I’m excited to start sharing monthly book recommendations with you! What to Read Next will be recommendations geared towards moms and will cover a variety of genres. My thought is to recommend one book that generally fits into the month/season of the year we’re in (think cozy novel for October, organizational book in January, etc.).
To kick things off, this month I’ve chosen Andrew David Naselli’s How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers.
I personally love books about books. I am always wanting to learn more about how, when, and what to read! So How to Read a Book looked like a perfect fit for me. I was so excited to get this that I even pre-ordered it.
And it did not disappoint!
Andrew Naselli is a professor of systematic theology at Bethlehem College and Seminary and has studied with Don Carson and John Piper. He briefly discusses each of these men in the book and how they read, which I found to be fascinating!
Naselli describes his book as the Christian version of Mortimer Alder’s classic How to Read a Book. Naselli argues first that we should read for three reasons: to live, to grow, and to enjoy. But first of all we must first be readers and students of God’s Word. He offers some great tips on how to study your Bible and commentaries to read.
He goes on to detail three levels of reading and how different books require different kinds of reading. I found this to be so liberating! I have always been a slow reader, feeling like I had to read every word in a book or I hadn’t truly finished it. But Naselli quotes Francis Bacon’s wise quip, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Naselli additionally addresses the Why, How, What, and When you should read. I found that each chapter helped me rethink the way I approach my own reading life. It was highly motivating!
At the end of the book, he includes his list of personal book recommendations. I do wish this list had been a bit more thorough, but it includes some good classics. He does include a variety of recommendations throughout the entire book though (I highlighted them as I came across them).
This book is absolutely worth your time. It’s brief, very helpful, and will motivate you in your reading life!
How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers by Andrew David Naselli, 206 pages, published in 2024 by Canon Press.
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