The Shelf That Built Me: The 10 Books That Most Influenced My Life

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:14] Books influence our lives in many ways. What are the 10 books that have most influenced my life? That's what I talk about today on Crisis Point. Hello, I'm Eric Simmons, your host, editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Okay, so it should be pretty obvious just from my background that I'm a book nerd. I love books. I love reading. I've always been a book nerd. And by books I do mean physical books. I won't get into it in this podcast, but I'm not a fan of the. A fan of E readers, Kindles. I just can't read on them. I love physical books. I love hardback books better than I like paperback books even. That's how much of a old school book guy I am. [00:00:51] I have read in my lifetime thousands of books. I can't even count how many. My personal library is over a thousand books. I mean, I'm not Scott Hahn level or Carl Olson level, but I have a pretty good library. [00:01:07] I kind of consider a day without reading a day that's wasted. [00:01:13] I feel like I have to read a book, not just on the Internet or something like that, but a book, a physical book. I have to read at least a little bit of one every single day. There have been days where I don't because of whatever comes up in life. I mean, my state of life is a husband, father. It can't always do that. But I try every day to. I just feel like I can't survive if I don't read books. [00:01:37] So of these thousands of books, though some books have had more impact on my life than others. Some have really had a kind of changed the trajectory of my life in many ways. [00:01:48] And so what I wanted to talk about today was just what 10 books were most influential. And I will say this was a little bit difficult. [00:01:56] First of all, my memory is not the greatest. Like when I went through my personal library, it was easy when I saw one like, oh, yeah, that's one of them. [00:02:04] But then I was trying to think of what about books that aren't in my library? Maybe I read them. I don't have many more. I gave them away or they got them from the library or something like that. So it's possible I've forgotten one, but if it was that influential, I don't think I would have forgotten it. So these are the top 10 books that are most influential. Now, a couple things to note. [00:02:22] First is I'm not including the Bible. If I include the books of Bible, it'd be Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would be the Most influential. And I'd probably throw in Romans and Genesis and maybe Hebrews in there as well. So I'm not including those. I'm also not saying these are my favorite books in the sense that I enjoyed reading the most or something like that. You'll note that in this list, it's almost exclusively. Really is nonfiction. [00:02:49] So I'm not saying, like, Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was one of the most influential books of my life. [00:02:58] And so that's another thing to note. And when I say influential, I mean they were either spiritually, intellectually, mentally, even physically. Somehow they influenced me to change my life in some way. Of those, I also want to note that timing matters when it comes to how a book influences you, or at least how it influences me a book. [00:03:25] I'm not claiming every book on this list is like the most influential books of Western civilization or they would influence you like they influenced me. I don't even think they would necessarily influence me had I read them at a different time in my life. [00:03:38] It just was the combination of where I was in my life and the book I read at that moment really impacted me, really did change, in a way, the trajectory of my life. And so I do think timing really matters. [00:03:52] Okay, so let's go ahead and get into it. First, before I get to my top 10, I do want to mention some honorable mentions, some. Some books that I. That I do and did find influential, but they didn't quite make the top 10 list. [00:04:06] So the first one I want to mention is Come Be My Light, Mother Teresa. [00:04:11] And so the private writings of the Saint of Calcutta. And. And basically this was her confessor after she passed away, basically helped edit and create this book and comment and add a commentary of Mother Teresa's spiritual life. [00:04:28] And I found this very influential simply because it helped me to recognize that this came out in 2007, by the way. It helped me to recognize that my religious feelings aren't what matters. What matters is simply doing the will of God. [00:04:51] I came from a Protestant background and also a charismatic background. I was involved in charismatic Catholicism early on in my Catholic life. [00:05:02] And so I really struggle with the idea that when I'm praying, if I don't really feel something, am I really praying? Well, and this book just shatters that, because Mother Teresa didn't feel anything for 50 years. She didn't feel God's presence for 50 years, yet she was faithful to God during that whole time. And so that was an influential book. For me, this is Honorable Mention. It's not going to get too in depth. In each book on this list. Another one is Better off by Eric Brindy, which might seem a little bit odd. People might not familiar with this. It came out in 