*peeing my pants*

Oh, wait, you said SHOULD own. My bad.

JB

E.g., another honorable mention for the inspirational category came to mind after I posted my comment last night: "Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints." This volume from the FARMS Nibley Collected Works, not really a classic Mormon text but it had a strong impact on me when I read it. So it might be an honorable mention to me but not to others because of the more personal impact it had on me. But that's also one of the fun things about these lists; we can always think about improving them.

I guess that makes me wonder about another list: Top 10 LDS books that are not classic LDS texts but that had the greatest on me.

Feel free to borrow any book any time.

Tangentially, it's fun to compare our lists with what a regular library might want to have in its collection. This article gives an interesting look, obviously light on inspirational/devotional, but you gotta love the inclusion of New York Doll:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6551783&articleid=CA6590468

I’d remove 4 because Messiah series is too long-winded. It’s basically an attempt to rewrite the life of Christ with JST because nobody including Talmage used JST. But it really doesn’t add a whole lot IMO.

I’d remove 9 because it is not as effective at promoting repentance (though you gotta love that Satan-Cain connection in there).

These lists are tons of fun, and they usually tell you more about the person writing the list than anything else. My own list would probably be half inspirationa/devotional/doctrinal and half academic/historical given my split personality.

For inspirational:
1. TJPS, though this could possibly replaced with Cook and Ehat’s “Words of Joseph Smith” with it’s terrific footnotes.
2. “Jesus the Christ”
3. “Articles of Faith”
4. MD, a severely flawed classic that tells you more about what Mormons think other Mormons are supposed to believe than what Mormons should actually believe.
5. Widtsoe’s “A Rational Theology.” One of my all-time favorites. It derives inspirationn from out-of-date science, but Widtsoe’s vision is amazing and inspiring.

For academic:
6. Allen and Leonard’s “The Story of the Latter-day Saints.” The best single volume history of LDS bar-none. Get the 2nd edition, not the 1st.
7. Mauss’s “All Abraham’s Children.” Super insightful book about Mormons and race relations. Every Mormon should read this!!!
8. Newell and Avery’s “Mormon Enigma.” A bio of Emma Hale Smith, not for your recent convert, but a terrific sympathetic treatment. This can also serve as a biography of JS, though the seminal JS bio would now be Bushman’s if you prefer a JS bio to a bio for someone else.
9. O’Dea’s “The Mormons.” Still a classic after 50 years. The only entry by a non-LDS author on my list.
10. McKay and Rise of Modern Mormonism, same as your #6. There’s very little published on the last 50 years, Mauss’s Angel and Behive being the exception.

I confess that this list could be different if you asked me tomorrow, but this is what I’m in the mood for tonight. Lengthen Your Stride is an honorable mention, especially that DVD with the earlier manuscript. And Mere Christianity is just plain awesome. Another honorable mention is Alexander’s Mormonism in Transition.

One thing that I should have mentioned in my post was that I came up with that list in about 5 minutes at work. As soon as I had posted it, I thought of other books I would have included instead, and when I got home and looked at my bookshelf, I regretted my original choices even more. Once again, done in by my near-infinite discount rate.

I may need to borrow some of the books you listed…I’m not familiar with a few of them.