Where to start reading?

With around 200 of Chesterton's works available on this site, ranging from short poems to complete books, several people have asked for suggestions about where to start reading.

Here are a few of my favourites:

• Orthodoxy is a good introduction to Chesterton's philosophy and thinking.
• Heretics tells you what he thinks about some other pholosophies!
• The Everlasting Man is another excellent work. C.S.Lewis listed The Everlasting Man among the 10 books which did most to shape his philosphy of life.
• The Complete Father Brown Chesterton's detective stories.
• The Flying Inn A very funny novel, with some wonderful songs. Besides Heretics and Orthodoxy, Chesterton said that this was the book he most enjoyed writing.

In a Chestertonian spirit of democracy, here are the top ten downloads for the last half of 2005 (Note that The Flying Inn and The Complete Father Brown were not added to the site until 2006):

1. St. Thomas Aquinas
2. The Everlasting Man
3. Dickens (Encyclopaedia Britannica article by G.K.C)
4. Orthodoxy
5. What's Wrong With the World
6. Introduction to the Book of Job
7. Heretics
8. The Ballad of the White Horse
9. Selected Quotes
10. Christmas Poem