I read a lot of books. Somewhere between 20-30 a year, even more when I can figure out how the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library works. Everyone in my family reads like this (more or less) also. My dad will put down a whole novel in a night. Even my grandparents read for most of their leisure time; which is actually kind of hilarious because we set my 91 year old graddad up with a Kindle, he has to max out the font, but he loves it.

Apparently reading challenges are a thing, that’s why I made one. However, when I tell people this, they seem somewhat shocked, as if it were some insurmountable number. I think it is because so many people don’t want to put the effort in of one book after the other, or if they pick up a big book, they hate the idea of try to slog through it. My wife does this. That’s why I think people should read multiple books at once. I’m currently reading an 800 page book on the 20^th century American presidents. I’m not going to come home and read that every night. Just like TV or music or movies, sometimes you want something a little different.

That’s why I’m always(ish) reading at least five books. I have them broken down into five different categories, with some overlap. So, it’s not that I read all five every day, but in a given week or so, I do. My guess would be that I get through them faster than reading five books, one after the other, which actually wouldn’t work for my first category anyway.

Devotional – This is how I start my day. Just a quick 5-10 minutes in the morning before I head to work. Right now, I’m reading Morning by Morning, which will take all year, but if you picked a few different 30-40 day devotionals, you’d knock-out 10 books a year with just a few minutes in the morning.

Book of the Bible with related commentaries – I’m doing First Peter right now with the Tyndale commentary, but have also read through bits of others. Again, you do two or three bible studies a year, and that’s three more books.

Some other Christian book – This would be something like a book on fasting or a systematic theology or one of the counterpoint books. Sometimes, I’ll do two in this category simultaneously. I think most Christians would do well to pick up at least two of these a year.

Non-fiction – Pretty broad, but usually, for me, history, auto-biography/memoir, politics/economics, or biography. This is another category where I may do two at a time, if they are different enough. This is another category where most people should grad at least two a year.

Novel – Usually Grisham, Crichton, or whatever I can get from the lending library but can also be classics. I will often read two at once here as well, usually one modern and one classic. I’d say people should be knocking out four to five of these a year.

There you have it. If you can follow these basic categories (or make up your own if you are less theologically inclined) you could pound out 17 to 22 books a year, easy.