Setting a Reading Goal for the Year

/8 Comments/in , /by
ID-10088830

Photo courtesy of “adamr”/Freedigitalphotos.net

I thought I read a lot of books. Well, I thought I did. Judging by the many I people I see over various internet sites who read 100s of books every year, my number pales into insignificance.

Oh well, I’m not really fussed by that. I’ll keep working my list and good on those who can read more.

Over the past 4 years I’ve tracked what I’ve read. I’m old school by simply recording them on a running tally I keep at the back of my moleskin. When I start a new moleskin, I simply transfer the list.

This year I’m committed to using some form of technology. It may be a simple blog post that I keep updating. Or maybe I’ll use Goodreads. No doubt there’s a groovy app I can download onto my iphone or ipad. I’d be grateful for any suggestions.

In 2009, I read 40, 2010:52, 2011:64 and 2012:75.

So some good year on year growth I reckon, but declining in percentage terms each year.

Read more

A Q&A with Tosca Lee …

/4 Comments/in /by

Iscariot Cover FinalToday  is release day for Iscariot by Tosca Lee. I’m been eagerly anticipating its release since hearing about last year. Tosca is the esteemed author of Demon and Havah plus she co-authored, with Ted Dekker, the three “Books of Mortals”: Forbidden, Mortal and Sovereign (releasing May 2013).

I joined Tosca’s tribe, the “Midnight Garden”, which, amongst many fun interactions, has assisted in helping promote Iscariot. Tosca has been an active participant in the Facebook forum, posting multiple times each day and night. It’s been a wonderful insight into watching the machinations of a book as it nears launch. In addition, the build-up and anticipation for the release has been exciting to experience.

Many of us in the Midnight Garden (MG) prepared questions for Tosca, which she very generously answered. I’ve selected a handful of those questions from various “luminaries” (as we are affectionately known by Tosca) including myself to feature below.

Read more

“Invitation to Solitude and Silence”, Ruth Haley Barton

/1 Comment/in , , , /by

835454_w185I felt invited to adopt ” Silence” as my word for 2013.

Funnily, enough as I looked around for some wise counsel on the subject, I was led to this beautiful work that has been sitting on my bookshelves for a few months. I can’t recall why I bought it originally, however, now sense some divine purpose in it.

This is a delightful book to read. It is filled with some tremendous Biblical insight regarding Elijah’s journey into the wilderness in 1 Kings 19. This revelation underpins the gentle flow of Ruth Haley Barton’s musings.

In sharing her journey where time with the Lord in solitude and silence has become a common daily practice, Ruth guides the reader with wisdom and practical application. There are many wonderful supporting quotes from the likes of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen.

I’m 25 days into the new year and am thankful for reading this wonderful guide as I dive deep into seeking to better experience God and all He has for me. I expect I’ll be reading it a few more times before the year is up.

Highly recommended.

My Best Books of 2012

/4 Comments/in , /by

One aspect of the end of year wrap-ups I love is reading all the “Best of…” lists. So I reviewed the 75 books I’ve read in the past 12 months to determine my own Best Books of 2012.

In fact, I’ve got two lists: A Top 5 Fiction and a Top 10 Non-fiction.

Let’s start with the novels.

Top 5 Fiction

I was a little disappointed in myself this year that I didn’t read from a more diverse range of novels. So many of my favourite authors released new material that I tended to stick to a lot of tried and true authors, both in the Christian and secular markets.

As I spent a decent part of the year editing Angelguard, I also adhered to one of the common recommendations for budding authors: read in your genre. So lots of supernatural suspense type books made up my reading list.

I want to change that in 2013 by reading more widely. In particular, I’d like to read more of the classics.

Read more