VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion
General Discussion 2016
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Is it right to read 104 books in a year?
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I don't think right or wrong is the right question to be asking.. Everyone has different time constraints and priorities. Myself for example am a stay at home mom and I try and read whenever I have to feed my little one.. Seeing as I can't do much else- that adds up a lot of time. I wouldn't ever expect my husband to get the same amount of reading done( although it wouldn't hurt if he read a little more!) As for content - you are right that you can t possibly retain everything you read when you read that much - unless you have an amazing memory! But I've gleaned so much from what I have read and taking notes on the important stuff helps too. And I find that what I retain only builds and builds.
On the flip side you might remember more from the 13 books you read but you won't necessarily remember every detail either :)
I really think it's a matter of personality and preference as to how much you read vs retain and how you spend your time
I am aiming at 52 books. This is a stretch for me as I read about 37 last year but I am trying to use it as a means to encourage myself to read more as well as reading more intentionally. 52 books is doable for me right now since I am not working, ( I have been a stay at home mom for the last two years, but my kids are in school.) However, I am looking at getting a part-time job and that could significantly impact my reading if it means that I am too tired in the evenings to read. I also use audio books while I am doing housework. Last year at least 14 of my books were audio-books. There is no way that I could read 104 books in a year unless I rearranged my entire schedule to accommodate that, but it must work for some people. I could only do it if I did little else for my leisure activities and I am not up for that.
This is not a moral issue - it's a "challenge" -- a bit of a game, if you will. There are several benefits for me
1) it is an intentional alternative to social media and randomly losing an hour on the internet
2) the challenge provides options for expanding my reading to include topics I am not likely to have considered on my own
3) I am finding some treasures as I look at other members checklists.
4) It's also a great conversation tool: 'This year I am part of a reading challenge group...and one of the categories is "a book that someone says changed their life." Have you ever had a book impact you that significantly?' or "Hey, I'm on this reading challenge and I'm looking for a book by David McCullough. Have you read any of his stuff?"
There is no chance I will read 104 books this year ... I upped my goal from 26 to 52.... but I'm not getting obsessive about it. My dh read 106 books last year without any external admonition.... it is just what he DOES .... even at 52 books this year, I will be the literary slacker in our house..... ;-(
If it's wrong, I've been wrong most of my adult life lol. I am an avid reader. I read when I'm eating, when I'm waiting somewhere, before bed every night. I listen to audio books on my commute which is approx 35 minutes each way. I even read while I'm watching TV. My husband laughs and says I'm the only person he knows who can read & watch a movie and tell him what is happening in both. I usually average 1 book every 2-3 days. I read faster when it's a book I enjoy. My challenge is that I'm reading books I usually wouldn't read, and I'm actually keeping track. Do I retain what I read? Again, I think that depends on how much I enjoy the book. I still remember Trixie Belden books from my teenage years, but at the same time, I know I've read Lord of the Flies, but I don't really remember what happened in it :)
I think this is a really good question. It is certainly not always wrong to read 104 books in a year, but the question points out that it could be if it causes us to neglect more important things. That said, I am shooting for a minimum of 52 but am really hoping that I will reach that midyear and up it to 104. I do have a full-time job. I'm married and have three young kids. I also am doing lots of other things with my "spare" time.
I don't think I'm wrong.
I am not sure that 104 is as hard as you think. I figure that if the average book is three hundred pages. Then reading 104 books is about 600 pages per week or about 85 pages per day.
I have broken that up into snippets to try to get through the thick/dense books in this list (works by church fathers, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Russians etc.) Currently I read a few 5 - 10 page portions of 1) a thick theology book I wouldn't otherwise make it through; 2) Something from the classical world (currently I'm reading Quintilian and Herodotus). These combined don't take any longer than 1/2 hour. I'm done before the kids are up. By the time I have started my day I have about 20 pages in the bag.
Then somewhere around lunch time I read 10 pages of something long from english literature. Nicholas Nickleby takes about 15 - 20 mins. I need this kind of break in the middle of the day and would have spent it on Facebook before.
This leaves me with about 50 pages to read in the evening. I only watch about 1-2 hours of TV a week if I am lucky. For me this 50 pages or 45 - 70 mins is a great way to unwind. I have chosen to read two other books simultaneously at about 25 pages a day. One I read closely, the other I feel free to "X-Ray" in a Mortimer Adler kind of way without necessarily reading every word. Guess that makes me a cheater.