2004. [00:05:33] It's the story of a young Catholic couple that decides to live with the Amish. Some pretty hardcore Amish. And so he's in. The subtitle is Flipping the Switch on Technology. [00:05:45] I read this pretty soon after it came out and it was influential for me because I was very much a tech geek. I still am. [00:05:52] I was a computer programmer and I didn't really see clearly some of the problems with modern technology. [00:06:00] I basically embraced it all. And this started me on the path to understanding that technology isn't always a good. [00:06:07] The world is not going to end up like Star Trek as much as I may want it to. [00:06:12] And so this was kind of the first thing. It took me a while and I still kind of am progressing on that, but it took me a while to get more and more skeptical of using a lot of technology. [00:06:22] But this was. This was a very influential book for that. [00:06:25] Another book is Redating the New Testament. Honorable mention again. [00:06:30] And this is by John A.T. robinson. He was a liberal priest, I think, Anglican priest, if I'm Yes, Anglican priest, actually Anglican bishop, liberal. He wrote this 1976. And basically what he does is he argues in a very academic way that every book of the New Testament was written before 70. [00:06:51] His thesis is basically, they would have mentioned the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem had it been written after that. And so this completely takes modern scholarship on its head, turns it on its head because most modern scholars want to date New Testament books as late as possible. [00:07:07] The reason this was influential for me, not because I necessarily agree with all his. [00:07:13] His conclusions. I do think all the Gospels, I mean, I do think the three synoptic gospels written before 70 A.D. i think all Paul's letters written obviously before 70 A.D. [00:07:22] i do think it's like Revelation, the Gospel of John might have been written after 70 A.D. and maybe the like Jude or second Peter, something like that may not second Peter, but like Jude. But what this did was it. I had kind of gotten to a point where I was accepting a lot of like modern scholarship, not. Not the whacked out modern scholarship, but like conservative modern scholarship. And I started to realize, you know, they're not as smart as they think they are. [00:07:48] And so I started to realize, okay, just because there's a consensus in the scholarly world about Certain things about scripture does not make it true. [00:07:56] And so I basically. [00:07:58] That. That was very influential for me. [00:08:00] The final book in my honorable mention is the only fiction book in either honorable mention mentioned or in the top 10. And that is the great divorce by CS Lewis. I don't think you can. Let me try to get that so you can see that better. The Great Divorce by C.S. lewis. My lighting's making it blunt. You can't see it very well. But anyway, you. I just said what the book is. [00:08:19] I love this book. This is also the only Protestant. Oh, no, I'm sorry. [00:08:24] Robinson was Anglican bishop, so he's Protestant as well. [00:08:27] But CS Lewis, obviously. I love CS Lewis. How can you not love CS Lewis? And I. This is my favorite CS Lewis book. And like I said, it's one of my favorite books, books of all time and most influential because, like a lot of modern people, I struggled with the concept of Hell. [00:08:43] I really just struggled to grasp my head around a merciful, loving God and Hell. I always accepted the doctrine of hell, even as a Protestant, as a Catholic, I never rejected it, but I really did struggle with it. [00:08:55] The Great Divorce explains it wonderfully, how we choose to go to hell. We're in Hell. It's because we chose to be there. The doors of hell are locked from the inside. [00:09:05] They don't. People in hell don't want to get out, actually. And it's a fictional account, he warns. It's not supposed to be a theological treatise, but it very much is a great book, and it helped me very much reconcile the traditional dogma of the Catholic Church of Hell with a merciful and loving God. And so I really loved the Great Divorce. Okay, now I want to get to the top 10. That was just kind of the. The appetizer. So a couple things about this top 10. First is all 10 are nonfiction. The only fiction that almost slipped in was the Great divorce. So all 10 are nonfiction. [00:09:43] Eight were written in the 20th century, one in the 16th century, and one in the 21st century. So it's mostly modern books now. Of the eight written in the 20th century, almost all of them were before Vatican II. [00:09:57] All written by Catholics. Let me make sure that's correct. Yeah, all written by Catholics. [00:10:01] The authors include one saint, one cardinal, two priests, one monk, and four lay Catholics. [00:10:11] Now, if you add that up, you'll notice it's only nine. That's because one author does make it to the list twice. [00:10:17] That's how influential he was. [00:10:19] So, like I said, one saint, one cardinal, two priests, one monk, and Four lay Catholics of the authors. [00:10:25] And like I said, they're all non fiction. Okay, let me go ahead and get to it. The, the funny thing is I made this top 10. I knew these were on the list, but the order, it's from least influential to most of the most influential. But