Twenty Minutes a Day

In college I was an English major. Growing up I was the kid who was put to bed reading, then when mom came to turn off the light I'd get the flashlight out. When mom came to get the flashlight I'd go sit by the window and read from the light of the moon. I love reading, but it seems over the last year I really haven't read that much. I always felt like I didn't have enough time to read or I wanted to read too many books and just couldn't do it. Over the summer I was encouraged back into reading with a reading plan from the girltalk ladies. It's really quite simple: start with only twenty minutes a day.

My first reaction was that wasn't enough time to actually finish a book any time soon. But look at the "statistics" of a 20-minute a day reading habit as told by John Piper,
“One of the most helpful discoveries I have made is how much can be read in disciplined blocks of twenty minutes a day. Suppose that you read slowly, say about 250 words a minute (as I do). This means that in twenty minutes you can read about five thousand words. An average book has about four hundred words to a page. So you could read about twelve-and-a-half pages in twenty minutes. Suppose you discipline yourself to read a certain author or topic twenty minutes a day, six days a week, for a year. That would be 312 times 12.5 pages for a total of 3,900 pages. Assume that an average book is 250 pages long. This means you could read fifteen books like that in one year.”

Fifteen books in a year! That's more books than I can think of wanting to read right now. Although, I'm sure if I thought about it long enough I'd find fifteen books to read. Carving out twenty minutes in my day is much more manageable (and relaxing) than being frustrated by having so many books I want to read, but no time. So, over the summer my fiancee and I began reading twenty minutes a day, but after a while we waned. Finally, this week I started to get back into my twenty minutes routine. It's been really good and refreshing.

Which leads me to where I am today. I was reading Biblical Womanhood blog, and was looking at the list of books for her fall reading challenge and was inspired to make my own list.

So far I'm in the midst of beginning (and finishing)

In Pursuit of His Glory by Gerry Fry
Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leight De Moss
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Let the Nations Be Glad! by John Piper
Sandition and other Stories by Jane Austen
The Magican's Nephew by C. S. Lewis
Miracles by C. S. Lewis

Hopefully, I'll carve some time out later to say a thing or two about each of these. What's on your reading list this fall? Leave a comment and let me know. Happy Reading!