In my last two posts of 2019 I shared my favorite ten books for the year. For the past several years I've averaged reading 50 books a year although the number was less in 2019. Some have asked how I can read so many books in a year. In fact, someone recently told me they have not read that many in their entire lives.
First, there are many people who read far more than one book a week. Last week I saw one person post the list of books he had read in 2019. He had read 65. One well-known leader claims to read 125 or more books a year. The voracious reading habits of such people as Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates and others are well-documented.
Secondly, I have always loved reading. We didn't have a lot of books in our home growing up, but my mother made sure I went to the public library as often as I wanted. As a young child I probably read as many books as I do now. I read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn numerous times and all of the Hardy Boys mystery books. Every week we went to the library where I would turn in the books I had read that week and pick up more. I do not know anything a parent can do to better prepare their children for life than to instill in them a love of reading.
For years I've shared my top 10 books on FB, but what about the ones I don't list. Some may wonder about those books. Virtually all of them are non-fiction. I seldom read more than one or two, if that many, fiction books a year. Most of them are ministry, business, leadership or theology books. These are the things that most interest me so I concentrate on learning more about them. Occasionally, I will throw in a book that is related to history or military or a biographical look of someone I want to know more about.
As I start a new decade I am reading Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul by Leonard Sweet and Connecting: Healing Ourselves and Our Relationships by Larry Crabb. Both of these are re-reads that have been sitting in my library since I last read them a few years ago. Jesus Drives Me Crazy is my devotional reading right now. In Sweet's unique style he reminds us of how the wisdom of Jesus seems crazy to the way normal people think and live, and yet it is living according to this wisdom where true life is found.
Crabb is a well-known therapist whose book challenges Christians to form healing communities to bring about true healing for hurting people. He writes, "We have made a terrible mistake! For most of this century we have wrongly defined soul wounds as psychological disorders and delegated their treatment to trained specialists. Damaged psyches aren't the problem. The problem is disconnected souls. What we need is connection! What we need is a healing community!"
In the last mail I received in 2019 came The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. In this book the author asks, How do you win a game that has no end? Baseball has nine innings; basketball is played in two halves; football games last four quarters. There are a set number of players that can be on each team. The way one scores is clearly laid out in the rules. At the end of the game the team that scores the most points wins.
However, life isn't like that. Businesses, organizations, families and churches play an infinite game with no defined end point. While the organization may enjoy successes along the way, the game never ends. Sinek claims that one of the reasons many organizations struggle is because their leaders are playing an infinite game with a finite mindset. He seeks to change that mindset in this book. I have already started reading it and finding it an excellent read.
Several times in my life I have read through the Bible in a year. This year I decided to read through the New Testament. I usually read a different version each time, and this year I decided to use The Message.
What books are you planning to read in this new year? Pick some good ones because they have the power to change your life.
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