Our lives are testaments to the power of a book—a good book. We know firsthand how they can inspire, affirm, challenge, change, even disturb, persons. This is what we seek to convey and celebrate in Take and Read: Christian Writers Reflect on Life's Most Influential Books. In the selections that follow well-known and well-respected figures in the church and theological community offer captivating theological and personal reflections about the important role that books play in our lives. In the end, we want the readers to experience, through the contributors' own words, the life and vitality, the energy and enthusiasm, that books, specifically theological and spiritual ones, can have not just for ourselves but for them as well. Far from being paperweights, these books will be seen as must-reads.