Books mentioned in The Infinite Jeff
A big part of The Infinite Jeff is about the knowledge you gain from reading. The character, Jeff, is a prolific reader and hands out books to people continually. One of the frequent requests I get is for a list of books mentioned in The Infinite Jeff. The lists of books are divided into sections corresponding to the parts of the book they are first mentioned in. There is also a list for Other Recommended Reading.
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Book List for Part 1
Walden
The opening line of The Infinite Jeff start with the quote from Walden, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I heard that quote in High School and it has stuck in my head ever since. Walden offers a wealth of such philosophy. This is one I would recommend getting the audio book version. I enjoyed listening to it more than reading it.
If I Ran the Zoo (Classic Seuss)
Don’t we all know Dr. Seuss is one of the greatest thinkers in modern times? All of my kids grew up with my wife and me reading Dr. Seuss to them and this is one of my favorites. It starts off right away with something we all think:
“It’s a pretty good zoo,” said young Gerald McGrew,” and the fellow who runs it seems proud of it, too.” But if I ran the zoo, said young Gerald McGrew, “I’d make a few changes. That’s just what I’d do . . . “
We all look at the zoo we live in and wonder why it works the way it does and think of what we would do differently if we were in charge.
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
This book was one of my early influences and opened my mind to a whole new way of thinking. I wasn’t a reader in my childhood and early adulthood, but after I read Illusions my first thought was, “Are there more books out there like this?” Reading this made me realize how I had intellectually cheated myself up to that point.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
This normally isn’t a book I would read but it worked out beautifully for where it is used in The Infinite Jeff. The main character, Francie Nolan, is an avid reader growing up in a very poor part of Brooklyn. Her love for reading and learning takes her out of the life that traps everyone else she knows. In spite of everything pulling against her she grows and heads off to college with a promising future.
Stranger in a Strange Land
To me, this was one of those books that never really leaves you. It rolls around in your mind the rest of your life because there is so much about human nature in it. If you haven’t read it then get a copy and do so.
Jubal Sackett (The Sacketts)
I like Louis Lamour books because of the contrast of good and evil. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. The Sackett series gives some interesting historical perspective of the time period the stories take place.
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
Pretty much read anything by Karen Armstrong you can. In Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life one thing that stands out in my mind is when she talks about discussions. She says if you enter into a discussion and have no intent on listening and possibly changing due to what you hear then don’t get into the discussion. We all hold our opinions with high regard and work to convince others we are right but seldom listen to learn. We need to learn to listen better and be willing to admit we may be wrong.
Beyond Good and Evil
I would like to go take a class on this book someday. It is not a book to read, it is a book to study.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
This is the book that started the path which led to The Infinite Jeff. It was published in 1884 and is a commentary on the social caste system of the time. But, to me, it also makes us think about our limited viewpoint due to our limited perceptions confined to our three physical dimensions. What would we appear to be to a fourth, fifth … eleventh dimension being? We are extremely finite beings trying to grasp the infinite and then say we understand it in finite terms.
Man’s Search for Meaning
The author, Viktor Frankl, was a holocaust survivor. He lost his wife, parents and brother in the concentration camp. You can only imagine someone coming out has to ask, “Why? What is the meaning of all this?” This book is a masterpiece born out of pain. It must be read.
Sadhana: The Realization of Life
I stumbled across his on librivox.org/ listened to in on my long daily commute. What a wonderful discovery filled with gentle wisdom.
Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity
I read this while I was writing The Infinite Jeff and it caused me to go back and rewrite parts of it. Stealing Jesus is a powerful and thought provoking book and points out how much our society uses religion to limit us instead of it being a way to grow us.
Green Eggs and Ham
This is my second favorite book by the great philosopher, Dr. Seuss. All my kids have had this read to them over and over.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
This book does a wonderful job dispelling the false belief that religion and science are mutually exclusive. Collins is an evangelical Christian who ran the Human Genome Project.
The Divine Comedy
A classic.
Book List for Part 2
More than Enough: The Ten Keys to Changing Your Financial Destiny
I read this book years ago and later on took Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University.” I think he does an excellent job putting money in perspective.
Now, Discover Your Strengths
We are all unique people with unique talents and strengths. Knowing those strengths is key to finding a career path or even hobbies that fulfill you. Take the time to read this and learn about yourself.
Walden Two
I took a behavioral psychology class in college and this book was required reading. It is idealistic but isn’t all out of the box thinking idealistic and shouldn’t we strive towards the ideals of (some) idealistic people?
The Hobbit
The movie was pretty good but as always it is just a shadow of the book.
Hatchet
I was a fourth grade teacher at one point in my life and read this to the class and fell in love with it. I read it to every class after that and this is one I have read to all of my children.
Voyage from Yesteryear
I recently re-read this because some of the ideas from Hogan kept coming up in my head. (I love it when a book never leaves you) He has some wonderful ideas about what a world could be like with some changes in our basic philosophies.
Book List for Part 3.
