Reading is fundamental, and never more so than now, given the result of the Election of 2012.

Christmas is over but discount sales have begun and its past time for a re-education in American essentials, including non-American literature that speak to the Judeo-Christian values necessary for a non-tyrannical state.

[Below are several lists of books we have found helpful in inculcating the values and principles upon with an exceptional America has rested. Many more could be added that I have read and have not read. These are the ones that I have chosen to highlight that have impacted my life.]

First, the Top Eleven non-fiction books that made possible this USC Gamecock’s Summer of 2001 conservative epiphany after 18 years of liberal Democratic Party activism:

1 – The Bible

2 – Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

3 – Witness – Whittaker Chambers

4 – Slouching Towards Gomorrah – Robert Bork

5 – Reagan’s War – Peter Schweizer

6 – Free to Choose – Milton and Rose Friedman

7 – God and Man at Yale – William F. Buckley, Jr.

8 – Reagan: A Life in Letters

9 – Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville

10 - Right from the Beginning – Pat Buchanan

11 – Born Again – Charles Colson

(See also Slander, Treason, Godless and Mugged by Ann Coulter…and all of her other books. All great reference materials documenting abhorent liberal Democrat behavior and “ideas”.)

Other essential non-fiction:

1. FDR’s Folly – Jim Powell
2. Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington
3. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
4. What Went Wrong – Bernard Lewis
5. Losing the Race – John McWhorter
6. Battle Cry of Freedom – James McPherson
7. White Guilt – Shelby Steele
8. The Mind of the South – W.J. Cash
9. The Tempting of America – Robert Bork
10. Daniel Webster – Robert Remini
11. Liberal Fascism – Jonah Goldberg
12. The End of Racism – Dinesh D’Souza
13. The Death of Common Sense – Phillip Howard
14. Black Rednecks and White Liberals – Thomas Sowell
15. The Great Betrayal – Pat Buchanan
16. The End of Work – Jeremy Rifkin
17. Here I Stand (Martin Luther bio) – Roland Bainton
18. Let the Trumpet Sound (MLK bio) – Stephen Oates
19. Alone (Vol. 2 The Last Lion, Winston Churchill) – William Manchester
20. How to Beat Democrats – David Horowitz

Essential DeVine Fiction (self-imposed limit of one per author):

1. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
3. Macbeth – William Shakespeare
4. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
5. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
7. Ulysses – James Joyce
8. Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
9. Light in August – William Faulkner
10. The Hunger Games (3-volume series) – Suzanne Collins
11. East of Eden – James Steinbeck
12. Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
13. Catch-22 – James Heller
14. The Great Train Robbery – Michael Crichton
15. You Know Me Al, A Busher’s Letters – Ring Lardner

Other DeVinities:

1. The Kennedys: An American Drama – Peter Collier and David Horowitz
2. Born Fighting – James Webb
3. The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
4. The Embarrassed Believer – Hugh Hewitt
5. The Death of Outrage – William Bennett
6. Bonhoeffer Speaks Today – Mark DeVine
7. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
8. Amazing Grace – Eric Metaxas
9. Politics According to the Bible – Wayne Grudem
10. Rum, Romanism and Rebellion – Mark W. Summers

Please use the comments section to make your own lists. Happy Holidays!

G. Sand Lapper aka

Mike DeVine

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Editor – Hillbilly Politics

Co-Founder and Editor – Political Daily

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist – Examiner.com