In addition to this, I also listen to audiobooks on my commute sometimes. I also try to keep some reading material on my phone so that if I get stuck in a line or a waiting room somewhere--or if I just want to take a quick break at work--I can just use that time to get some reading done. This extra makes up for the days that work, children, or the laundry apocalypse ruin all my meticulous plans.
In seminary I was told that sometimes it is a sin not to get an "A" but sometimes getting an "A" is itself a sin. Somehow I think the principle applies here too.
I think this is an interesting question. I'm aiming for 36, but will end up with more than that, and could go higher if I rearranged a few things in my life. I am a work-from-home mom, but most of my reading is done in just the hour to hour-and-a-half before I go to bed. But I also have an English degree, and reading 15-20 books (some quite long) in a semester was normal for my last couple years of college, so this isn't new to me. In fact, in the past few years I've been slacking off! My husband (the math major) has actually been reading more than I do, but he's just always got a book with him. He'll read before bed but also take a half an hour or so in the afternoon, and read a lot when he has a cold or isn't feeling well. Definitely a perk of being self-employed, but I'd like to think we'd at least still be reading regularly with "normal" jobs, we'd just have to be a lot more intentional about it.
Isaac wrote: "I think this is a really good question. It is certainly not always wrong to read 104 books in a year, but the question points out that it could be if it causes us to neglect more important things. ..."Thanks for this thoughtful response.... Your reading schedule is practical and personal ... Great to hear how you balance things..
It's an interesting question. I think it's down to every individual how they use the time to read. I used to consider myself a very slow reader and would read only 25-30 books a year.Being a part of the Reading Challenge, I started off with 52 books as my aim but as I was doing well, I have upped it now to 104. I might not complete reading all the books but I am going to give it a try. I find being part of this challenge very refreshing . I am trying categories which I would never have otherwise .
I work full time , 5 days a week. I have a toddler at home. I read all the light books while commuting and during my break. These may normally be non-fiction books. I usually read the important books after my personal devotions . What I found really helpful was disciplining my time and planning my reading . I would never substitute my Bible reading time for reading books. As for retaining , I have started taking notes for the really important books. I don't retain everything I read, but I was the same when I read less number of books too. I retain what impacts me .
Hello everyone. Firstly, thank you for being so kind and earnest in your responses. As edified I am by your responses, I hope you are edified by virtue of having even considered the question. Secondly, I am encouraged and reminded that with the variety of life indeed we all have different opportunities, energy levels, and propensity to rise to the challenge. Thirdly, I find that my excuses are not worth entertaining if I would like to take up a challenge of my own choosing.My challenge started off as 13 books. I've completed 5 so far (not bad for March!) thanks to some helpful application of audiobooks (x2), a head-start from two books I started in December, and one gripping story called "Out of the Silent Planet" by CS Lewis. It's a trilogy, so I think I'll notch the other two before end of April. I had forgotten variety of reading, as my focus recently has been on life things, non-fiction. Oh, and by the way, Project Gutenberg is pretty much the most awesome thing ever (we didn't touch on the financials of 104 books - eek!).
Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. You're great.
I think others have covered the time and discipline/planning well enough. As far as the financial aspect, ebooks can be found very cheap or free. Also, you can utilize eBay, used book stores, libraries, etc.
According to GR, I read 255 books last year. 123 of those were eaudios. Some of them were novellas or short stories. Although I read a lot, I spend very little money on books. I have a great local public library. It has more than 2000 paper Christian fiction books, more than 500 CF eaudios, and almost 400 CF ebooks. It also has a lot smaller collection of Christian nonfiction, so my choices there are slimmer. My library also has oodles of other books, and I read other genres, including (but not limited to) history, classics, biography, political, and cozy mystery. I also get lots of free Kindle books. I sometimes buy Kindle books, but the ones I buy are usually priced at just under $1. If I don’t count the school books that I had to buy, I probably spent less than $100 on books last year, and that was a lot for me to spend. I rarely bought any Kindle books before last year. I’m currently at a place in my life where I have quite a bit of time to read and a lot of time to listen to books. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the last 24 years. I have four children who have all been homeschooled, and my youngest two are 14 & 16 years old. They both are now enrolled in online classes (with real, live teachers), so I don’t have much to do with them for school. I don’t have hobbies other than reading. I listen to books as I do laundry, cooking, and other chores around the home. I also watch very little TV, so I usually read in the evening for at least two hours. I didn’t used to have all this time to read and listen, and I expect that in a few years, after my last kid has graduated, I’ll again have less time to read, because I want to do volunteer work some during the weekdays. I also want to be a helper to young moms in my church who don’t have family around to help (I’ve been blessed to have grandparents from both sides living nearby and willing to help). And I hope to be blessed with my own grandchildren in a few years; son #2 is getting married this year.