it's kind of hard to rank precisely. So I'm not being too dogmatic about where they reside, but this is my general feeling of which influenced me the most of the top 10. [00:10:51] Okay, the number 10 art book is. Let me grab it here. [00:10:59] To Love Fasting by Adelbert De Vogue. I'm not sure how to pronounce his last name and he was a monk and it's called the Love Fasting. And basically what this book is, it tells the history of fasting in the Catholic Church. Now his subtitle is the Monastic Experience. And so he does focus on monastics, but he really shows that fasting is something that was very normal in the church throughout its entire history until very recently. [00:11:30] And in fact, people, not just Catholics, but everybody, nobody ate three meals a day until relatively recently. And it was very common to only one meal a day. And he talks about how that was the monastic standard for many, many centuries was one meal a day. [00:11:48] The reason it's influential for me is because I read this about seven or eight years ago now. Before that, I had been, I had struggled for a long time with fasting. I knew that Catholics, we should fast, but I just felt like I couldn't do it. I mean, I have some health issues like high glucose, you know, pre diabetic, they're not really serious, but I really felt they kept me from fasting. [00:12:12] But this along with, by the way, a couple of books by Dr. Jason Fung and videos by him. I almost add a book by Dr. Jason Fung, but helped me to understand how to fast and that fasting really is part of the Catholic life. [00:12:29] And so since then I have tried to incorporate fasting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not like some monk who's like eating one meal a day my entire life or anything like that, or fasting for a week at a time or something like that, but I have tried to incorporate some fasting into my life. And I really find it is spiritually and physically a real benefit to me. It really does make my life better. And I feel like it's. It is a requirement, in my opinion, for all Catholics that you should fast. Now obviously there can be health reasons. You can't fast if you're pregnant. Don't fast. There might be some healthy. I do think there's less than people think. The reason I say is because for about 20 years I thought I couldn't fast for health reasons. And I realized it's all bunk. I definitely can fast, so to love fasting, you know. Number 10, influential book. Okay, now number nine. Let me grab it here. This one's interesting. Oh, it's at the bottom of my stack, so I'm going to grab it. Not knock over my. [00:13:35] Try not to knock over my bobblehead or anything. Oh, I'm kind of giving away by showing them there. [00:13:40] Number nine is the Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert Seurat. [00:13:46] This is the most recent book in the list. It's also the most recent I've read. In fact, spoiler. I haven't even finished it yet. [00:13:55] Where am I? I'm on page right now. I'm on page 102 of the book. And a book's like maybe 300 pages like that. [00:14:02] However, it's already made my top 10. [00:14:05] I started reading this last Advent and it has really transformed how I look at my job and kind of the way I like evangelize and share the faith and talk about my faith. [00:14:20] So the funny thing is I've known about this book for years. I kind of resisted my. One of my adult daughters, she loved it and praised it. My wife read and loved and praised it. But I didn't really get around to reading it until starting till recently. [00:14:34] This is very impactful for me because of the fact that I'm a talking head. [00:14:39] So I, you know, my job is to give my opinion, to write articles, to talk in these podcasts. And so a book that tells you to shut up. [00:14:48] It's not that great. I wrote an article about this recently on. About getting off X and like being quiet and things like that. [00:14:56] I will also say though, like, so as a talking head, I overemphasize words. I admit that. And also as a former evangelical, I over emphasize words, speaking, preaching, things like that. I tend to think that's like super important. I'm not saying you don't pre. People don't like obviously only preach, should preach, but you don't like share the gospel. You don't evangelize, you don't talk. I still do that. I didn't quit my job. [00:15:23] What I've come to realize that silence is actually more powerful than words. And if you keep more silence, your words you do speak will be more powerful. [00:15:34] And so there's just so many. I mean there's so many good things in this book. Power, silence. I'm not even finished with it yet. So the Power of Silence by Cardinal Seurat I would put as my number nine, most influential book. Okay, number of eight, what do I have here? Okay, number eight, let me find it. [00:15:52] Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott. This book, this is the book I, I read the first summer after I decided to become Catholic. So I, I decided to become Catholic in February of 1992. I didn't enter into the church until April of 1993, so I had over a year as a catechumen. Well, I guess I wasn't a Cauman since I hadn't been baptized, but you know what I mean. [00:16:15] That summer it was in college and I was at home working. That summer, what I would do is every night I would