Layne Reading Recommendations

For everyone who asked me

Note: I’ve saved this post for a rainy day because it doesn’t require much except making a big list. Have no fear Layne-iacs, more substantive stuff is inbound. Particularly, I have “Feudalism: The Least Worst Option” at about 75% done and one discussing the Founding Fathers at like 50%. June is just a very busy month for me, so I’ve exempted myself from the uploading several times a month schedule I normally hold to…

Essential, Must Read Books (No genre). Bold means READ NOW!!

1. The Holy Bible: Self explanatory. Preferably the Orthodox Study Bible or anything translated from the Septuagint (Douay-Rheims gang sound TF off!!)

2. Rebel Yell by SC Gwynne: Indisputably the premier Stonewall Jackson biography. Also easily the best Civil War book I’ve ever read. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about SWJ or the Eastern Theater in the early war (1860-1863), this is undoubtedly the best book.

3. Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas: The book that confronted and helped overcome my atheism.

4. A Separate Peace by John Knowles: I don’t know why I love this book so much, but I do.

5. The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk: The greatest book on Western power’s competition for Central Asia and India ever written. Another of his about the Western game for Tibet: Trespassers on the Roof of the World.

6. Wisdom of the Desert Fathers by Thomas Merton: Hugely influential text that attracted me to Orthodoxy. Stunning, simple beauty about hermits who live in silent worship of God.

7. Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger: One of my favorite war books ever written.

8. Stonewall Jackson’s Book of Maxims: A collection of sayings SWJ used to basically program his own personality. Many of them are great for today, especially for autists.

9. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel: Baby’s first historical argument for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Another one that made a big impact on me in high school.

10. The Glass Bees by Ernst Junger: Junger’s swansong for the romantic, old world that was left behind by the World Wars. About a cavalry officer finding out he’s been replaced by the tank. Junger wrote the entire thing zooted on LSD btw.

11. The Northern Thebaid by Seraphim Rose: The Russian, foresty version of the Wisdom of the Desert Fathers. Literally shocking depictions of Christian monastics.

12. The Victory of Reason, God’s Battalions, and The Triumph of Christianity by Dr. Rodney Stark: Please read these. Completely rebuilt my understanding of the world.

13. The Horse, Wheel, and Language by David Anthony: Baby’s first intro to PIE peoples. Dude that wrote it is a libtard tho.

14. Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden: A childhood classic. Solidified my view that England is the greatest nation that ever was. Nobody raised young boys than Pre-1965 England. My children will be reading this.

15. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: Powerful view of human psychology. If the title sounds manipulative, that’s because it is. Also a peek into life in 1930s USA.

16. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri: One of my favorite stories ever told. Frequently reference it because it applies to everything. If you stop at Inferno I hate you!!

17. On Guard by Dr. William Lane Craig: Essential reading for apologetics.

18. The Word on Fire Bible by Bishop Robert Baron: the most beautiful presentation of the Gospels I’ve ever read.

19. The Story of China by Michael Wood

20. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: self explanatory for iFunny.

Books On Warfare:

1. The Eastern Front by Leon DeGrelle: A poetic, heartbreaking account of the German battle with the Soviets in Ukraine. DeGrelle goes from a lowly private to an officer in the SS. Countless depictions of the horror of war: the mud, the bodies, the smells, starvation. It’s a very tough read because both you and DeGrelle know that the Germans will ultimately lose. He escapes death like 30 times.

2. War of the Flea by Robert Taber

3. With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge: Amazing recollection of the Pacific Theater.

4. Infantry Combat: the Rifle Platoon by John F. Antal: This one is interactive!

5. Killer Angels (or just the entire trilogy) by Michael Shaara

6. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell: Setting modern discourse aside, this is a very good peak behind the curtain at vintage early 2000s SOF beasting on shartskins. Apparently, he lies about basically everything in the book. It’s still a good story.

7. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway: technically a war story

8. The Warwolf by Herman Lons: A look at the 30 Years War and the peasant militias that formed to keep it away from their homes. How erm, topical…

9. What Now, Lieutenant? by Robert Babcock: Vietnam conscript gets put in charge of an Infantry Platoon after Uni. Read this if you’re an early 20s college grad and want to know what would happen to you in the 1960s / 1970s.

10. Light Infantry Tactics for Small Teams by Dr. Christopher Larsen.

11. War in Japan 1467-1615 by Stephen Turnbull

12. Bush War Operator by AJ Balaam: First person account of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts beasting on African communists. The inside scoop on the bush wars. Selous Scouts had the hardest selection and initial training of any unit, ever. We can start with the fact that their only food for a week of selection (in 100 degree heat) was the rotting, maggot and puss filled corpse of a baboon shot the week prior. Bet you won’t complain about MREs after reading that!

13. A Book of 5 Rings by Miyamoto Musashi: this was the guy that killed like 50 people with a wooden sword in Feudal Japan. Little gems that clash with traditional Western wisdom. A quick, interesting read.

14. The Dragon and the Raven by GA Henty

15. War in the Wilderness: The Chindits in Burma 1943-1944

16. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach

17. Legionnaire by Jason Anspach

18. The Viking Wars by Max Adams: The best telling of Alfred the Great’s story I’ve read yet. Also depicts Northern Europe’s transformation to Christianity.

19. War is a Racket by Gen. Smedley Butler: this one is more about the economics of war than combat. Remarks of a US General discovering that war is big buisiness and “certain people” always profit from it.

20. The New Oxford Book of War Poetry: Gorgeous snapshot of English war poetry from like, 1000 to WWII. Lots of Kipling. Lots of heartbroken, depressing prose from WWI veterans. Helped solidify my love of the English people.

