The Power of the Gospel in the Here and Now

I had the privilege of preaching again this past Sunday. Here is the message, in MP3 format.

Books and Reading

Occasionally, someone will ask me, "Do you really read all those books?" I guess it's a little out of the ordinary to read 3-5 books at a time. In return, I typically ask whether they are able to have 3-5 conversations in a day, and then the discussion ends. Sorry. That sounds rude, and I don't think I sound rude when we talk about it. But I do try to explain that I read a little in each one, perhaps 3-10 pages a day. On a good day, I might get 2 hours of reading in. Most of the time, people just can't fathom reading that much. It's too bad, too. I just think people watch too much television, or engage in other mindless activity, and so waste the time that's been given to them.

To give just a little more insight into my reading, I thought I would show how I also mark and digest my books.
Before I begin a book, I will prepare two things, a highlighter (mostly yellow), and the Post-It tabs that I'll use to "highlight my highlights." Here's a picture.



I then cut these useful little flags in half, to get twice as many.



After I have all the flags cut, I "stage" them in the back of the book.



This is really useful, because as I read, I like to highlight significant passages, words, sentences, paragraphs, that really resonate with my heart. Sometimes, those highlighted passages are things I want to be able to find quickly, so I'll take one of these prepared flags, and tape it next to the highlighted section. I let the flag just barely stick out of the book when it's closed, that way I can turn to it quickly.



I've been doing this for just over a year now, and it works really great for me. Let me know what you do.

Puritan Library

I would love to build a library someday, for one purpose: To fill it with books!

I came across this site today and was even more motivated to work on filling my own library with good books. Take a look at his plan.