10 Tips to Read More and Read Better

Tim Challes @ http://www.challies.com gives 10 tips to improve your reading. He lists:

Read -

Read Widely -

Read Deliberately -

Read Interactively -

Read with Discernment -

Read Heavy Books -

Read Light Books -

Read New Books -

Read Old Books -

Read What Your Heroes Read -

How To Master A Book

Stephen Altrogge @ www.theblazingcenter.com reviews how to master a book.

He notes:

Interact With The Book

Apply The Book

Talk About The Book

Re-read a Book

How to Read Less More

By Greg Koukl @www.str.org

Overview
Get a sense of the book in 10-20 minutes.
Read jacket copy, contents, skim preface & introduction, read conclusion (last 3 pages) and skim the index. Note publisher and date of publication.
Quickly page through the entire book at the rate of 2-3 seconds per page.
Determine if you want to read the book more thoroughly, give it away, or file it for future reference.

Preview
Skim entire book at a slower rate (4-10 seconds per page), breaking the book in as you go.
Look for structure, outline, key facts and concepts.
Write a quick summary for the book in pencil on title page.

Read
Preview each chapter again before you read it to get the structure (4-10 seconds per page).
Read every word at the fastest comfortable speed using a pointer so you don’t wander, hesitate, regress, or lose your place. Mark the margin, but don’t underline the text.
Write a 1-4 sentence summary in pencil at the beginning of the chapter. This serves as a quick overview of the content of the chapter.
Sketch a quick outline or recall pattern.

Post-View Immediately
Re-read the chapter quickly, focusing on marked sections, interacting with the text.
Refine your 1-4 sentence summary at the beginning of the chapter, if necessary.
Review at regular intervals, looking over recall patterns and summary material.

Read my entire article @ Solid Ground.

Just Do It
Now it’s time for action. You have the plan. Here are six books I recommend you read this year and master using this simple plan to read less more.

And here's a suggestion an emailer passed on to us. Challenge yourself and have a salutory effect on others by finding like-minded people and start a book club. Choose a book the group agrees on or take turns picking a book. You might being with one of my recommendations. Use the guidelines for effective reading, and discuss the book with a group. This is a great way to exercise your mind. And you'll master each book you read this way.

Here are my suggestions for the six books you master this year. I've chosen them because they cover a variety of topics to build your knowledge, wisdom, and character. And I consider each a quintessential source of its kind.

Thinking about God--Greg Ganssle
Mere Christianity--C.S. Lewis
Serious Times--James Emory White
In But Not Of--Hugh Hewitt
The Lost Virtue of Happiness--J.P Moreland & Klaus Issler
He Is There and He Is Not Silent--Francis Schaeffer (available as an individual work, or as part of the trilogy)

20 Reasons to Read (Good Christian Books)

20 Reasons to Read (Good Christian Books) from http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com

1. You will grow in your knowledge of God, yourself and the world around you
2. You will gain a better understanding of the bible, the book of books
3. You will broaden your English vocabluary, helping you to express similar truths to your congregation in fresh ways
4. You will have an improved imagination and actively engage your mind in a way that probably won’t occur when watching TV
5. You will be able to sit at the feet of some of the great Christian teachers and minds over the centuries (even if you have few ‘living’ teachers to assist you)
6. You will be forced to cease from incessant activity and think
7. You will receive a historical perspective on current problems and spot present day blindspots
8. You will have some of your questions answered and confront other questions you hadn’t even thought of
9. You will be able to practically apply Paul’s command to think upon “wholesome” things
10. You will develop a sense of how arguments are constructed and be able to weigh both strong and weak arguments
11. You will enjoy spiritual input during the week, not just on a Sunday (if not a pastor)
12. You will (if a pastor) be able to enage with other issues beyond this week’s text, thus broadening your perspective.
13. You will be able to mull over a subject. You will be able to put the book down to think, chew over a sentance or re-read a paragraph. You will be able to exploring an issue at length, rather than brush over a topic too quickly
14. You will be better prepared for the task of evangelism, after reading clear presentations of the gospel by great communicators
15. You will be better prepared for the task of discipleship, having a good way to open up discussion about Christian life issues (what are you reading?)
16. You will be made aware of how Christians interpret and apply Scripture differently in various cultural contexts
17. You will gain information for your ignorance, inspiration for your weariness, and insight for complex problems
18. You will be better equipped to lead in your church, marriage and family
19. You will be stimulated, as in a good conversation, to new lines of thinking
20. You will be drawn to worship God, especially when the book centres on God not man

On Reading

By: Josh @ http://www.desiringgod.org

Christians are people of the book: God purposely chose the medium of typography to deliver his revelation to us. In that book, we are commanded to love God with our hearts and our minds (Matthew 22:34-40). This gives Christians a clear command to use their intellects — to be, in other words, a kind of intellectual.

