I am a reader and I love books. I do not care whether they are digital or beautiful leather-bound masterpieces, paperback or tattered and torn, I love the art and power of books, their ability to change me. Henry David Thoreau once asked the question, “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book?” I respond that I am one of that number.

I am reading some books now that I suspect will permanently change the way I view the world and that may form a new era in my life. Let me share them with you.

First is A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink. This author contends that while our parents told us to be doctors, accountants and engineers, it is the more creative right brained beings who will likely lead the future—the designers, inventors, teachers and storytellers. I would not be impressed with this book if the author did not provide such fascinating anecdotes and statistical support for his case. Churchill once said, “We want engineers in the world, but we do not want a world of engineers.” I agree, but our techno world almost had me convinced that the creative soul would have to yield. Not so, apparently, and thank God. Read this as soon as you can.

John L. Allen, Jr.’s The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church is a vital read for anyone hoping to understand the interplay of global and spiritual trends. I’m not Roman Catholic, but I am a Christian and I find John Allen a brilliant expounder of the shape of our times in terms of faith. I read and try to digest everything I can that explains the trends of our global culture, but Allen has taught me and changed my understanding of the entire planet.  Those who wish to understand the age and to lead in any meaningful sense must devour and absorb Allen’s words.

Finally, you must—absolutely must—read The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Many books today complain of our Facebook culture and end up sounding like cranks and scolds. Carr scans history and shows us what happens to the physical brain when memory defers to writing, for example, and when the digital age nearly abolishes thought. He teaches us how tools always produce calluses, and sometimes of the mind and emotions. This is—and I would never use this term lightly—a prophetic book. Get it. Read it. Live differently for it.

I could write of the other books that are gracing my life, of how Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a poetic thrill or how a Penguin Lives mini-biography of Simone Weil is stirring me and how The Kingdom of Matthias by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz is changing my understanding of American history. But I suppose when a decade or two has passed, I will realize that the three books I’ve mentioned above provided the most trenchant warnings and wisdom.

Ah, books. Their power and their beauty. Let me close with my favorite quote about books. It is from the Sketchbook of Washington Irving: “The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the seasons of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value. When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope nor deserted sorrow.”