Jan
07
2010
When Do You Read?
Someone asked me this question on my blog. I started to write an answer in the comments, but I thought I would just make it a short post.
I don’t read for 8 hours a day. I read my Bible in the morning, and usually a few pages of some Christian classic. As a pastor I read commentaries, theology books, and other related things as I prepare for sermons. Almost all the new books I read, however, are read in the evenings, after the kids are in bed. I guess I read pretty quickly. And I read pretty much any spare moment I can (waiting at the doctor, a few minutes before bed, on my day off, when I hit a roadblock on sermon prep, while watching a bowl game, etc.). I read JT’s blog and Challies, the Chicago Tribune sports page (online), ESPN.com, and I check the daily headlines on Real Clear Politics and the Lansing State Journal (I’m so antiquated I don’t even have all this on google reader). I subscribe to three magazines and two journals which I also read, though not always cover to cover. There are lots of things in life that feel like work to me, but reading isn’t one of them. So I don’t really think about when I read. I just feel like I am always reading.
By the way I didn’t like reading as a kid. So you can learn to like to read.
13 Comments
What magazines and journals do you subscribe to, if you don’t mind me asking
First Things, World, Christianity Today, Weekly Standard, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Westminster Theological Journal.
good to hear, Kevin, cause you had me scared: as smart as you are [5,000 plus pages to prepare for Why We're Not Emergent, for example] I figured you read for 8 hours a day…which didn’t give me any hope to reach your level sine on a good day I can manage 2.
Great list and I really admire you.
Kevin,
I appreciate your work. You’ve mentioned your day off on your last two posts. I’m curious how taking Monday off works for you. I take Fridays (I am a pastor as well), but I’ve been thinking about changing to Mondays. Just wondering.
I once heard it said that young people who go on to grad school immediately (which I did) and spent a number of years in it (did this too) tend to lose the joy of reading. The theory is that you have to read so much for courses and research that you essentially “burn out” on reading for fun. I’ve wondered about this recently, as my reading seems like more of a chore. Any suggestions?
I really appreciate the confession that you once didn’t like to read, but now do enjoy it so much that it is a healthy diet rather than a chore. I’m of the same cloth, aspiring to pastoral ministry and happy to hear that I’m not the only one who hasn’t capitalized fully on my years of opportunity to read.
Kevin,
I have a schedule similar to yours – minus the periodicals. I am reconsidering JETS and WTJ, I do receive the Themelios via RSS. I was rec’ing the Master’s Journal from MacArthur, but for some reason I’ve stopped receiving it.
@Marshall – if I may, I currently take Mondays off, and find that sometimes I feel “out of the loop” due to business taking place after Sunday. The other 2 pastors on staff are there on Mondays, but not everything is communicated. On the other hand, it does provide a great day of rest after a typically draining day.
Grace,
mark
Are those the only two blogs you read? I’m thinking about cutting back more but I learn a ton from a lot of them. It’s something I’m wrestling with.
Jeff
I have started reading while watching football games on TV. I have found out that I can usually read an hour during a 3-4 hour game! Even though I am graduate of the University of Texas, I will be reading a book during pauses in the action of tonight’s game.
I even go so far as to use the DVR. I pause the game, read for 1/2 hour, watch the game fast forwarding between plays, when I’m caught up do it again.
Jeff
Speaking of reading, I sent you an email because you teased your audience with these terse comments about the following titles from your October book log:
6. Dallas Willard. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge – Started out strong, got dicey in the middle, and took a wrong turn at the end.
Please elaborate: Why did it get “dicey in the middle”? How did it take “a wrong turn at the end”?
7. James K. A. Smith. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation – Often provocative, sometimes wise, frequently over-the-top and off-track.
Specifically, how does the book become “frequently over-the-top and off-track”? I would have guessed that Smith, as a Continental philosopher in the Reformed tradition, would be your cup of tea. His book, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, is superb.
If time does not permit a response, I understand. But I hope you will post a review on these books.
I consider that I read quickly in too, and I think that the reason for it comes from the years and years reading the Bible: it helps on our reading development.
But this time I’d come with another way to read the Bible, to force myself to read it more carefully and slowly.
God bless.
Dallas Willard’s latest book started out strong by arguing that religious knowledge can be knowledge in the full sense of the word. But then in the middle he tried to start from nothing and prove Christianity was true in a handful of chapters. He tried to accomplish too much. At the end he flung the door wide open to inclusivism and argued that true knowledge of Christ comes by standing for what he stood for and seeking mystical experiences.
As for Smith’s book, Trevin Wax provides a good overview of the book, its strengths and weaknesses (http://trevinwax.com/2009/12/23/worldview-training-is-not-enough/).