Reading: Leadership as an Identity

About 3 months ago I've joined a  group of men I know for quite some time to start a men's book club so to speak. All of us are involved in some kind of Christian Ministry so we decided to meet once a month and read together a book on leadership. As we all read many books on this topic we were presented by one from Moody Publishers which a friend of mine read this summer.

My bookshelf

Here I'll update a list of all the books I have at home and make a note if I have read them or not.

This will not the be for bragging purposes as I don't have that many books, and to be honest I need to define my policy on getting new books. I'm torn apart between buying new (not necessarily brand new) books or just  borrowing from friends or library. I still need to decide if I'm more of a book reader or a book collector.

At the same time, I'll try and place a tag "mybookshelf" on the posts that talk about book/s which I own.

Reading Jesus was a Jew by A. Fruchtenbaum

About 2 weeks ago I started reading "Jesus was a Jew" by Arnold Fruchtenbaum. I was introduced to Fruchtenbaums messages few years ago by listening some tapes ( I know, I know, tapes right). Anyway, some of his insights to Jewish religion, history and common Jewish life were brilliant. If you want to check some of his ministry, I'm sure there are parts of his sermons and teachings that could be freely downloaded.

Regarding this book, but I'm kinda sure it somehow applies to all Fruchtenbaum's expository writing is this over-sectioning when he writes. He's splitting a single verse in 3 different parts with 4 subsections for each part and 3 different applications for each subsection. While I guess this is a proper expository work, you might sometimes get a bit bored as you are reading through the same Bible passage for the 4th time as he is now emphasizing another point in the same word. As much as he's got rich and wonderful insight he sometimes get's carried away in stating the obvious.
Or maybe I'm reading his books in a wrong way. Don't know. I still have to finish "how to read a book". ;-)
D

"How to read a book" - Notes on asking questions

As I told you earlier, I've only borrowed "How to read a book" so I can't really mark pages, underline quotes and make stars where I see them fit. So I decided to keep notes on things I find interesting while reading different books.

Since I really can't go back now and make notes on all first 50 pages, I'll just put 4 questions that needs to be asked and answered for anyone to become successful active reader.

• What us the book about as a whole?
• What us being said in detail, and how?
• Is the book true, in whole or part?
• What of it?

I know this might sound silly, but I never before thought of the last two questions as being part of active reading process. It was 3 weeks ago when I was skimming one of the books my coworker was reading that I was frustrated by how not true was what the writer was saying. Never before have I thought of it as means of my mental judgment in being and active reader. 

And of course, the last question. What happens next? Is there anything I should do based on what I have read. Is there a call to action? Do I feel I'm being changed or challenged by the book or it's author? I still need to put more thought into this, but I found it very interesting. 

And finally one quote from p. 48

"Good books are over your head, they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up to their level. It is not the stretching that tires you, but the frustration of stretching unsuccessfully because you lack the skill to stretch effectively."

Take care. Read well.

Daniel

Do you read more books at once?

Not sure if you are like me, but I almost never read one book at a time. Not sure why to be honest. I guess I find myself bored if the book is advancing too slow for my taste, or is being repeated from chapter to chapter, and I guess I just can't go without reading something in the mean time. At the moment I've got at least 3 books open, the biggest one being How to read a book by M. Adler. Still have to go an make some notes so that I don't forget what I like about it.

How to read a book

Indeed this is my first hello. Thought of starting this blog as a part of my journey thru reading different books, and hopefully making some notes as I go thru them.

I reckon, first one should be "How to read a book" by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren. Completely revised and updated edition. I borrowed this one from a friend of mine, but I hope to get a copy for myself one day as well.

Only got to about page 40 today, so I still have a lot to go thru and start making notes as well. Have to figure out how to go about tagging and categorizing these posts. But that will have to wait a bit.
See ya soon I guess.

D