come home, I'd have dinner with my parents and then I would go in my room and I would read and pray. I'd read the Breviary, I pray the Brief, and I'd read. And mostly what I read was Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. In fact, the bookmark I used back then is still in this book. This is the original book I read. I, I saw the same copy with the bookmark I used is still in there. [00:16:44] This book, I just found it. I mean it really helped me to understand. I mean when I became Catholic, I didn't fully know like the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I knew him enough to accept the major ones who accepted the church was, the Catholic Church was a church that Jesus Christ founded. But I wasn't some real knowledgeable about all the doctrines. Well, reading through Fundamentals of Catholic Doctrine and Dogma, it's not a, it's a reference book really. But I was reading through it like a book and I was devouring, I was loving it because it really helped me to see that like the faith, the Catholic faith all fits together. It all flows together things. [00:17:24] One doctrine hinges on another, one hinges on the one. And if you put it all together, it all makes sense. [00:17:30] It all works out perfectly. [00:17:32] And so that was a big deal for me. And like, and also like the Catholic Church really thought her teachings, her doctrines through like I was a Methodist and Methodists basically were just like, okay, whatever we are thinking this week, we're going to make that our doctrine, not the Catholics. And so this book, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott is, is, was a very influential book for me. That's number eight. [00:17:55] Okay, let me look, let me see number seven right Here on top, He Leadeth Me, by Father Walter Chisik, a Jesuit, written in 1973. [00:18:08] This book in extraordinary testament faith, basically, Father Chisik was a Jesuit priest who was basically captured in Soviet Russia in the 1930s and thrown into, like, a jail and went to Siberia even. [00:18:25] And he basically finally was released in the 1960s, I believe. Early 60s, I think it was. So he spent, I want to say, like, 20 years, I'm not sure how long. 23 years in Soviet prisons, in labor camps in Siberia. [00:18:39] And I read this when. The summer after I converted. I was working for a pro life group, and somebody recommended this to me. And it really was great for me because. [00:18:49] And very influential because it showed me the power of faith in the most difficult circumstances. [00:18:56] I mean, I was at this time getting arrested in front of abortion clinics. And it was nothing like Father Chisik. I mean, I. [00:19:02] It's a joke to compare what I did to Father. I'm not trying to do that. But the point is, I was looking at the cost of faith, the cost of being Catholic. And Father Chisik really shows that, like, when he is stripped of everything and he. He has become completely dependent upon God, it really is. [00:19:23] Faith is the last thing left. [00:19:25] Your faith is all that matters. So. And since then, when I've had trying times, again, never on the. On the level of Father Chisik, but when I've had these trying times in my life, it's good to remember, like, I can just, like, it's. [00:19:41] The phrase I often think of is, where else am I to go? You have the words of everlasting life. And that's really. I kind of learned that from this book. He leadeth me. And I. I personally, I hope he's canonized one day. I believe he is a saint. [00:19:55] And so, yeah, he leadeth me. That's. That's my number seven, most influential book. [00:20:00] Okay. Number six, this is the one by a saint, written in. In the 16th century. Where is it? There we go. [00:20:08] The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila. Now, this book is the Collective Works, Volume two, and it has the way of perfection in there. But I remember I read this. In fact, I'm looking. I'm going through this now, and I see some of my marks I put on there and notes I made. But I read this on a retreat in the early 2000s. I was on a retreat, maybe 2005, something like that. [00:20:32] And the Way of Perfection really helped me with my prayer life because it really made it more real. And understand what are the Important things you need to know when you pray. And I think probably the thing it helped me the most was she emphasized how perseverance is the most important virtue when it comes to prayer. [00:20:55] And I remember I had struggled. I'd been Catholic for about 10 years at this point, and I had struggled somewhat with keeping a consistent prayer life, making sure every day I, I spend time in prayer. But this really kick started me that I was like, okay, every day I have to pray and it doesn't matter. Again, I learned from Mother Teresa's book and some other places. It doesn't matter how I feel when I pray. