Below is the corpus of writings that I have read so far and would most quickly reccommend to others, on a basis of theological or philosophical merit and personal impact. The books, series, etc. are alphabetized by title (not author), and exclude two areas: first the Bible, because that Canon is prior to and infinitely greater than my canon, and second, my own writings, which I believe others should be the judges of. The boundaries are hazy — I'm sure that your favorite book not on the list is better than your favorite book off the list. All entries should be assumed to be books unless stated otherwise.
Looking for a good book, for me, is a quest a little like a detective's searching for clues: anything that can be anticipated is not it. It is like a good surprise birthday present: you know it when you see it, but anything you can anticipate is not it. (In that regard, it is like a foretaste of Heaven: eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor any mind conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.) The list should grow longer as time progresses.
I told a friend once that I thought that some things would be a lot better if theologians would do all the apologetics, and apologists would do all of the theology. I'm not sure how to explain that remark (beyond asking people to think about it and let it sink in), but I often get more out of lesser works than greater. I am not including Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae on the list, for instance, because I got less out of reading it (in abridgment) than out of reading Chesterton's Orthodoxy, and less out of reading parts of Dante's Divina Commedia than C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. Maybe when I have matured more I will be ready to read some of the greater works, but now I usually learn best at the hands