Skip to content ↓

Reading Biographies Together – A Reminder

Reading Classics Together Collection cover image

A couple of weeks ago I announced that we’d be taking a slight diversion in reading classic books together and would instead be reading a biography. That project will begin in less than 2 weeks, so I wanted to offer a final reminder about it.

In order to make this program work, I set about looking for just the right biography. I wanted it to cover a person whose life is exemplary and a person who had a remarkable impact on the church. I also wanted to find a biography that was reasonably inexpensive and one that was not too long. And, of course, it had to be written by a superior biographer. All those factors combined to lead me to Arnold Dallimore’s life of Charles Spurgeon. It is 240 pages over 21 chapters, meaning we can quite easily read it in somewhere between 7 and 10 weeks. It is available for around $12 at many online retailers, ensuring that it will not break the bank.

Spurgeon by DallimoreSo why don’t you read along with me? Spurgeon led a fascinating life and one I know too little about. Though I’ve read this book before, that was many years ago and I’ve been eager to find a reason to read it again.

We will begin reading on July 8. For that day, please read the first two chapters (just 20 pages!). There is still plenty of time to find a copy of the book, have it shipped your way, and read that first section. You should not have a lot of trouble finding it. It is available at Westminster Books and at most other Christian bookstores online (I had Westminster order in extra copies so they won’t run out!). For some reason it is not available directly through Amazon, though you can find it both new and used through various Amazon partners.

Already quite a lot of you have indicated interest in reading along and I hope that more will do so before we actually begin. I’m really looking forward to beginning this project with you.


  • The Anxious Generation

    The Great Rewiring of Childhood

    I know I’m getting old and all that, and I’m aware this means that I’ll be tempted to look unfavorably at people who are younger than myself. I know I’ll be tempted to consider what people were like when I was young and to stand in judgment of what people are like today. Yet even…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 19)

    A La Carte: The gateway drug to post-Christian paganism / You and I probably would have been nazis / Be doers of my preference / God can work through anyone and everything / the Bible does not say God is trans / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 18)

    A La Carte: Good cop bad cop in the home / What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? / The sacrifices of virtual church / A neglected discipleship tool / A NT passage that’s older than the NT / Quite … able to communicate / and more.

  • a One-Talent Christian

    It’s Okay To Be a Two-Talent Christian

    It is for good reason that we have both the concept and the word average. To be average is to be typical, to be—when measured against points of comparison—rather unremarkable. It’s a truism that most of us are, in most ways, average. The average one of us is of average ability, has average looks, will…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 17)

    A La Carte: GenZ and the draw to serious faith / Your faith is secondhand / It’s just a distraction / You don’t need a bucket list / The story we keep telling / Before cancer, death was just other people’s reality / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 16)

    A La Carte: Why I went cold turkey on political theology / Courage for those with unfatherly fathers / What to expect when a loved one enters hospice / Five things to know about panic attacks / Lessons learned from a wolf attack / Kindle deals / and more.