For the past couple of years our pastor, Rob Ketterling, has made it his goal to read 100 books. We’re not talking Kindergarten fiction here, we’re talking serious books – interesting looking books. Pastor Rob is a reader. I am a reader wanna be. When I’ve traveled on mission teams with him, he’ll take a walk around the plane about seven hours into a flight and say, “so far, I’ve written my sermon for next week, taken a nap, and finished three books.” Oh please, I’m generally on page 50 by then and have taken two or three naps. (I think I take shorter naps than he does.)
Don’t get me wrong though, my reading issue only pertains to non-fiction books. Set a novel in my hands and I’ll read until I need to hold my eyelids open with toothpicks. I don’t even allow myself to read fiction at home because then everything falls apart until I’m done with the book. I save fiction reading for trips, which makes traveling even more fun. I LOVE fiction books. Still, I’m a painfully slow reader.
At the beginning of 2007 I decided to set a goal for reading non-fiction books. I have a few dozen on my shelves as I purchase them regularly with great intentions of reading them. And, in my defense, I have read parts of many books but, generally I get side tracked part way through. I’m sure you are wondering what my goal is for 2007. It’s four. I know, I know, not too many but truly, this is a lofty goal for me. Oh, and my rule is I have to read them from cover to cover.
So, the good news is that I know I’ve finished FIVE books as of this evening. The bad news is, I only remember the titles of four of them. This is driving me nuts! So, if I shared with you (probably this summer) the name of a book I was reading would you let me know what it is? Seriously, how can I forget the title of one of FIVE books? I can see forgetting it’s general content, but the title? Aagh!!!
Here are the ones I remember reading:
Every Woman’s Battle by Shannon Ethridge
In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
Bonding with the Blonde Women by Ellie Lafaro
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper
I still have a few chapters left in a Beth Moore book and I’m halfway through another book by Kay Cole James. Both are great books but I seem to be experiencing my typical reading A.D.D. with them. With some perserverance I’ll finish the Beth Moore book by the end of the year, getting my total to six! That is of course, if I can actually count the one I don’t remember.
I have a stack of books waiting for me to read in 2008. I’ll set a higher goal for next year but it still won’t be 100. I’ll leave that for Pastor Rob.