Confessions of an Undisciplined Reader

Well, I’m back. After two weeks of flu and regretted procrastination, I realized it’s time to write something. Knowing God: Part III is on the way – but first, the Confessions.

I love books. I stick with non-fiction 99% of the time, so you could say my diet of books is relatively tame. But there’s one major problem: I’m not disciplined. I have at least 20 books that I’ve started at one point or another, and they’re just sitting around the house. I haven’t finished any of them! That’s not to say I’ve never read a book in its entirety – but I definitely struggle with reading one book all the way through.

Sometimes I’ll purchase a book, thinking it will be fascinating – and it is… for the first ten pages. Then it’s move-on-to-another-book, maybe one from the library this time. And the vicious cycle continues. It is not a wise use of the time God has given me – and it doesn’t help me learn anything, either.

I was talking to a gentleman a few months ago, who has a passion for studying God’s Word. This man tackles one subject at a time – if it is the Book of Revelation, then he might have several commentaries on that topic, but that’s his main reading focus. Perhaps he’ll also read a biography of Jonathan Edwards on the side, since going through several commentaries takes a considerable amount of time – but his reading habits don’t manifest confusion, as I admit they do in my own life.

We also discussed how it’s easy to read a book and then promptly forget the main points you had wanted to remember. That seems to me like a time-waster, and we postulated that summarizing the “big things” you want to remember during & after you read a book would be beneficial. Sometimes I do that, actually, but keeping track of a zillion Post-It notes scattered throughout the home (along with six notebooks) doesn’t aid the process.

Action points:

1. Read one book at a time
2. Keep a journal of the key points you want to remember from the books you've read
   

Do you struggle with this at all? Any ideas or suggestions?

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12