Let Go, My Soul

I am a huge book nerd.  Like really, embarrassingly nerdy.  When I was a kid, my parents used to actually ground me from reading because they were sick of me completely ignoring them while my head was stuck in a book.  Even as an adult, my love for books has never really slowed down.  When I finally got on the Harry Potter train (really late in the game during the summer of 2007), I read the entire series in like a month.  Some nights I would literally stay up all night reading because I couldn’t put them down.  Needless to say, that was a pretty unproductive month for me at work, and well, life.

Anyhow, I still read a ton, probably around 3o books a year, but the past few years, I have gotten into a bad habit of starting like 5 books at a time and taking forever to finish them.  I knew one of my 2017 New Year’s resolutions was going to be to read more and actually finish the books I started.  And it just so happens that one of my favorite Christian authors/bloggers, Tim Challies, released a 2017 Christian Reading Challenge, that I think will be pretty helpful with that. It’s a really cool way to challenge yourself to not just read more, but broaden the scope of what you’re reading.

Here’s how it works (from www.challies.com):

The 2017 Christian Reading Challenge is composed of 4 lists of books, which you are meant to move through progressively. You will need to determine a reading goal early in the year and set your pace accordingly.

• The Light Reader. This plan has 13 books which sets a pace of 1 book every 4 weeks.
• The Avid Reader. The Avid plan adds another 13 books which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.
• The Committed Reader. This plan adds a further 26 books, bringing the total to 52, or 1 book every week.
• The Obsessed Reader. The Obsessed plan doubles the total to 104 books which sets a demanding pace of 2 books every week.

Begin with the Light plan, which includes suggestions for 13 books. Choose those books and read them in any order, checking them off as you complete them. When you have finished those 13, advance to the Avid plan. Use the criteria there to choose another 13 books and read them in any order. Then it’s time to move to the Committed plan with a further 26 books. When you have completed the Committed plan (that’s 52 books so far!), you are ready to brave the Obsessed plan with its 104 books. Be sure to set your goal at the beginning of the year and pace yourself accordingly.

I’m planning to land somewhere between Committed (52 books) and Obsessed (104 books).  It’s a pretty lofty goal (>1 book/week), but I like a good challenge.  The only extra rule I gave myself is no books that I’ve read in the past year. There are a handful on my list that I’ve read before though because I love to re-read my favorites.

If you want to join me, I stepped up my nerd game even further and made a Google doc to keep track.  There is a blank template tab, one with the books I’m reading, and one for recommendations or books I haven’t decided where to put yet.  Please feel free to copy the template into your own doc or make a tab for yourself in mine!  I’d love to see what you’re all reading, and I’d also love your recommendations on the third tab.  I’ve already suckered a few other friends into joining me, so you’ll be in good company.

If you see any books on my list that you want to read, let me know and I’ll send them to you when I’m done.  Seriously, I need to make space on my bookshelf.