15 x 15

i had a good buddy/co-worker/friend/bad-ass dude that i knew who died when he was just 19 of osteosarcoma. willie was an incredibly talented musician and consequently, music was a large part of his life. before willie died his mom asked him to make her a list of his 15 favorite songs by 15 different artists, in other words no two songs by the same artist. the only other stipulation was that the songs would be songs that meant something to him. it took me about a year to come up with my list of 15 but it is below:

1. Kite - U2

2. Wedding Dress - Derek Webb

3. The News - Jack Johnson

4. Til' Kingdom Come - Coldplay

5. Empty - Ray Lamontagne

6. Black River - Amos Lee

7. Love Song for a Savior - Jars of Clay

8. White Pines Ranch - Mark David Manders

9. Feeling Good Again - Robert Earl Keen Jr.

10. Runnin' Buddy - Max Stalling

11. Picture of Jesus - Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama

12. Pueblo Nuevo - Buena Vista Social Club

13. Under the Blanket - Trevor Hall

14. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

15. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

what's yours?

a stack of books

something about books gets me. i read, a lot. sometimes my best friends describe my job to people as the guy who prays and reads all day long, and that would rule. only i think most of the time i would like to read and if that can be counted as prayer then i would be all for it. however, that is not what my job really is, and i don't get to read as much as i would like, but when i do something just gets me. i can stay up for hours on end turning pages just to find out what the words on the next page with a zealousness something akin to a child waking up on christmas morning. i also have found that i get sucked into any book i read. it doesn't even have to be good. i have this optimism when it comes to books that is somewhat fatal. even if i haven't enjoyed one word of a book, i find myself turning all of the pages until i finally reach the end because somewhere in the back of my head i believe that a book can redeem itself and become something worth reading, if even in the very last page. perhaps it is because i believe that if only one sentence, one thought, one word stands out in a book, then it has served its purpose. don't confuse this for some sort of relativity towards books though. i certainly have a ranking of books that i find to be good, important, or otherwise noteworthy. to be sure there are plenty of books out there that are total crap and don't really deserve to be published, but who am i to squash anyone's dreams?

without any further ado: a list of 10 books i have found helpful/inspirational/important/blah blah blah
(note: they are in no particular order of importance and some wouldn't make a true top 10 list for me)

1. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
2. Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor & Chaos by Tim Keel
3. a Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren
4. Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
5. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
6. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
8. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
9. City of God by St. Augustine
10. True at First Light by Ernest Hemingway

What would your list include?