My Plan to Read

© freeimages.com

So many books, so little time. This dawned on me a few years back (hardly revolutionary) - I’ll only read a TINY proportion of the books out there that I could read. 

Furthermore, I simply won’t read as much as I’d like to, and could really benefit from, unless I plan to. I began thinking of various books I was keen to read, of a few different types, and began to keep a list, planning one or two books ahead.

This year (2016) I went up a gear. I set myself a full reading list for the first time. Inspired by blogger Tim Challies’ mammoth ambition to read 104 books this year in his 2016 Reading Challenge (crazy...) I decided to aim for 26. Why 26? It averages at one per fortnight, which I thought, if I put my mind to a few disciplines, I could probably achieve.

Challies offers four levels of challenge, depending on what you fancy: (1) The Light Reader (13 books); (2) The Avid Reader (26 books); (3) The Committed Reader (52 books); (4) The Obsessed Reader (104 books).

The top tips I took from Challies’ blog were:

• Write a list of books to read - a target to aim at makes a big difference.
• Tick them off as you go - obviously pleasing! 
• Vary the types of books you read - Challies suggests choosing books to read from various interesting categories like, “A book by an author you’ve never read" / “A book with a fruit of the Spirit in the title” / “A book you’ve started but haven’t finished”. I like that thoughtfulness, but decided to opt for a slightly simpler approach. (Partly also because I had quite a few books on my shelf that I just wanted to read!) So I picked 5 broad categories, and aimed to read a few in each. (By the way, I should confess that I’ve never really got into reading fiction. I’d like to one day!) So my categories have been biography, theology, holiness / life, (Bible) exposition, and Africa. 

I’ve really enjoyed it. Knowing what I’m aiming at (one book per fortnight, on average) hugely helps me to sit down and read. I appreciate that I have the advantage of a quite flexible routine, and largely managing my own time. That certainly helps. But I suspect many people could read more, as they’d often like to, if they put a few habits in place. Some small things I’ve sought to do to help are:

• Aiming to “fast” from my phone from 9pm - 9am. That way, I’m much more likely to read a bit before bed, and to get going well with time with the Lord in the morning (the Bible being far more valuable than any other books). Plus, I think it helps you to sleep.
• Deciding that I’d be content to have several books on the go at once. I reckon it makes good sense. It means that last thing at night, I can read a couple of pages of that lighter, biographical / more devotional book. When I’ve scheduled in time for reading during the day I can make progress on a heavier book that requires harder work. When I’m enjoying a day off at the beach, I’ll take another one. 
• Proposing to read some books with other people. This just keeps the experience of reading varied and more interesting. So I’ve recently been meeting with two guys here weekly to read one book together. And I’m currently reading another book over the phone with a friend back home.

So - I recommend having a plan! As we near the end of December, why not decide on a challenge to set yourself for 2017? If you begin thinking about it now, and begin writing a list, you might be quite excited about it when 1 January rolls around. You could aim to begin writing a list in those funny few days between Christmas and New Year...

Life is short, and there are millions of books we could read - many very good, many not so good. We simply won’t read that many of them! So which ones will you read? It’s worth choosing well isn’t it?

My reading list

For what it’s worth - if you’re interested - here’s what I drew up for 2016. I’ve sat fairly loose to the order in which I read them, though I try to keep a variety on the go at once.

Biographies
✓ John Newton on the Christian Life, Tony Reinke
✓ John Paton, John Paton
✓ Silhouettes and Skeletons - Charles Simeon, ed. John Benton
✓ Messengers of Ethiopia, Dick McLellan
✓ Bound for Burma: Adoniram Judson, J & G Benge (audiobook)

Exposition
✓ Jesus and his Friends, Don Carson
✓ Look to the Rock, Alec Motyer
☐ Acts: The Church Afire, by R. Kent Hughes [reading now]

Holiness / Life
✓ Going the Distance, Peter Brain
✓ The Gospel for Real Life, Jerry Bridges
✓ Zeal without Burnout, Christopher Ash
✓ Living in the Light (Money, Sex and Power), John Piper
✓ Do More Better, Tim Challies
✓ Not By Sight, Jon Bloom
☐ Prone to Wander, Barbara Duguid [reading now]

Theology
✓ Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, Andreas Köstenberger / Peter O'Brien
✓ Works: Volume 2, Jonathan Edwards
✓ The Book of the Covenant, Bernard Howard
✓ Christ our Life, Michael Reeves
✓ Prophetic from the Centre, Don Carson
✓ What’s the Mission of the Church?, Kevin De Young / Gary Gilbert
☐ Jesus the Son of God, Don Carson [reading now]
☐ His Love Endures Forever, Garry Williams [reading now]

Africa
✓ The Unseen Face of Islam, Bill Musk
✓ Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo
✓ Contextualization in the New Testament, Dean Fleming


I’m almost going to make it… I’m going to predict now that 2 will end up not quite complete by the end of the year. No bother.

As the year has gone by, I’ve also kept a list of what I hope to read next year… So I’m excited about that too!

What could you aim for in 2017? Happy reading!