If someone were to ask me if I love reading, the short answer would be yes.
The longer answer would be yes, if…
- I get to discuss what I’m reading with a friend
- I can listen to what I’m reading
- The book makes me do better work
- The book makes me laugh
- I leave the experience with more joy
The books I love most come with stories about how I read them, not just what they were about.
They tell stories of stability. I come back to the William Goldman sections of Wait Til Next Year or the essay collections of Chuck Klosterman every year because they are familiar friends who make me laugh and remind me of why sports and pop culture matter.
They tell stories of connection. I read Mike Breen’s Building a Discipling Culture with dear friends at church over the course of a summer and found a collection of brothers and sisters who will be in my heart forever.
They tell stories of growth. There are the two novels I was told to read in college but didn’t bother to crack open until after I had my PhD, and I understood why my professors had wanted me to crack them.
They tell stories of contribution. There was the class where I taught DFW’s Supposedly Fun Thing and when it was over a handful of students were so into it they wanted to attempt reading Infinite Jest.
These are the reasons I read the Bible. I read for the stability of God’s promises, the connection to other believers who lived for Christ, the spiritual growth that what I read occasions, and the contribution I can make to others as a servant if I am humble enough to share what I’ve read.