Ok, so I have a problem. It’s more than a problem; it’s an addiction. There I said it. The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, right? Of course, I’m not sure I want to recover from this problem. That’s probably another problem.
I have a book addiction.
But it gets worse. My wife has the same addiction. So do my three daughters. We are doomed. When we moved from Montana to Texas three years ago, our moving van was half filled with books…over 100 boxes. While in seminary, I have easily added another 10-15 boxes. In my study, I have ten bookshelves crammed with books, and on top of every shelf is a pile of books almost to the ceiling. Out in the garage, there are 20-30 boxes of books that I was not able to unpack because there wasn’t room in my study.
And I am not just a “book collector.” There is not a single book I own that I don’t want to read. The ones I don’t want to read, I give away, throw out, or sell on Amazon. I want to read every single book I own.
Here’s why I am posting this. I counted today, and in my pile of books that I absolutely MUST read as soon as possible, there were 191 books. With a lot of pain and heart-wrenching agony, I was able to narrow it down to just 40. As I looked over these 40 books, I realized that they fell into three categories: Bible backgrounds, church planting/leadership, and missional living.
That tells me a lot about what I want to do with my life and where I am headed. I want to understand the Bible so that I can take what it says and lead a church to reach out into this world with the love of Jesus Christ. Even as I think about this, it gets me excited.
So what’s on your reading list, and what does it tell you about who you are?
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Hey another book junkie! Glad to know there are others out there!
Jim
Hello, my name is David & I am an addict as well. So is my wife. We just moved into our first house (Thank You, Lord!) & as we were puttinig up bookshelves (7 large ones in the “Study”) some neighbor boys were here & one said, “Are y’all building a library or something?” Could be worse addictions I suppose!
Ha ha!
I was down at Southern Methodist University doing some research last week (on one of my seven “heretical” ideas), and they have the most amazing theological journal stacks. It’s this huge room, and all the bookshelves on these electronic mechanical rolling tracks, so you can get twice the books in the same amount of room. There are no real isles, so to get to a book, you press a button, and a shelf rolls away from all the others, and voila! an isle. I drooled.