Quick Tips: Get Reading in 2017

The new year is 18 days old. How many books have you read so far this year? Author Sandra Glahn gives tips for reading in 2017.

Set Goals, Ignite Imagination, Get Reading in 2017  

English playwright Alan Bennett said, “A book is a device to ignite the imagination.” The apostle Paul encouraged readers to fill their minds with the good. For 2017, consider a plan to ignite your imagination with what’s good.

· One per week. One friend determines to read fifty books annually. She devours best-sellers, classics, fiction, non-fiction, and even old sermons. One year she discovered an unlikely favorite—a 1746 Jonathan Edwards message.  

· One per country. Books allow us to dream through travel. Another friend is reading one book set in every country. The Thoenes’ Jerusalem Chronicles take readers to Israel. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, takes readers to a Siberian labor camp. Isabel Kuhn’s In the Arena allows readers to witness the Spirit’s work in China. Bruchko does the same in the Amazon.

· Books by dead Christians. Author Eugene Peterson tells of a new believer disillusioned by contemporaries. He walked into a store and requested “books by dead Christians.” The result? Introduction to A. W. Tozer. Such books have been tested and vetted.

What will you read in 2017? Edwards? Kuhn? Tozer? Plan now to ignite your imagination and feed your spirit.

What are you reading right now? Share in the comments section. I am reading YA novel "Orbiting Jupiter" which is about a 13 year old boy in foster care.

Sandra Glahn (PhD, UT Dallas) teaches at Dallas Theological Seminary, her alma mater. She is the author or coauthor of more than 20 books, including the CBA bestseller and Christy Award finalist, Lethal Harvest. You can order it here.

Visit her website here.