My friend, Bob Franquiz is a reading machine. He has a very insightful post about how he goes about reading so many books that you can check out here. Bob and I are supposed to be reading the same books right now, but I am the polar opposite of Bob when it comes to reading. So inspired by Bob, I thought I would tell you how I go about reading.

1. I hate reading books - Seriously, I despise it. I get bored, I lose interest, and I think 99% of the books that are written could be 2/3 shorter then they are.
2. I give a book ONE chapter to grab me - If you don’t have me after one chapter, I’m done with you.
3. I look for books on CD - I spend a lot of time in my car or at my desk working. If I can listen to something, I do that over reading any time.
4. I look for book reviews online - Book reviews on blogs are GREAT! They hit the things that are great about a book without me having to read all the junk. Reading reviews on books is a great way to get the great insights found in books.
5. I order sermon series - I listen to a LOT of preaching. Most books written by pastors were preached in their churches first. I find the series where they taught the book and listen.
6. I don’t read word for word - I read chapter titles, first and last sentances in paragraphs and skip stories. Again, this allows me to read the main points without all the fluff and waste of time.
7. I stick with authors I like - I actually do like to read some authors and the ones I like I stick with. My favorites are Erwin McManus and Andy Stanley. When I find someone I like, I stick with them.
8. Lots of magazines - I love to read things that are short. Therefore I love magazines. I subscribe to about 20 different ones and buy them like it is going out of style. I joke that I know more useless informtion then anyone else.
9. I read all the books sent to me - The good thing about a blog that is read a lot is I get a lot of books sent to me to read. I feel like I should read those, so I do.

There you go. I am sure that is a wealth of wisdom for all the pastors who read this blog. My suggestion is take Bob’s advice over mine and you will learn a lot more.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Books, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.