Personally Calssifying Books: Four Distinctions Per Thomas Jefferson Educaion Model

(p. 73 in A Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver DeMille)

1. BENT: Stories portray evil as good, and good as evil. Such stories are ment to enhance the evil tendencies of the reader. (Best to avoid)

2. BROKEN: Stories portray evil as evil and good as good, but evil wins. Something is broken, not right, in need of fixing. Such books are not uplifting, but can be very inspiring. Broken stories can be very good for the reader if they motivate a person to heal them, to fix them. Example: The Communist Maniesto is a broken classic; so are the Lord of the Flies and 1984. In each of these, evil wins; but they can be very motivating if you want to help reverse their message in the real world.

3. WHOLE: Stories are where good is good and good wins. Most of the calssics are in this category. This a good place to spend most of your time.

4. HEALING: Stories can be either WHOLE or BROKEN stories where the reader is profoundly moved, changed, significantly improved by his/her reading of the book.

This year I hope to put each book I read into a classification.
Right now I'm reading:

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - WHOLE
The Secrect of NIHM - Whole and Healing
Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rahn - Healing, Broken

I think I will probably put books that leave out a christian perspective or God in the Broken category. There might be some truth in the book but not enough if you leave out my creater. So in my mind I will have to take what is good and apply it to my life and leave the rest behind.

This will be fun.