Some Thoughts on Reading

I don’t consider myself to be quite the reader I should be.  When I got to seminary I was shocked at what I hadn’t read and felt way behind.  I know many probably feel the same and are afraid to admit it.  To you I would simply advise: just start reading. My father-in-law always says there is nothing more fun than learning.  This he believes and practices.  I’m getting there.  There are still a few things I count more fun than learning, golf being chief among them.

 

I feel driven to finish a book once I start it.  Sometimes a book will hang over my head for months if I can’t finish it. I once decided to read Whitaker Chamber’s autobiography, Witness. With 800 pages filled with tiny letters it is probably the longest book other than the Bible that I’ve read.  I think that marathon lasted at least 6 months. And yes, I’m glad I read it.

 

Sometimes if I dilly-dally too much I’ll start feeling like I’m chained to a book, particularly the long ones. Right now, Owen’s Communion with the Triune God has me laboring around page 200. I’m pressing through on this one because I know it’s worth it. Calvin’s Institutes sits on my shelf every day beckoning. It’s like John Calvin is actually standing there ready to apply the aforementioned chains.

 

I’m personally making an effort to read weightier books which often means reading older books.  Many books being published today seem like they don’t require much effort. In our workroom at our old church there would always be stacks of books being discarded by some pastor.  I think a lot of today’s books will end up in stacks like that in a few years. However, one of the best books I’ve read in the last year was Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges, published in 2007.