text: Simon Rich's Book Bag: 5 Blasphemous Reads - The Daily BeastPoliticsEntertainmentWorldU.S.TechArts + CultureDrink + FoodStyleHoly CowSimon Rich's Book Bag: 5 Blasphemous ReadsThe writer Simon Rich, the author of the new novel What in God's Name, which depicts the Almighty as a retiring CEO, picks his favorite impious, sacrilegious, ungodly books, including by Philip Roth and Douglas Adams, and a lost, scathing gospel—all in good fun.
  Simon Rich08.07.12 12:15 PM ETGoodbye, Columbus (1959)
  The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (2nd century CE)
  by Thomas the Israelite
  Gallo Images / Getty ImagesThis text was meant to glorify Jesus by portraying him as a "trickster God" in the tradition of Hermes or Isis. From a contemporary vantage point, though, the book seems pretty insensitive. In one scene Jesus murders a boy in cold blood for accidentally bumping into him. He also kills a kid for spilling his water. When the neighbors complain about the mounting death toll, the young God blinds them, using magic. It's a shame this one didn't make it into the canon.
  An untitled cartoon
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