The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.  (I Timothy 4:13)

“The man who doesn’t read is no better off than the man who cannot read,” – unknown

“Education is abundant, willingness to learn is scarce” – Naval Ravikant

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers” – Harry S. Truman

“The difference between everyone you look up to and those you do not is that the former are readers.” – unknown

Charles Spurgeon was reading theological books by Puritans in his grandfather’s library by age 10. He read constantly and widely. It is said that he read six books a week.  He possessed a twelve thousand-volume puritan library of which he read all of the volumes.

George Whitefield read Matthew Henry’s Commentary four times during his lifetime.

John Gill, Spurgeon’s predecessor at New Park Street Chapel, modeled the same thing. Gill’s formal education ended at age 11, partway through grammar school, because of the government requirement that every student attend services in the Anglican church. His father, a deacon in a Baptist church, refused to compromise his spiritual convictions. But John mastered Hebrew using a grammar book and spent so much time at the Kettering Bookshop that he became a local proverb. The people would remark, “That is as sure as John Gill is in the bookseller’s shop.”

B.H. Carroll (1843-1914), the first president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, “read history, all history, ancient, mediaeval, modern, civil, political and religious; biography and autobiography he absolutely devoured. He read all science, all romance, all poetry. For at least sixty of his seventy-one years, he averaged reading 300 pages a day. During his latter years even more than that. Only a little while before his death he was known to average 1,000 pages a day for ten consecutive days. … He always read history with a map before him, and always kept near him the best and latest of the world’s atlases.” He told one young preacher, “My boy, you are in great danger. You have no library and do not read” (Dr. B.H. Carroll: The Colossus of Baptist History). 

John Wesley exhorted a preacher friend as follows: “What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps by neglecting it you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep: there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it any more than a thorough Christian. O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no; read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty, superficial prayer” (John Wesley to John Trembeth, August 1760)

William Evans, in his course on preaching, said, “Reading good books acts as water poured down a dry pump–it primes … To be prolific in thought one must be a faithful reader. Reading makes a wise man. The constant reader will not be at a loss for thoughts. The man who does not read much will not make much of a preacher. One good sermon a day, and one good book a week, at least, ought to be the intellectual diet of every man who would be a good preacher. Not to read is to have nothing to draw from except oneself, and ofttimes one feels himself to be a dry subject indeed. Reading is a tonic; it has a reactionary effect upon the mind” (Evans, How to Prepare a Sermon, 1912).

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “I have known men in the ministry, and men in various other walks of life who stop reading when they finish their training. They think they have acquired all they need; they have their lecture notes, and nothing further is necessary. The result is that they vegetate and become quite useless. Keep on reading” (Preaching and Preachers, p. 177).

Sometimes preachers say regarding their learning, “I am like D.L. Moody!”  They use the great evangelist as an excuse for their lack of study and reading.  However, all of Moody’s biographers agree that Moody was a prodigious reader.  In my library is a copy of D.L. Moody’s book, “1001 quotes from my Library.”  The former shoe salesman turned evangelist cites 100’s of books he read in his library.  Unlettered Moody was a voracious reader.

Avoid Sponge Bob Square Pants Brain:

Kids who watched just nine minutes of the fast-paced children’s cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants” afterward do worse with tasks requiring focus and self-control.  Fast frenetic movement causes confusion and taxes the brain.  Could social media be doing the same thing?  Many argue that is and it might actually be rewiring our brains!

“One thing is very clear: if, knowing what we know today about the brain’s plasticity, you were to set out to invent a medium that would rewire our mental circuits as quickly and thoroughly as possible, you would probably end up designing something that looks and works a lot like the Internet.”  “The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.  My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.  Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words.  Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”  – Nicholas Carr in The Shallows What the internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

“If we have forgotten how to read, we’ve lost more than delight in literary treasures.  We’ve lost the ability to read the Bible consistently and attentively.  What then happens to our relationship with God?  We have, indeed, lost part of ourselves in ways infinitely detrimental to our souls” – Recovering the Lost Art of Reading.

“We have to build a fortress with walls strong enough to withstand the temptations of that powerful dopamine rush while also providing shelter for an environment that allows deep reading to flourish.  Christians especially need that sheltering space, for quiet meditation is one of the most important spiritual disciplines.”  – Philip Yancey in “The Death of Reading is Threatening the Soul.”

Some Tips For Reading Books:

1. To maximize your reading comprehension:
   • Read a summary.  Summaries for most books can be found quickly on YouTube, Wikipedia, or google.  Reading or watching a summary of a book gives us the general outline and purpose of the book, greatly increasing our reading speed and comprehension. 
   • Peruse the book. Read all the chapter headings, thumb through the book, and look at some paragraph headings.  Perusing the book helps us see the rhythm and melody of the book.
   • Watch a lecture. Most all current books are spoken about and lectured from by the author.  YouTube and podcasts apps are an easy way to find these talks.  Listening to the books creator helps us better understand the purpose of the book and helps hear the author’s voice as we read. 
2. To Read Faster:
   • Guide your eyes with a pen or highlighter.
   • Use your periphery vision. Read the edge of the margins with the periphery view of your eyes.  Not allowing our eyes to go to the edges of the page when reading saves much time. 
   • Do not “subvocalize.”  This means that when we read, we say words in our heads and form them in our mouths.  Instrumental music and chewing gum are known remedies to distract us from doing this. 
3. To maximize your reading retention:
   • Feel everything, visualize what is taking place in the story, and have a conversation with the book.  Write in the margins, write questions, and highlight what is profound to you. 
   • Read in intervals and take quick breaks.  Most people’s best reading happens in twenty-minute spurts.  After twenty minutes water the plants or feed the dog, then jump back into your reading. 
   • Start a mastermind journal  (Also known as a commonplace book). Write down or at least summarize all of your highlights in the books you have finished.  This practice will help you remember what you have read.  The mastermind journal will be a great resource for you.  Make sure and review your journal from time to time.
   • Reread! The best reading is rereading!  There are great books that stand apart from others.  We should master by rereading them.

“Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be ‘much not many’” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students).

 “I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.” – C. S. Lewis How To Read More Books?

4. To Read More Books:

• Make a habit of reading.  Have a time and a place every day when you read.  Twenty minutes is a great time target and by doing this you will read approximately eighteen books in a year.

• Always have a book with you.  We have more free time than we realize.  Doctors’ offices, lunch breaks, waiting to pick up children, etc…all provide reading time.

• Listen to books.  We can listen to audio books while mowing the lawn, snow blowing the driveway, on walks, or on the way to work.

• Use Immersive Reading. Listen to audiobooks while reading the same physical book.  By doing this you can speed up the audio version to 2.0-2.4 speed.  I have personally found this method to be like a reading superpower.