What Is On Our Shelf?
Books are conversations with authors across time. But more than that they are conversations with tradition - what gets written and kept has been held as a precious priority for generation upon generation.
Books have shaped the Academy and our chosen way of life. Here is our canon, arranged in order of chronology. There are also a very few films and shorter fiction and non-fiction included, as a part of the larger literary tradition.
Priority and significance are indicated by daggers: †††.
- The Iliad (~8th century BC) by Homer
- The Odyssey (~8th century BC) by Homer
- Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature (4th century) by St Basil the Great
- A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry (1350~) by Geoffrey de Charny
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791) by Benjamin Franklin
- Phantestes (1858) by George MacDonald
- Les Miserables (1862) by Victor Hugo
- The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It (1866~) by St Theophan the Recluse
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) by Jules Verne
- The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Principle or Foundation (1880) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Autobiography of George Muller (1905) by George Muller
- Manalive (1912) by G.K. Chesterton
- The Allegory of Love (1936) by C.S. Lewis
- Out of the Silent Planet (1938) by C.S. Lewis
- A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942) by C.S. Lewis
- Perelandra (1943) by C.S. Lewis
- That Hideous Strength (1945) by C.S. Lewis
- Man's Search for Meaning (1946) by Viktor Frankl
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
- Lost Tools of Learning (1947) by Dorothy Sayers
- The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) by C.S. Lewis
- The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
- The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection (1969) by Robert Farrar Capon
- The Hiding Place (1971) by Corrie Ten Boom
- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
- Watership Down (1972) by Richard Adams
- The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance (1974) by W. Timothy Gallwey
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (1998) by John Maxwell
- The Communication Catalyst (2003) by Mickey Connolly & Richard Rianoshek
- Staying for Tea (2005) by Aaron Ausland
- The Art of Learning (2007) by Josh Waitzkin
- Drive (2009) by Dan Pink
- Shop Class as Soulcraft (2009) by Matthew Crawford
- The Happiness Advantage (2010) by Shawn Achor
- Life Without Limits (2010) by Nick Vujicic
- The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth (2012) by John Maxwell
- The Advantage (2012) by Patrick Lencioni
- So Good They Can't Ignore You (2012) by Cal Newport
- Antifragile (2012) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The First Twenty Hours (2013) by Josh Kaufman
- The Boys in the Boat (2013) by Daniel James Brown
- The Vitality Imperative (2016) by Conversant
- The Captain Class (2017) by Sam Walker
- The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (2018) by Daniel Coyle
- Object to Icon (2018) by Andrew Williams
- Digital Minimalism (2019) by Cal Newport
- Talking to Strangers (2019) by Malcolm Gladwell
- Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career (2019) by Scott Young
- The Ethics of Beauty (2020) by Timothy Patitsas
- Durable Trades (2020) by Rory Groves
- No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (2020) by Reed Hastings & Etin Meyer
- You’re Invited (2021) by Jon Levy
- Human Rites (2021) by Dru Johnson
- The 32 Principles (2022) by Rener Gracie
- Feminism Against Progress (2023) by Mary Harrington
- Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2023) by Richard Powers & Nick Enge
- Slow Productivity (2024) by Cal Newport