If you have spent any time on this site, you know that it is, in large part, a site about books. I have been reading, reviewing, and recommending books here for more than two decades—well over a thousand reviews at last count. Along the way I have written a great deal about reading itself: why it matters, how to do more of it, and how to do it better.
This page gathers the best of what I’ve written on the reading life into one place. Whether you are a committed reader looking to sharpen your habits or someone who has always wished you read more, I hope it will serve you well.
Why Read?
In Four Good Reasons to Read Good Books I lay out the case for reading in four words: read to know, to grow, to lead, and to love. The first of those reasons is the best one—we read to know God:
One of the problems with allowing ourselves to be intimidated away from difficult books, books that are just a bit beyond us, is that we can begin to believe we’ve got God pretty much figured out. But here’s the thing: You may capture and box up the God of Joel Osteen, but then you read John Calvin or Jonathan Edwards and are utterly humbled by just how little you know of this God.
And if reading brings you no pleasure at all? “Pleasures can be learned!” Reading is a pleasure worth learning to love, even if it requires some effort at first.
Not Every Book Deserves the Same Attention
Perhaps the single most freeing lesson I’ve learned as a reader is that books are not all equal, so they should not all be read the same way. In Three Types of Reading I divide books into three broad categories—books to read slowly, books to read quickly, and books to read for fun:
One of the keys to reading well and reading more is to determine how much attention to give a book. There are many books, even Christian books, that are worth only a relatively quick read. I have often found that people who struggle to read tend to mix these three categories or neglect the second. They assume that every book is worth the same amount of effort and then linger over books that aren’t worth lingering over. They often also fail to read for the simple pleasure of reading—to find books that require little of their minds and can be read for the sheer delight of reading.
In 7 Different Ways to Read a Book I go further—studying, pillaging, skimming, and more—including full permission to abandon a book that isn’t living up to its promise: “The more books you read, and especially the more books you study, the more you earn the right to give up on a few of them.”
How to Read More (and Better)
People often ask how they can read more. My answer begins in the most obvious place—you need to actually read, and “Find me someone who has changed the world and who spent his time watching television and I’ll find you a thousand who read books instead.” In 10 Tips to Read More and Read Better I offer the counsel I return to most: read widely, read deliberately, read with discernment, read heavy books, read light books, read new books and old books, and read what your heroes read.
Then, in How I Read a Book, I walk step by step through my own process—overview, purpose, pace, and pen:
The purpose in all of this is to make reading an interactive experience. I do not want to be a passive receptor; rather, I want to be active in absorbing what the author is teaching and in interacting with it. I want to talk back to the author, to have a conversation through reading. I talk back through my pen.
And don’t fret about what you forget. As I wrote in Books Don’t Change People—Sentences Do, “the pleasure of reading is not necessarily in what we retain, but in the actual act of reading.” If we take away even just the fraction of a book that is especially profound—the few quotes or phrases or ideas that most strike our hearts—we have gained a tangible and valuable benefit. When your habits grow stale, 10 Ways To Keep Your Reading Fresh can help you spark them back to life.
Choose Books with Discernment
Books have incredible power to do good, but they also have power to do harm, so we must choose them carefully. In 5 Questions To Ask of a Book Before You Read It I suggest interrogating any unfamiliar book: Who wrote you? Who published you? Who endorsed you? Who reviewed you? Who will I find in your endnotes? And in What Should We Do with Books by Fallen Leaders? I apply that discernment to a painful and recurring question. (For much more on this theme, see my guide to spiritual discernment.)
Read Widely
Christians should read more than Christian books. God’s common grace means that truth and wisdom are waiting to be mined in every genre, as I argue in Why Christians Should Read in the Mainstream. In Why I Love to Read Non-Christian Books I describe the reader’s task with such books:
As a Christian reader, my task, my challenge, and my joy, is to read with discernment, to subtract what is opposed to a Christian worldview, and to bind together the pieces through distinctly Christian thinking.
Reading widely also means reading beyond our own moment. If you’ve been told you should read the classics but haven’t known where to begin, So You’ve Been Told You Should Read Some Old Books… is a guided tour from Augustine to the Puritans to Packer, Stott, and Sproul—era by era, title by title.
Reading as an Act of Love
We tend to think of reading as a private pursuit. But in Reading Out of Love for Others I show five ways it can be an act of love—reading to grow, to understand, to recommend, to disciple, and to protect:
But even though reading is a solitary pursuit, it is not necessarily a selfish one. Reading can actually be an important way to love others.
Every church needs a few people who have read enough to steer others toward excellent resources. “There is a huge ministry in the church in recommending books. Maybe you need to become that person.”
Reading in a Distracted Age
Many people say they once loved to read but now find it grueling, and they blame their screens. In The Rise of Digital Technologies and the Decline of Reading I suggest the truth is less comfortable—and more hopeful:
We will need to reaffirm our belief in the value of reading and exercise self-control to ensure we make time for it. Rather than grumbling about the encroachment of Facebook and YouTube, we should realize the fault is ours and plan out how, when, and what we will read for the benefit of our minds and the improvement of our souls.
The Book That Matters Most
People sometimes ask whether they should feel guilty for spending more time in other books than in the Bible. In How Much Time Should We Spend Reading the Bible? I suggest the comparison itself is a category error:
Reading the Bible is relational as much as informational. It is not merely reading words from a page or from a screen, but encountering the words of God. When we read the Bible, whether through reading or hearing, we are encountering the voice of God. God speaks through his Word and we speak back to him in prayer. Hence, Bible-reading is relating to God. It is of a different category than reading a book.
Start Here: Essays on Reading
- Four Good Reasons to Read Good Books. Read to know, to grow, to lead, and to love. The case for the reading life.
- Three Types of Reading (And Suggested Books for Each). Slow, fast, and fun—with ten suggested titles for each of the first and last.
- 7 Different Ways to Read a Book. Studying, pillaging, skimming, and the freedom to quit.
- 10 Tips to Read More and Read Better. The practical counsel I return to most often.
- How I Read a Book. My own process from first overview to final review.
- Books Don’t Change People—Sentences Do. Why forgetting most of what you read is no reason to stop reading.
- 5 Questions To Ask of a Book Before You Read It. Authors, publishers, endorsers, reviewers, endnotes—how to size up an unfamiliar book.
- Reading Out of Love for Others. Five ways the solitary pursuit of reading can serve the people around you.
- Why I Love to Read Non-Christian Books. Reading general-market books with Christian thinking as the glue.
- Why Christians Should Read in the Mainstream. Common grace, cultural engagement, and the practice of discernment.
- So You’ve Been Told You Should Read Some Old Books…. A guided tour of the Christian classics, era by era.
- 10 Ways To Keep Your Reading Fresh. For when your habits have grown stale.
- The Rise of Digital Technologies and the Decline of Reading. Reading as a discipline in the age of the glowing rectangle.
- How Much Time Should We Spend Reading the Bible? Why Bible reading belongs in a different category altogether.
You can browse everything I’ve written on the subject in the reading topic archive.
The Reading Challenge
Each year I publish the Christian Reading Challenge, a tiered challenge designed to help you read more and read more widely in the year ahead. Whether you read a book a month or several each week, it will stretch you beyond your usual categories and keep you reading all year long.
Explore More
Looking for something to read next? My Book Recommendations pages gather my favorite books on more than forty subjects, and the book reviews archive collects the reviews I’ve written since the earliest days of this site.
This guide is one of a series. You can find them all on my guides page.
