Finished: Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan) A reaffirming story of what is means to walk the walk as the life of a Christian. The pilgrim in the story, literally named Christian, begins his journey towards accepting God's way and Jesus as his Savior, much to the dismay of his family and friends. From then on, the story becomes an allegory with all kinds of negative and positive attributes becoming people and places that Christian must encounter. With names like Faithful, Hopeful, Ignorant, Good Will, Giant Despair, Destruction, Vanity Fair, Hypocrisy, and on and on, Christian must face these cities, friends, and foes as he walks the "straight and narrow path" and journeys to pass through the "wicket gate" to get to the "Celestial Palace". Along the way he strays off the path a few times, and those are the times he faces the worst persecutions. The story is nicely written with bible verses written at the end of nearly every chapter. I spent the first half of the book with my bible open, looking up verses as I went, but it became too distracting and made the story not flow smoothly enough for me. Pilgrim's Progress is widely considered the second best book next to the Bible to own for a Christian. It certainly has some nice lessons, puts things in simple words, and even has nice explanations and positive lessons you are supposed to learn from the book all listed in the back. It got a little too preachy for me at times, but then at other times it was soul-refreshing to just read  and feel peaceful at the same time, knowing what the future does hold in the life hereafter for a Christian. :-)