Books You Don’t Need to Read

Do you have a stack of books you think you should read? Does such a stack cause anxiety and guilt? Do you feel like you are missing out or falling behind others who read more?

Me too.

That’s why I am glad to come across books whose titles are so clear and succinct that you would not really need to read the actual book to get the point. Reading the title is sufficient; you don’t need to read the book.

One such book is It Takes So Little to Be Above Average by Florence Littauer. You can see from the title that she is encouraging you to do just a little more, give whatever task is at hand a little extra effort and you’ll do swell. You’ll do well enough. You’ll be above average. Pretty good point. Actually, a pretty witty book. But the title is enough.

Another is The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton.*  I forget who recommended this to me, but I know it was a fellow pastor. And I forget if at the time I thought he was trying to tell me something. But again, you don’t really need to read the book to get the point. Don’t be a jerk; that never helps the situation.

I always liked a book by Judith Martin, “Miss Manners”. She is really a serious person and has been published in a serious periodical First Things. Her book is entitled Miss Manners Rescues Civilization. You can see the point after you read the title a couple times without having to read the book itself. Our civilization would be a lot better off if people would just use better manners. Please and thank you. Hold the door open for others. Keep your elbows off the table… this is not a horsey stable.

Just recently I ran across a similar sort of book Accidental Pharisees by Larry Osborne. Once more you do not really need to read the book to get the point. Any Christian can easily or, as Osborne writes, accidentally fall into being a Pharisee. Things like pride, exclusivity, judgmentalism are always right at the door for Christians, and we must guard against them. The more serious you are about living out the Christian faith, the closer to the door they are. You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to know that Jesus had some of his harshest words for Pharisees. You (and I!) can be put on notice about the dangers of falling into acting like a Pharisee just by reading the title of this book.

But it wouldn’t hurt to read the book itself.

As Ecclesiastes 12 reminds us, there are lots of books to read. Reading regularly and widely is a good thing. But because the author of Ecclesiastes also reminds us that much reading “wearies the body”, sometimes it’s good to come across a book that just reading the title is sufficient to get the point.   

*I have a good friend whose last name is Sutton, and he has written many books. This is not his book. He has a different first name.