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter even. [00:21:22] I mean, nothing matters other than just showing up really to pray. That's what matters. Are you making the attempt? If you are, it's a successful day of prayer. And so Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila. A great book. I love it. I recommend it to a lot of people when they talk about, you know, learning how to pray. [00:21:42] Okay, that's number six. [00:21:45] Now we have number five. Okay, we're getting back to theology now. We've had theology, we've had the fasting, we've had, you know, spiritual works, and now we have Theology Insanity by Frank Sheed. [00:21:58] Theology Insanity by Frank Sheed. This book I read soon after I became Catholic. It had an influence similar to Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma in that it really helped me understand theologically how everything fits together in the Catholic Church. But also one of the things it did was it influenced me to enter into the Master's of Theology program at Franciscan University. And that's how I end up getting my degree and end up working into with the church eventually. [00:22:28] But the point is, Theology in Sanity kind of made me fall in love with theology. I wasn't a theology geek in high school or in college, my undergrad college, I was a computer geek. I mean, I was trying to live my faith. I love Jesus, I love reading the Bible. But I wasn't really into theology. I mean, as Protestants often aren't, let's be honest. I mean, there are theological Protestants, but the average Protestant like I was wasn't into theology. Reading Theology Insanity, though, made me a theology geek more than anything. Because he, you know, Frank, she's such a good writer. [00:23:02] And he really helps pull everything together and make things make sense. In fact, I would say the best, the best English language explanation of the Trinity is found in Theology Insanity, bar none. I don't think there's a close second. [00:23:20] The best English language explanation of the Trinity is in theology's hand. And that really all clicked for me. I mean, I believed in Trinity as a Protestant, obviously, but this made it all make sense for me. And I saw everything fit together. Kind of like I did with Ludwig Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. I realized, okay, it's all these doctrines, they fit together and they're beautiful. [00:23:39] They're really beautiful. [00:23:41] So theology, insanity, Frank Sheed. That's my number five. [00:23:45] Okay, we're moving along here. [00:23:47] Hope this is as interesting to you as it is to me. [00:23:51] Okay. Number four is a book that I'm reading right now and have been reading for years. [00:23:58] Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD. [00:24:04] This is a daily devotional written in the 1930s, I think in 1938. [00:24:11] I started reading this about seven to eight years ago. [00:24:14] And I just think it's the best daily devotional, bar none. What he does is it's based upon the traditional calendar. Not only Sundays does he. And some major feast days. Does, does his, his entry fit the readings? Otherwise he's just covering general topics of the spiritual life. And he goes through, starting with beginning of Advent all the way to the end of the. Of the year, November. [00:24:38] He really takes you through how to grow in Divine Intimacy, to grow in closer union with Christ. And each entry is only a couple pages long. It doesn't take more than maybe 5 minutes to read it. [00:24:53] But it's so good. It's so good. And I went through it. I remember I did one year about seven or eight years ago. I took a couple years break, did it again, took a couple of year break. I'm doing it again. [00:25:06] And it just. I'm really finding this year though, what I'm doing is something a little different than I've done in the past. I'm actually writing some notes, like a little journal after I read it, what I'm kind of what I get out of it. And I found that's. That's actually very good because it really helps it to me to force myself to contemplate what he wrote and how to apply it to my life. So Divine Intimacy, this is just influential because I mean, it just has helped me to really grow in, in my desire to grow closer to God. I hope I'm growing closer to God, but more importantly, in my desire to Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel. [00:25:43] My stack over here is getting big. If it all comes crashing down, I will be very sad. [00:25:48] Okay, number three, this is our. [00:25:52] Sorry, this is our only repeat author. [00:25:56] This is to know you can't see on the COVID here. But hey, I'll put it like this. To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed. So Frank Sheed has the honor of being on the list twice. He's. He is one of my favorite authors, so it's not surprising. To Know Christ Jesus is another one. I read Frank Sheed a lot when I first became Catholic, first few years. So that might be why it was so influential to me. But To Know Christ Jesus. I'm actually rereading it again. I don't know where my bookmark is right now, but it's the best biography of Jesus in my opinion. I. I've read other ones. I've read Fulton Sheen's. I've read. [00:26:29] I can't remember the author of another one. And I like them. But nothing is better than Frank Sheed and To Know Christ Jesus. What it really did was it helped me to understand who Jesus really is. I mean, as a Protestant, I was all focused on Jesus. And as a Catholic, that's been my main focus, of course as well, is our Lord Jesus Christ. But I found it. I need to understand exactly who he is. And I think there's a lot of false Jesus is out there, false Christ that. These ideas of who Jesus is that aren't really accurate of who it really is. [00:27:01] And so I really, I love this