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What Do You Read?

DarkWalker

DarkWalker

Member
As an aspiring author working on my debut manuscript, I have been surprised by a trend I have noticed within the Church. This may not be the appropriate section of this forum to post this; I apologize if that is the case, but it seems appropriate, as it has to do with what people--specifically Christians--read.

The trend I have noticed is that many Christians do not read anything but the Bible. There are some who also read devotionals and Christian non-fiction books, and some go so far as to read Christian fiction, but they do not read anything they regard as secular. I wonder why that is, because I have found great enjoyment and even edification in non-Christian fiction.

The book I am writing features a man of faith helped by a defrocked minister, but is by no means a Christian book. It does not present the Gospel in a straightforward manner, but it presents concepts like faith, perseverance, and love. I believe that has greater potential for reaching non-Christians and introducing them to these elements of our religion, without preaching. In my experience, only Christians read Christian fiction, so I find the genre redundant.

My bottom line question: what non-Christian books do you read?
 
The last Christian fiction I read was based on a non-fiction book, the Bible. So I'd say it was historical fiction.
I read a lot of mystery type books including Agatha Christie, just started rereading her Poirot books.
John Grisham, Dan Brown (outrageous but entertaining), I like quirky stuff sometimes because it's not serious, things that don't really happen in peoples lives, like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
 
Science, classical, fantasy...whatever sparks my interest, actually. I also enjoy specific types of non-fiction. One book I read that was very interesting was an account from a POW in the Vietnam war. Another was about a lady in Shang Hai imprisoned by the communist government. (A lot of these were assigned to me as part of my schooling.) Also like some historical novels.
I'm going to shock some people and say that I want to sooner or later read the Harry Potter series. I know some Christians who have read them, and I do think if they were as bad as I grew up believing these people wouldn't have read them.

If comic books count, I also like Archie comics, and manga. Regarding manga, I find ones exploring the supernatural to be interesting, even though the author has very different perspectives on it than Christians do, seeing as it comes from a mostly pagan country. (That said, I'll read most genres, wouldn't say I have a favorite.)
 
Lately I've been reading some of the 'classics'. Right now I'm in A Tale of Two Cities, and various African-American slave narratives.
 
My favorite reading in many a year was The Foxfire Books Series. (There were 9 books..... I have 1-7... circa 1972)
 
I like sci-fi, fantasy and instructional books aside from scripture. It's amazing how yesterdays fiction becomes today's reality in a lot of cases. Fiction is a place that fact has already been, lol. So when I read sci-fi or fantasy now I read it with the eye of just where did the idea for that come from?

A little known author named Robert Lynn Aspirin has a series of books called Myth Adventures that is excellent. It's a fun book to read and is chock full of parallels to spiritual reality. The adventures of a magician with no powers and his apprentice, who has a lot to learn. They have a device in the book which lets one hop over into another dimension, which they mostly use to run to safety with, a D-Hopper they call it. I wont give any more spoilers in case anyone has interest in reading them but it's a good series and they're mostly good guys at heart, even though it's not christian in any way.
 
I like to read almost all genres, if they are interesting enough. Right now I'm reading The Clan of the Cave Bear series.
 
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