking dinner in her harvest gold crock pot from …

Read moreDon’t Let Anything Happen to That Book
Category: Book Review, Personal, ReadingTag: Books, Reading

What Book Changed Your Life?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon July 20, 2017
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A few weeks ago at the Blue Ridge conference, Steve Laube gave a keynote speech during which he asked, “Except the Bible, what book changed your life?” More than one book changed my life, but the first one that popped into my mind was Looking Out for Number One by Robert J. Ringer. Despite the ruthless title, the content is practical. The message isn’t, “Step on anyone and everyone to get to the …

Read moreWhat Book Changed Your Life?
Category: Personal, Reading, TheologyTag: Books, Reading

Do You Write in Your Books?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon February 11, 2016
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When we were first married, my husband bought a new Bible. The first thing he did was to sit down at his desk with a pen. I gasped. “What are you doing?” “I’m transferring notes from my old Bible so I’ll have them.” At that point, I think he’d also started in with a yellow highlighter. I had never seen anyone do this. When I was growing up, I had one Bible. When I was in the third grade, my …

Read moreDo You Write in Your Books?
Category: ReadingTag: Books, Reading

Bestselling Books in 1974

By Dan Balowon July 1, 2014
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Starting today, and every six months, we are going to take a ride in the “way-back” machine (with special acknowledgment to Mr. Peabody and Sherman), traveling back in time to grab a snapshot of what books were selling on a particular date and year. To get an idea where publishing is today, it’s good to get an idea where we have been. Forty years ago this week, half-way through 1974 here were the …

Read moreBestselling Books in 1974
Category: Book Business, Dan, TrendsTag: Bestsellers, Books, Trends

Today is National Buy-a-Book Day

By Steve Laubeon September 7, 2013
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by Steve Laube

 Philip Athans had a marvelous brainstorm and, together with other like-minded people, established September 7th as the annual Buy a Book Day. From their web site is the following explanation:
The National Buy a Book Day Foundation's primary activity is educating the American people on the importance of books to our culture and community by encouraging citizens to go to any …

Read moreToday is National Buy-a-Book Day
Category: Reading, SteveTag: Books, Reading

I DID Finish Your Book…and I Plan to Read it Again!

By Karen Ballon April 24, 2013
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After reading Steve’s and Tamela’s thought-provoking blogs on why they don’t finish books, I decided to talk about the flip-side. I totally agree with all that Steve and Tamela said. I’m not among the camp that has to finish a book once I've started it. But what a delight it is to find a book that I not only want to finish, but that I wish would never end. Those are rare treasures that live on my …

Read moreI DID Finish Your Book…and I Plan to Read it Again!
Category: Craft, Creativity, Karen, Writing CraftTag: Books, Craft, Writing Craft

I Didn’t Finish Reading Your Book, Either

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 18, 2013
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Followers of this blog know that on Monday, Steve Laube wrote a superb post on why he doesn't finish reading certain books.  I have stopped reading certain books for those same reasons. And for different reasons.

Beginnings

When I was in grade school, one of my mentors said always give a book at least one chapter, preferably three, before giving up. I have followed that rule on any book I …

Read moreI Didn’t Finish Reading Your Book, Either
Category: Craft, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: Books, Craft, Writing Craft

I Did Not Finish Reading Your Book

By Steve Laubeon April 15, 2013
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by Steve Laube

In the past year have you started a book, fiction or non-fiction, and did not finish it? I have. Many times.

There are many reasons for this to happen. Here are a few examples:

Fiction:
I didn't care about your characters.
The plot fizzled.
The story became ridiculous and unrealistic.
It was too easy to put down. Or in other words, it was …

Read moreI Did Not Finish Reading Your Book
Category: Craft, Creativity, Editing, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Books, Craft, Writing Craft
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