book because it, it really makes it very clear. It's not a hippie Jesus. It's not a. [00:27:11] Like a modern Jesus. It's like the Jesus of the Gospel. I really think Frank, she does the best job of laying out who he was and how he's not like we think he is. [00:27:21] Often we make Jesus in our own image. And so what Frank, she does is he really makes it clear of trying to explain who Jesus is, his image in. [00:27:30] In the Gospels themselves. And so I, you know. To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheath. My pile, getting a little nervous. That's number three. That was written in 1962, by the way. Okay, let me find number two. [00:27:44] You probably can see on the side, the top one there. But number two, this book was written 1952. The Perfect Joy of St. Francis by Felix Timmermans. [00:27:57] Now, this book, I've recommended so many people, I've given it away. So many people. I don't think anybody thinks this is as influential as I do. Maybe my wife, she is pretty influential for her as well. I think this was a timing thing. It's a great book. First of all, I love St. Francis, one of my favorite saints, probably my favorite saint. [00:28:15] And I always had a devotion to Him. [00:28:18] But in the early 2000s, like around 2002 or 2003, I would admit I was struggling with my faith. I never denied God. I never stopped going to mass regularly. I never was outwardly not practicing the faith, but I was struggling with actually living it out. And I wasn't praying regularly. [00:28:37] It really was not a good time. [00:28:40] And for some reason, I know why the Lord. I picked up this book and I read it, and just something about it kickstarted me. And it made me really be like, okay, I gotta get in gear. I gotta live. I gotta try to imitate Christ. I. You know, the fact that St. Francis just gave up his whole life and dedicated to our Lord and sacrificed so much, it really was an inspiration to me. [00:29:06] And it really made me realize I gotta get back. I gotta get back to just really focused on. I mean, I was very much in college, and right after I converted early years, I was so enthusiastic. I was. I was an idiot in a lot of ways. I was doing bad, you know, some things I shouldn't have done. But the point, I was really committed to following Christ. I. I got married, started having kids, got a regular job. You know, all the things of life started wearing me down. It was like, you know, the parable, the sower. I was getting weighed down by the cares of the world. [00:29:35] But this book, and St. Francis, obviously himself, really helped inspire me and kickstart me into following Jesus again and really, you know, making it the most important thing in my life again. So that's number two. The perfect joy of St. Francis. Now, if you're watching, you probably can see what the number one book is. Over here is written 1988, Catholicism and fundamentalism by Carl Keating. [00:30:01] This book just has to be number one. Now, if you're a Catholic and you read this, like, if I read this now, it wouldn't be that influential. If you're crayocathic, you read this now, it probably wouldn't be that influential to you, but let me tell you, when you're Protestant and you read this book and it basically brings you into the church, along with Our lady and some other things, but it's one of the biggest influences to bring you in church. Let me tell you, it's going to get number one on your list. [00:30:26] And so it's number one on my list. You know, Scott Holland's conversion story was hugely influential. My friends, you know, especially my roommate, he influenced me. Our Lady Praying the Rosary, that was, of course, the thing that got me in. But it was reading Catholicism and Fundamentalism that made Catholicism attractive to me and realize, okay, I'm wrong. As a Protestant, I shouldn't be Protestant. I need to be Catholic. And so Catholicism and fundamentalism really are. Is. [00:30:54] It has to be number one. I mean, it literally helped me become Catholic, which obviously is the biggest influence in my life. The best decision I ever made in my life, the most important thing of my life. [00:31:05] And so Catholicism, fundamentalism gets number one. Thank you. Carl Keating. You know, you're one of the few authors that's still alive. Carlo Sarai is obviously in Carl Keating. I think that might be it, of all the authors that I noted here. So, okay, so that's my top 10. Those are the books that influenced me the most in my life, that really changed the trajectory of my life. Other books have had influences, and, you know, I've loved other books. I love reading. And maybe another book will eventually, maybe if I look back in 10 years, another book will crack the top 10. I mean, Cardinal Sirrah's book, the Power of Silence, cracked it very recently. [00:31:41] It bumped out the Great Divorce, I would say. [00:31:46] And so, yeah, so those are the books that influence me the most. So in the comments, just let me know, did you have any? Have any. Are any of these books that I listed, have they also been influential for you? But let me know what the most influential books are in your life. What are the books that really changed your life? I'd love to see. I'd love to see what other people's lists are as well. [00:32:06] Okay, everybody, that's it for now. Until next time. God love you. [00:32:16] It.