Thinking out loud after a long time neglecting this space about my reading habits and rhythms for 2025. I love books and always have, but sometimes I’m a poor reader. I spend too much time on my phone. My assigned reading lists get unwieldy. I force myself to read something that I don’t really want to read. So this is a way for me to think through how to better read in the new year. It’ll be all the more important as I start a Doctor of Ministry program in the summer, which will means lots more assigned reading.
I’ve thought about the kinds of reading I do and the times when I read. Perhaps if I more closely connect kinds of reading with places to read I can read more and enjoy my reading more.
Let’s start with the kinds of reading I do. I’ve identified three broad categories: enrichment, required, and fun.
Enrichment reading includes all the various reading I do to enrich myself personally and professionally. This has three subcategories: devotional, journal subscriptions, and book stacks. Devotional reading includes the Bible itself most of all (and I plan to continue the M’Cheyne Bible reading calendar for next year) plus devotional classics that are follow ups or inspirations from the online class I took a few months ago. For journals I currently subscribe to The Atlantic, Christianity Today, and the Journal of Biblical Counseling. All of these I read cover to cover. What I’m calling “book stacks” (surely there’s a better way to describe it) are a list of books or kinds of books related to my field of ministry in various ways, even if only distantly. Journal reading and book stack reading are usually more for professional enrichment than personal enrichment. They’re a rich source of sermon illustrations or places to help me understand the human condition and contemporary culture.
Required reading is exactly what it says: reading that I have committed to do as part of a reading group (the Stott Group) and books necessary for work (such as church planting books in preparation for a church plant).
Fun books include bedtime books, which is what I read in bed (usually on Kindle) and are chosen purely for enjoyment, and something new I’m trying called living room history books. I love history, but I don’t always do well reading it at night. Sometimes I want something less demanding. My thought is that I could put the history books in the living room where I could dip into them in the evenings instead of just zoning out on my phone.
As I write this I’m realizing that there are a few kinds of books that are harder to categorize. This past year I decided that I need to read more books by women, people of color, and non-westerners. I’ve made some progress in this but not much. It would make sense to put this in the required reading category, but the problem is that if I don’t have an external motivation to read (such as a scheduled book discussion date), it’s less true that it’s “required.” For that reason I think it should go into the book stack category, and I’ll have to be diligent about having those authors in that stack. / Those are the kinds of books (and articles) I read. Now what about the times of reading?
Early mornings are for devotional reading. Commuting on public transit is great for journal reading as journals are easier to hold and lug around on trains and buses. Work hours are particularly important for required reading, as they are explicitly required for work. I think journal reading should probably go there too since I don’t always take public transit, and I’m not sure when I’d get through my journals if I didn’t read them at work. A lot of the content is pretty heavy stuff too, which makes more sense not to read during leisure times.
At home in the evenings is good for living room history books and other fun reading. That way I don’t have to squirrel myself away from the family, and it’s no big deal to put the book down to help out with homework, take out the trash, and whatnot. Bedtime books are for the very end of the day.
The last category is special study time: longer blocks of time during the week (such as three hours one day in the morning) or a monthly day away study time. Book stack books are probably best tackled during these times, as would be catching up on journals or other stuff that I’ve gotten behind on.
Lastly, I want to embrace more what Alan Jacobs calls “reading at whim”–reading whatever you want without the pressure of accomplishing reading goals or expectations, regardless of where those expectations are coming from. I’ve had a more established rhythm for fun books, which includes light British reading (like 44 Scotland Street series), Ian Rankin detective stories, science fiction, Stephen King (chronological), and science or nature reading. I definitely want to keep reading Rankin, King, and the 44 Scotland Street books as they come out. But I think I might abandon my strict ordering of the reading, even though it has served me well for the past few years. I also think reading at whim can apply to living room history and the book stack reading.
Depending on how motivated I am, I’ll update this blog to see how my reading is going, what’s working, and what’s not working.
