Mostly Being About Books

"What are you reading?" Don't you just love being asked that question? Essentially, that's why I started this blog, so I could talk about the books in my life, and encourage my friends and readers to do the same. A couple years ago, I decided to be intentional about my reading choices, developing a plan and themes to guide me. I make lists and plan.

I was so happy to find what my favorite Bibliophile had to say on the subject. This article by Dr. Mohler prompted me to evaluate my own reading goals and patterns. (Please check it out -- this article is gold!).

Here are a few musings from Gretchen Reads 24/7 on how to approach reading in a life that is too full already!

~Read on your lunch break. This is huge for me. Of course it's tempting to make phone calls, check your blog or shop online. It is so much more rewarding to read! I feel like my lunch hour was rested and efficient when I've spent at least half of it reading. This is also a good time to choose to read a more challenging book, or a book assigned for class, because your mind is clicking away from being at work.

~Read in the morning, read at night. To go along with Dr. Mohler's tip "read for enjoyment" I recommend having a light read on hand to put yourself to sleep with (especially if you need to be up at 5, and have a hard time falling asleep early). Choose to read your Bible and a devotional book in the morning. This is obviously not a hard and fast rule! But I see the advantage of making it a pattern.

~Read the whole book. Unless you are going through Calvin's Institutes or The Civil War 3 volume set by Shelby Foote, choose wisely and then give the book the benefit of the doubt and get through it. Donette recently shared how she decided to shelf When I Don't Desire God by John Piper because she felt like what she was reading didn't apply to her at this phase of life. In that circumstance I think it was wise for her to spend her reading time elsewhere. I do know, however, my own tendency to say "ooooh! I want to read that!" and then flit from book to book like an intellectual butterfly never really landing and sucking up the juices. Sometimes the book might not be the greatest. But at least you will definitively know that!

~Don't make too many reading "rules". If you love the book and you want to keep going, and not set it aside to read a bit of another, keep on reading it! Sometimes you are just "in the zone" with a book, and you hate to lay it aside to save for another day. Just go with it. You will read much more this way.