ReaderGirl wrote: "I've never heard of anyone framing reading amount in such a way (ie reading amount being responsible/irresponsible)."Hi, I'm glad you raised this, because I understand how it can be surprising as a question but still I think it's a good one to ask ourselves. If we contextualise it - and all the comments above are really helpful for that - I think it becomes more of a cautious query about moderation of a good thing. Too much sex, food, work, driving, socialising, alone time, or countless other things might be similarly irresponsible/problematic. The comments in this discussion help to highlight certain caveats or motivations which place the question in an individual's own context. The point at which we reach "too much" is subjective, but subject to wise attention to what the costs are. In truth every one of us has a "too much" point, and we need to think what it might be. We are each individually responsible for considering at what point a good thing oversteps its bounds. Ecclesiates 12:12 comes to mind - for me 52 sounds wearisome, for you it may be 400!
I don't have a TV either but I think I could save a lot of time with silly facebook timewasting. I've already identified a 20-minutes slot where I can change immediately. Thank you for the encouragement.
AlegnaB wrote: "I have a great local public library. It has more than 2000 paper Christian fiction books, more than 500 CF eaudios, and almost 400 CF ebooks."Hi, thanks for your thoughts - this stood out for me, as I'm not sure how this works... how does a library loan audio books and e-books?
(bearing in mind I expect the USA has some clever things which work with Amazon, but I don't think we have such things in South Africa)
I've found loyalbooks.com and librivox.org for free books, which are pretty well presented.
There are at least two companies that enable libraries to provide books in eaudio and ebook formats. My library uses OneClickdigital for eaudios and OverDrive for ebooks.I download ebooks in the Kindle format since I have Kindle ereaders. Not all books are available in each format. Some are not available in Kindle format, so I could use another device and format if I wanted to (but haven't yet needed to). This is the info I get about ebooks at my library's OverDrive site:
All Titles
Available Now
Format (7)
Kindle Book (9323)
OverDrive Read (10302)
EPUB eBook (10125)
Open EPUB eBook (391)
PDF eBook (3497)
Open PDF eBook (205)
MediaDo Reader (2)
So, there are currently 9323 Kindle books available to me right now. If a book I want is not available for Kindle but available in another format, I could read it on another device.
My library also offers magazine and music downloads. Each library cardholder can download three songs per week. Unlike audiobooks listened to through the OCd app and ebooks, the songs don't get automatically removed. They can be kept in whatever program you download them to (e.g. iTunes) and even put on a CD. Nobody in my family has downloaded any songs or magazines. I think my library also offers a movie/TV streaming service, but I haven't tried that, either.
I love the fun of being challenged to branch out in book choices, and basically broaden my life. But rules are meant to be broken, right? A year, 2 years, whatever. I'll take as long as I need!!! It's a worthy challenge that doesn't need a time constraint.
The closer I come to becoming a Septuagenarian (this coming January), the more free time I find available to read. So, while there is no "right" or "wrong" to obscessive reading of books, I do qualify as a book-a-holic. I have been one since I was 3 and learned to read. As long as my mind can conceive the points made in the words, I'm good! I usually have 3-5 books going at one time, in several venues and media, so wherever and whenever there is time and opportunity, I'm good!
I am really interested to find out from those of you who are aiming for 54 or 104 books, whether you have full time jobs. :-) I can't imagine any other way to read so many books. Perhaps out of my jealousy and my target of 13, my natural reaction to Tim Challies' prolific reading is to wonder if that is a responsible thing to aim at. Maybe it could be a luxury for those who have plenty of residual income or life savings and can afford to spend more than 3 hours a day reading... or perhaps I'm just a slow reader and this really is possible without encroaching on work hours and cooking/bathing/feeding children etc. However my suspicion is that achieving a goal of 104 requires a job which allows or encourages reading time (like a paid pastor perhaps), or alternatively requires skim reading a lot, and using alternative "reading" methods like audio books and such.
The other, lesser question, is how much of the content goes "in" if you're reading something new every few days.
I cast these ponderings out there to you and look forward to some insights. I'm on 3 books so far, with 2 underway (yes I'm one of those readers).