#reading

Best New Testament Commentaries: A Logos Collection

If you have been reading this site for a while, you probably remember the Best Commentaries series I prepared a couple of years ago. The basic premise of the series was that, because I am unqualified to determine which commentaries are best, I would turn to experts to find their recommendations. I did that and proceeded through the Bible, suggesting the five best commentaries for each book. All the while I depended on the prior work of theologians such as …

190 Blogs I Read

I am going to file this one under “by popular demand.” I have been asked a hundred times what blogs I read and how I read them. Do I really visit all those sites every day? And just how many of them are there anyway? Today I will explain how I keep up with blogs and other Christian websites and give you the complete list of the ones I read. It’s actually very simple. I generally read blogs through Feedly, …

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2016 Reading Challenge February Update

Late last year I announced the 2016 Reading Challenge, a fun way to increase and diversify your reading through another year. I took the challenge and set this year’s goal at 104 books. However, because so much of my reading has to go toward reviewing books that are recently published and of interest to Christians (both for reviews published here and in WORLD magazine), I decided to pick from all over the list rather than working through it in order. …

2016 Reading Challenge January Update

Late last year I announced the 2016 Reading Challenge, a fun way to increase and diversify your reading through another year. I took the challenge and set this year’s goal at 104 books. However, because so much of my reading has to go toward reviewing books that are recently published and of interest to Christians (both for reviews published here and in WORLD magazine) I decided to pick from all over the list rather than working through it in order. …

Letters to the Editor #11 (Christians and their Books)

This week’s letters to the editor were almost all in response to my article Going All-in With Ebooks. I suppose this is not too surprising since Christians in general, and perhaps especially Christians who read a site like this one, tend to be committed readers. Every committed reader has an opinion, and often a very strong opinion, about the change of media we are experiencing today. Here is a representative selection of those letters. I begin with an excerpt of …

Going All-in With Ebooks

I am selling my library. At least, I think I am. I’ve made the decision. Almost. It feels just a little too final to actually say it like that. But I’ve got a big library and a small house and something has got to give. See, back in October I stopped working full-time at Grace Fellowship Church. I removed my office from the church but left the books. They are still there, 30 kilometers away. Sooner or later I need …

Amusing 1-Star Reviews of Great Books

There was a time, and it wasn’t too long ago, when book reviews were primarily the realm of newspapers, magazines, and journals. Then came online shopping, blogs, and social media, and reviews would never be the same. For good and for ill, the Internet democratized reviewing, allowing all of us to have a voice. This brought about a shift that took the focus off particular reviews and reviewers and instead put the focus on the average of a quantity of …

New & Notable Books (January 2016)

I am in the enjoyable position of receiving copies of most of the latest and greatest Christian books, and every few weeks I like to provide a round-up of what is new and particularly notable. It has been a little while since my last update and I’ve got a few interesting ones to share with you. Ruth: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible by Daniel Block (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament). I’m really excited that the excellent …

How to Finish Over 100 Books in 2016

Are you going to take the 2016 Reading Challenge this year? I talked it over with my family and we have decided to team up on it. We have the poster up, we are ready to go, and are just waiting for January 1. Whether you do it alone or with others, 100 books in a year can sound intimidating. Yet many people (myself included) regularly read at that pace. My friend Bryan DeWire wrote a little article to tell …

A Roundup of Book Roundups

I love book recommendations. So when various friends take the time to put together lists of their favorite books in 2015, I enjoy seeing not only what they recommend, but why. So I thought I would compile a variety of book roundups that I’m aware of for this past year: Reformation 21’s 2015 End of Year Review of Books Kevin DeYoung’s Top Ten Books of 2015 Aaron Armstrong on My favorite books of 2015 At Desiring God, Tony Reinke’s Top …