I received an excellent question from a dear friend of mine concerning what is the best approach for reading good books. Here are his questions and then my reply:

"Dear Mack, You've been reading good books for a long time now. If you could go back and do all of your reading over again, would you do anything different? Read different books? More books? Fewer books? More books by the same author? Take better notes? Forget taking notes? I think you get the gist of my questions."

My Reply

Reading! What a gift, what a discipline, what a benefit, what a friend, what an important thing! If I could do it over again, I would:

1. Read more systematically. I would always be reading something in a planned way, setting aside time for scheduled reading regardless of my situation or schedule.

2. Read more prayerfully. I would spend more time praying about what book to read next. We are not ready for some books, nor will they benefit us right now like they would in the future. I want to read what God would have me read now. And I would pray as I read, because my goal is not to fill my head or increase in knowledge but to be taught of God.

3. Read with more balance. I would read more broadly and with more mixture. For example, I would read a biography, then a work of theology, then a work on prayer, then a book on something from the New Testament, then something on an Old Testament work, then church history, then something on apologetics, etc. It is easy to read only what we most enjoy, but that isn't best for us in the long scheme of things. I would even read some influential books that are totally wrong if particular ones are really influencing people around me—for example, I read a good bit of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins several months ago, which really helped me think through some of the arguments of nonbelievers.

4. Read with more discernment. I would put down any book that I am not understanding or that I'm laboring to read, and I would come back to it later. If the same thing happened again, I would take it from the Lord that the book is not for me.

5. Read the best authors. I would find out the very best authors in all of church history, and I would read everything they wrote. For me, that means all of John Bunyan, A. W. Tozer, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J. C. Ryle, Francis Schaeffer, etc. Many popular authors really only give you cotton candy, not meat to make you stronger. The three volumes of Bunyan's complete works are the education of a lifetime—in my opinion, he's the best.

6. Take notes. I have never taken notes in my own reading, but that's probably because I lacked the discipline to do it. I would get some notebooks and summarize the books I read.

7. Read for heart-change. I would focus primarily on books that feed me spiritually. We don't need books that are merely informative or information-giving, but we do need food for the heart that draws us to Christ and spurs us to godliness and holy living.

8. Take a break! Each year, I would take a break from books for a month. During that time, I would read only the Bible and concentrate on prayer. Take an annual sabbatical from reading books!

I hope this is helpful in some way.

Happy reading!

Mack Tomlinson is a teaching elder at Provdence Baptist Chapel in Denton, Texas, and conducts an itinerant preaching ministry around the U.S. and abroad. He also serves on the Advisory Board for HeartCry Missionary Society.