A commentary on You've GOT to read this book!, Canfield & Hendricks.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the way that books can form our character. Now I want to share about the ways books can be transformational.

Motivational speaker Charles Jones has said:"You will be the same person in five years that you are today except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read." Personally, I would add a couple of other factors, such as the tragedies or crises or joys you face; and the extent to which you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in changing you from the inside out.

Educator Parker Palmer explains the link between learning, maturing and story: we should honour people's experiences, give room to stories about everyday life. At the same time, we need to connect these stories with the larger picture. We need to be able to explore how our personal experiences fit in with those of others; and how they may relate to more general "stories' and understandings about life.

This is what books can do: enlarging our vision, and helping us to make connections.

Scholar Patrick Shannon says story is fundamental to developing our sense of identity and security:

Stories are how people make sense of themselves and their worlds. In young children’s spontaneous stories that they act out as they play, we can see how they believe people relate to one another, who they hope to become, and how they will behave. We can see adolescents play roles in their own and other people’s stories in order to figure out where they fit into their ever-expanding worlds. As adults, the true and imaginary stories we wish to tell and believe suggest what we value most in this world. In a real sense, stories make people.

In the collection edited by Canfield & Hendricks there are 55 stories of how a specific book has transformed that person's life. Many of the books are motivational/self-help books; and the people who wrote those stories usually evaluate their lives in terms of dollars earned, business growth, or their success as motivational speakers!

However, the stories that really touch and go deeper, usually involve fiction not non-fiction. Like Rafe Esquith, an outstanding teacher working in the roughest neighbourhood of Los Angeles. He had enjoyed tremendous success but felt empty inside. His wife gave him To Kill a Mockingbird and he was inspired by Atticus Finch to teach ethics and moral development. He wanted students not just to do things because they wanted to avoid trouble or get a reward, or please others. He wanted them to obey external rules, to be considerate of others, but most of all to be like Atticus: to live by their own sense of what is right.

Or Bob Young, the creator of the Linux operating system who was inspired by the tragi-comic figure of Don Quixote. Not only did the book encourage him to try something that seemed impossible (take on Microsoft Windows), but it also challenged him to do something that seemed crazy, give it away for free!

Or Michael Gerber, an entrepreneur, who was inspired to be creative by the poetry of E.E. Cummings; a glimpse at the passion and possibility of innovation. Or Sue Ellen Cooper who has formed a society for women over 50 inspiring them to live lives of fun and fellowship after reading CS Lewis' The Great Divorce: the choices we make between happiness and misery, freedom and feeling burdened, love and loneliness, because we hang onto the sin and selfishness and trying to control our own lives.

Or award-winning librarian Nancy Pearl who was inspired by Tolkein's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. She says:

Over the years books have taken me to cities, countries - even planets! - I could never have travelled to on my own. I became a librarian so that I could share the gift of reading and inspire others to open books - to begin their own journeys of discovery and enrichment.

However, discovery and enrichment are false paths if they don't lead us to the author of our salvation. This is why the God story is so important. It is where our stories and all stories find their right place and fulfilment.

As Eugene Peterson points out it is easier for us to talk about what Christian's believe and what they do, but we need to see and read examples, even glimpses, of the Christian life lived: "Christ playing in my limbs and eyes". That is the point where books can be transformational.