The Act of Will
This book has an interesting story with me. I saw it at Half Price Books and loved the name for obvious reasons. So, I bought it and put it in my backpack. It floated around my backpack for a long time and finally I decided I needed to either read or take it out of my backpack. I pulled out out and read the forward and knew this is a book for me. It is about a branch of psychology called Psychosynthesis which brings spirituality into psychology. It’s not an easy read but very interesting.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
I mention Flatland in part one. This is actually an important book in regards to The Infinite Jeff because this is the book that sparked the idea that became The Infinite Jeff. This where the idea of a fourth-dimensional being visiting us came from.
Siddhartha
I read this book in my early 20’s and then saw an audio CD version in Half Price Books. I ended up listening to the whole thing three times and the last CD four times after that. It is a great story and great vertical growth material.
Man’s Search for Meaning
If you haven’t read this, please do. The first part is hard to get through because it is about concentration camps in the Holocaust. But, from there, it is a deeply profound book.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I was looking for a book for Jeff to give Sally. A co-worker suggested this book so I read it. It is a very interesting read. For a person like Sally, I would imagine it speaks volumes to the strength she ends up growing.
Jubal Sackett
I like Louis L’Amour’s books. I love the power and strength of the characters. Much A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for Sally, this book would have been a model of character and strength for Bear.
Book List for Part 4
Wrinkle in Time
This is another book I fell in love with as an elementary school teacher. I read it to all my classes and read it to all of my own children.
Stealing Jesus
Also mentioned in part one.
Speaking Christian
This book does an amazing job looking at the history of words and how they have changed over time. We need to realize that we live in a completely different world than when the Bible was written and few of us have the time and dedication to truly understand how the words, ideas, cultures, idioms and language changes. Marcus Borg has done that work for us.
Strider
Another book I read to my students when I was teaching. Beverly Cleary has written some wonderful children’s books.
Winnie-the-Pooh
Not much to say here. 🙂 I just hope the song doesn’t get stuck in your head.
The Act of Will
Also mentioned in part three.
Huckleberry Finn
Towards the end of Stealing Jesus the author, Bruce Bawer, talks about a scene in Huckleberry Finn. I have read Huckleberry Finn, I loved it, it is a classic everyone should read, but Bawer’s observation drove home an important point to me.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Also mentioned in part one.
As A Man Thinketh
Read anything by James Allen you can. Most of his books are very short and powerful. I have never regretted reading something by him.
Maslow on Management
You can give credit to this book for part four being written. If I had published part four before reading this book, I would have unpublished it and rewritten it. I felt like Abraham Maslow was writing about HRI. After I read this, I had to write part four. This was the missing piece.
Love Wins
A simple and easy book to read that I think has a lot of Jeff in it.
Siddhartha
This was mentioned in part three but is one of my all-time favorite books.
Other recommended reading
Hopefully you have read part one of The Infinite Jeff by now and realize the importance I place on reading as a means to personal and spiritual growth. The Infinite Jeff is the product of the reading I have done over the years. My thoughts and beliefs have been shaped by many books. Many were mentioned in The Infinite Jeff but not all of them. The books on this list are not any less important. They just did not fit the story for the scenes needed or were read after the story was written. Hope you enjoy some of the books on this list as much as I have.
The books are in no particular order but have been grouped by author.
Robert Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Something about me, I have an undiagnosed reading disability. I’m a slow reader but have a strong desire to learn and grow. With so many books I want to read and limited time and energy, it’s rare for me to read a book twice. This is one I read twice and will read a third time. For a fiction book, it’s not an easy read. There are parts where he goes on for pages about a philosophical concept. But, I do not read a lot of fiction so I enjoyed it the first time and the second time through, I enjoyed it more and understood the concepts better. But I feel there is more in there for me so I will be reading it again some day.
I wanted to include it in The Infinite Jeff, but it never fit into the story. It always felt like adding it would be contrived and I worked hard to try to make sure The Infinite Jeff didn’t feel contrived.
Karen Armstrong
She is always high on my personal reading list. She has many more books than this but these are the ones I have read.
The Bible: A Biography
An extremely well done book on the history of the Bible. To me, one of the interesting realizations that came out of this is not the history of the Bible as much as people’s relationship with the Bible and how their reading of it has changed over time.
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
I don’t know much about Muhammad so this was an interesting book. I like that she is not pitting Christianity vs. Islam. The book, as much as possible, was the story or Muhammad’s life without the slant of modern biases.
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
Karen Armstrong was a nun and this is the story of her time at the convent and healing after the damage it had done. I found it to be a very honest story of her path spiritually and intellectually.
Barbara Wendland
Misfits: The Church’s Hidden Strength
As a lifelong misfit myself, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with Wendland as to how the church is missing the mark with so many people. We have all heard that church attendance is dropping and there is a good reason for that. I think this book does an excellent job addressing what the churches could do to reverse the trend.
Mark Sayers
The Vertical Self: How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are in An Age of Self Obsession
Vertical growth vs. horizontal growth is a theme which runs through The Infinite Jeff. Sayers does a good job of pointing out how our focus on self is not bringing us the fulfillment we keep thinking it should.