21. Boston’s Gun Bible by Boston Tea Party: Now over 20 years old, it’s a little dated. Still the indisputably the best introduction to guns and American Libertarian/anti-statism ever. This dude is so committed, he uses the Ø character for $ because Ø is for “Federal reserve notes” and not US Dollars. I grew up reading and rereading this time capsule of late 90s/early 2000s timeless gun wisdom. The prices for stuff 20 years ago will make you weep today.

22. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. The Movie is also worth seeing. A fine boy’s tale about brotherhood.

23. Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard: Biography of Winston Churchill’s time as a war correspondent in the Boer wars. I know a lot of you guys hate Churchill, its still a great story with lots of combat and youthful daring, which is odd considering he was a journalist. Bro helped derail trains, spent time in POW camps, all kinds of stuff.

24. Co Aytch by Sam Watkins: First person perspective of SWJ’s valley campaign.

25. The Eastern Front by Leon deGrelle: Belgian signing up for the German Army to fight the Soviets. Heartbreaking portrayal of death in combat, famine, disease.

26. Scouting on Two Continents by F.R. Burnham: This mf got to see the end of the Wild West AND the golden age of imperialism in Africa, including the formation of Rhodesia. Unfair!

Books on Religion / Orthodoxy

1. The Orthodox Way by Kallistos (Timothy) Ware

2. The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware: This and TOW above are the classic Ortholarp convert beginner books.

3. Thinking Orthodox by Dr. Eugenia Constantinou: Don’t tell iOrtholarp, but I consider this book to be a superior starting place for new converts. She explains how to develop an Orthodox “phronema”, or the mindset to really think (and love, and pray) like an Ortho. 99% of iOrtholarp (and internet Ortho in general) does not possess this, and the feces flinging they engage in is fundamentally not Orthodox. For example, the OC does not hold reason in particularly high regard. “Reasoning” with an “opponent” about the merits of Orthodoxy is fundamentally un-Orthodox. This book is the reason I stopped discussing Orthodoxy specifically on iReligion; because I realized I need to sit my ex-Protestant ass down and listen to St. Gregory the Great and St. Simeon the New Theologian without comfort sharting for the syllogisms, catechisms, and rational arguments I’d come to rely on. This book inspired my next step into Christianity from the “But I can PROVE IT!!!!” of Protestant rationalism found in books like The Case for Christ.

4. The Religion of the Apostles by Fr. Stephen de Young: Idk why he called the book that, because that’s not what its about. It instead lays out Orthodox theology with some brilliant exegesis of scripture. I would call this book essential-tier. One of the few books I’ve ever felt the need to highlight, take notes, and otherwise deface to mine all the knowledge out of.

5. Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig

6. On Guard by William Lane Craig: Dr. Craig is the undisputed GOAT of Christian apologetics. Has harvested the scalps of some of Neu Atheism’s premier thinkers.

7. Time and Eternity by William Lane Craig: complex thesis on God’s relationship with time and all its associated problems.

8. On Resistance to Evil by Force by Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin: This one took me so long to read because its’ ridiculously dense. Provides a defense of Orthodox violent resistance to the Soviets.

9. An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith by St. John of Damascus: the ancient Ortholarp beginner’s guide. Also extremely dense. Irons out stuff that wasn’t taken for granted in 300AD, like trinitarianism and the Hypostatic Union.

10. The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin: Catholic repository for the Church Father’s views on basically anything.

11. Does God Exist? by Dr. William Lane Craig

12. Dominion by Tom Holland: A gallop through Western Church history. Amazing at connecting the dots. The chapter at the end about Social Justice obviously sucked and that’s why this book isn’t bolded despite being essential tier.

13. The Wanderer’s Havamal, translation by Jackson Crawford: The first Germanic pagan text I studied. Very illuminating. I appreciate a lot of it’s wisdom. For example, the actual Dark Ages Nordics were quite against drinking and excessive violence if you can believe it! The Cowboy Havamal at the end is brilliant, translating the terse, plain prose of the original Viking-era into Cowboy-era American English. If you have a wise, old relative that speaks in parables about “horse sense” and “a man’s worth in the saddle” you’ll adore it for this reason alone.

14. God is a Man of War by Fr. Stephen de Young: Essential for refuting the Problem of Evil in the Old Testament. Spoiler alert: most modern renditions of the OT are from the Masoretic Texts and are somewhat intentionally unfaithful. For example, “Elisha calls on bears to protect him from a swarm of younger highwaymen circling for the kill because they knew he was a prophet of Yahweh” becomes “Elisha sics bears on children for making fun of him for being bald”. Hmm.. putting Jews in charge of translating the Bible, what could go wrong?

15. The Whole Counsel of God by Fr. Stephen de Young

16. Objectivism by Leonard Peikoff

17. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Normal Geisler

18. On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ by St. Maximus the Confessor: Cartoonishly dense.

19. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holliday: I actually hate Ryan Holliday (you’ll see) but his modern contextualization of the Stoics is worth skimming.

20. On Guard for Students by William Lane Craig

21. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis: All of them. My favorite is The Horse and His Boy.

22. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: Worth reading to see just how badly written it is. The fact nobody in Dawkins’ life intervened with the writing of this book is depressing. Good IQ test to see if you’re capable of debating a lobotomized Redditor about “If God Why Bad”

23. The Prose Eddas, translation by Jackson Crawford: Another highly influential Germanic religious text I read and enjoyed, even if I didn’t like certain themes. Crawford is one of my favorite modern scholars, honestly.

24. Stages on Life’s Way by John Breck: Ortho Bioethics

25. Money and Salvation by Andrew Geleris: Ortho views on money. Fantastic read.

A Potential Part 2 will include other genres like Poetry, Fiction, and History.

Comment your favorite book NOW.