Reading is one of the best ways to develop our minds. It can help us to know God and ourselves, gain vicarious experience, increase our perception and imagination, train our minds to think critically and logically, and teach us self-discipline. (For more on this, see Neil Postman's excellent Amusing Ourselves to Death.)

But we have a problem: our culture is becoming aliterate. We have the ability to read but not the desire. Or maybe some of us have the desire but not the time. We make time to watch television and surf the Internet for the latest triviality, but we can't seem to make the time to sit down and read for an hour.

Christians should be readers. We should read and meditate on the Bible, of course, but we should also read theology. Good theology systematizes and explains the Bible in ways we would be pressed to come up with on our own. Few of us are a Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, J. I. Packer or John Piper, and we would be wise to learn from them.

Most of us know we should read the Bible and theology. But what about other subjects, like literature, history, biography, science, and culture? And what about books by non-Christians? I think we should read widely, and yes, that includes reading non-Christians. John Calvin thought so too:

Therefore, in reading [non-Christian authors], the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us, that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears. In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver.... Nay, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without the highest admiration; an admiration which their excellence will not allow us to withhold. But shall we deem anything to be noble and praiseworthy, without tracing it to the hand of God? (Institutes II.ii.15-16)

God has set up the world so that even non-Christians can find truth. I've learned truth from Christians and non-Christians. We can't expect non-Christians to have sound theology, but they are some of the best authors in other subjects. If we reject their Spirit-given insights because they are non-Christians we, as Calvin says, "insult the Giver."

C. S. Lewis was a voracious reader. From reading Surprised by Joy, one has the impression that he read pretty much everything by the time he was fifteen. But this was the secret to his success. The reason he could communicate truth so clearly was because he lived many lives through reading. He considered subjects from a diverse perspective through reading widely. I can think of none better to give us a final exhortation to make use of God's great gift of reading:

Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors. We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented….

[I]n reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

For Further Reading

• Desiring God's recommended reading
• John Piper: "A Compelling Reason for Rigorous Training of the Mind"
• John Piper: "The Ripple Effect of the Word"
• John Piper: "Books That Have Influenced Me Most"
• Justin Taylor: "Recommended Reading on Christian Engagement in Culture"
• My recommended reading

21 Reasons to Read (Good Christian Books)

By Colin Adams @ http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/

A couple of qualifications before I get started. Firstly, I remain convinced that reading Scripture is primary. Let me also add that I’m mainly talking about Christian books and most certainly good Christian books. Tell me what you think…

21 Reasons to Read (Good Christian Books)…

1. You will grow in your knowledge of God, yourself and the world around you
2. You will gain a better understanding of the bible, the book of books
3. You will broaden your English vocabluary, helping you to express similar truths to your congregation in fresh ways
4. You will have an improved imagination and actively engage your mind in a way that probably won’t occur when watching TV
5. You will be able to sit at the feet of some of the great Christian teachers and minds over the centuries (even if you have few ‘living’ teachers to assist you)
6. You will be forced to cease from incessant activity and think
7. You will receive a historical perspective on current problems and spot present day blindspots
8. You will have some of your questions answered and confront other questions you hadn’t even thought of
9. You will be able to practically apply Paul’s command to think upon “wholesome” things
10. You will develop a sense of how arguments are constructed and be able to weigh both strong and weak arguments
11. You will enjoy spiritual input during the week, not just on a Sunday (if not a pastor)
12. You will (if a pastor) be able to enage with other issues beyond this week’s text, thus broadening your perspective.
13. You will be able to mull over a subject. You will be able to put the book down to think, chew over a sentance or re-read a paragraph. You will be able to exploring an issue at length, rather than brush over a topic too quickly
14. You will be better prepared for the task of evangelism, after reading clear presentations of the gospel by great communicators
15. You will be better prepared for the task of discipleship, having a good way to open up discussion about Christian life issues (what are you reading?)
16. You will be made aware of how Christians interpret and apply Scripture differently in various cultural contexts
17. You will develop a sense of how arguments are constructed and be able to weigh both a strong and weak argument
18. You will gain information for your ignorance, inspiration for your weariness, and insight for complex problems
19. You will be better equipped to lead in your church, marriage and family
20. You will be stimulated, as in a good conversation, to new lines of thinking
21. You will be drawn to worship God, especially when the book centres on God not man

So…what are you reading?