I don’t think Christians read enough or think enough today. When it comes to reading, our first priority is to read the Bible, but after that surely it must be helpful to read books that help us to understand the Bible and books that help to bring us closer to the Lord; books that show us how as Christians we ought to live. 

Long ago the preacher got it right when he wrote:

The words of the wise are like goads [spiked sticks used to drive livestock], and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Ecclesiastes 12:11-12

For myself, I usually try to have a couple of books on the go at any one time (though inevitably the pile of unfinished books by my bedside grows and grows until it topples over and I start again!). By no means am I a fast reader, an expert reader or the most diligent reader. But if you’re prepared to take some tips from a twenty-something who hasn’t exactly perfected the art of reading, then here they are.

1. ‘Tolle, lege!’ (‘Pick up and read’)

If you’ve never read Augustine of Hippo’s conversion story (as related in his autobiographical Confessions), then you absolutely must. I won’t spoil it all, but a key moment happened when he sat in a garden with a copy of the Bible next to him. A child’s voice said in Latin ‘Tolle, lege! Tolle, lege!’ which means ‘Pick up and read, pick up and read!’ He promptly picked up the book of Romans, read a couple of verses, was converted and became one of the greatest theologians the world has ever seen.

Things happen when people pick up books and read them. Books fire up the mind and awaken the imagination far more than TV shows or YouTube videos usually do. When we put down our phones and pick up books, our lives are changed. 

I fell in love with reading when I was about eight or nine. For a good decade or so I immersed myself mostly in children’s fiction, reading and re-reading my favourite stories again and again. However, I always struggled to get into more serious theological or devotional works. Each year my dad would buy me a Puritan paperback in the hope that it might strike a chord, but it would usually just end up on the shelf, along with my rapidly expanding library of other books that I’d barely flicked through.

A key breakthrough came when I realised sometimes you just have to get on with it: persevere, keep going, ‘pick up and read’. So, nowadays, I plod on through and rarely regret the plodding, in fact, I love it. It’s like swimming in the sea: it’s often cold and unpleasant at first (in Britain at least!), but it’s ‘alright once you’re in’, when you swim around a bit you really start to enjoy it. And many get addicted to so-called ‘cold water swimming’! Some of the best books I’ve read have been intimidating at first and taken me eons to get through (the first John Owen books I read each took almost a year, and they were abridgments!). I’ve struggled, given up, gone away and come back to chip away again.

I think you have to be realistic about what you can read, what goals you set for yourself, but—if you set your mind to it—it’s often more than what you might think. We’re all different, so what works for you might not work for me and vice versa. Even a page or two each day is progress. We make time for what is important in our lives, why not make a bit of time, even just 15 minutes a day, for reading? 

2. Read the best books

I’m sometimes overwhelmed at times by the number of books I want to read—and those I think I ought to read (there is sometimes a happy overlap!). I’m always daunted by these bloggers who seem to manage to read over a hundred books over the course of a year. I’m guessing that most of us probably aren’t like them. We don’t read enough, so the books that we do read should be the best books.

But there is a lot of drivel out there, it must be said! 

The Puritan Richard Baxter recognised that life is short and you can’t read everything: 

It is not the reading of many Books which is necessary to make a man wise or good: But the well reading of a few, could he be sure to have the best.1

In terms of Christian books, I find reading a balance of more serious theology along with more easier-going devotional, historical and biographical works to be the most profitable. If I’m fresh and raring to go, I’ll tackle the big hitter; if I’m tired at the end of a long day, I’ll go for something lighter. The best books are the ones that make you think. The best books are worth re-reading again and again. The best books are often the older books, as C.S. Lewis writes:

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones. Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.2

Sometimes it’s not even the best books so much as the best paragraphs or sentences. John Piper is fond of saying ‘books don’t change people, paragraphs do—sometimes sentences’.

3. Take notes and discuss with others

If you’re anything like me then often what you read goes in one eye and pretty much straight out the other. The information overload and attention deficit common to our generation probably doesn’t help matters. What I remember one lady called ‘plug-in drugs’ have adversely affected our ability to focus and remember.

I’ve found one sure-fire method of retaining at least something of what I read is to take notes as I go. I underline and annotate liberally with a pencil—depending on the book—I wouldn’t dare defile a Folio edition, or shock, horror, a library book in such a way! I keep a notebook in which I jot down quotations and thoughts prompted by what I read. You may not be like me, but it’s certainly worth giving note-taking a go to see if it floats your boat or not. I find it helpful to use the blank page in the front of the book to write down the page number(s) of the juicy nuggets that speak to me, along with a little summary of what it was all about. This way, at a glance, on a single page, I can see that really helpful paragraph or sentence from a particular book.

The other thing that I think can make a real difference is talking about what you read with other believers. Or, better still, reading a book with other people and discussing it as you go. Some churches read books together regularly. Starting a ‘church book of the term’ or a regular reading group is an excellent way to ‘encourage one another and build one another up’ (2 Thessalonians 5:11).

As with all these things, it’s all a bit subjective and idiosyncratic. I think you have to find what works for you. 

4. Read with your Bible open as well

Recently I’ve found the best way to read Christian books, especially works of a theological or devotional nature with lots of Scripture references, is to view reading them like an extension of your Bible time. Christian books are best read with your Bible open beside you.

When an author refers in passing to a particular verse or passage, look it up. Read it in its context. This also helps keep you on your toes, better able to spot any misuse of Scripture texts. I fear a lot of writers (and I’ve certainly been guilty of this at times too), can sometimes throw in Scripture references willy-nilly to try to back up their argument, rather than immersing themselves in a passage and then writing as the Holy Spirit directs them through the word.

The best Christian books are the ones that leave you amazed, not at a writer’s skill or grasp of a particular subject, but at the source: Scripture itself and what it tells you about the God who made this world and came into it as the Man Christ Jesus to save it. Books like that show the authors themselves are those who don’t so much have a high view of themselves as a high view of Scripture. Christian books are only useful to us insofar as they point us back to the word of God. Scripture is the only firm ground in the marshy bog all around us.

So, brothers and sisters, as you read, pray for the Holy Spirit’s help in reading each book that He will drive you, as with a goad, to deepen your understanding and cause you to walk closer with Him, to lead you to love and immerse yourself in the book of books, the Bible.

▶ Footnotes
  1. Richard Baxter, ‘A Christian Directory’, Q. 174, available online at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26892.0001.001/1:7.190  ↩︎
  2. C. S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius, On the Incarnation, translated by a religious of C.S.M.V., available online at https://bishoysblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/on-the-incarnation-athanasius.pdf ↩︎

Further resources

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/23-tips-from-23-years-of-book-reading

https://www.eatwritesleep.com/where-to-buy-christian-books/

https://www.eatwritesleep.com/2025/02/11-bible-resources-every-christian-needs/