So I threw around some ideas in my head for an inaugural post, and I hated to jump the gun and post something terribly thought-provoking when I’m not terribly sure if many people know this place exists, so I decided I’d start pretty low gear but on a topic that I find interesting.

What am I currently reading?

I am a huge advocate for reading.. and not the passive kind of reading you do to cram material for a test. No, I’m talking about soak-it-in, wisdom-gleaning reading. The kind that makes you have to re-read passages over again just to make sure you understood them. The real kind of reading! To be completely honest, I’m not terribly amazing at this kind of reading, I think for most people (including myself) it can be somewhat exhausting. But it is so rewarding.

I keep a small stack of books by my bedside that I dip in and out of. I have a devotional, a fiction, and a nonfiction. The devotional is good because it’s directly based off/expositing a scripture passage and allows me to meditate on a certain sections of the Word during the day. The nonfiction is good because it teaches truth from people much smarter than I who have studied much longer than I have. The fiction is good because it exercises the imagination and the creative psyche.

Currently, I’ve got my nose in and out of Charles H. Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening (revised and edited by Alistair Begg), J. I. Packer’s Knowing God, and Ted Dekker’s The Circle saga. I really thoroughly enjoy all of them. I love Spurgeon.. what a thoughtful and passionate truth-communicator. Packer is more timely but his adages read as timeless as well. Dekker is good; imaginative, and a master weaver of high fantasy extended metaphors.

So, if there’s any one out there, sound off! What are you currently reading? It could be anything from a Lolcat anthology to the dictionary for all I care. The point is.. what is it? If you’re not reading anything, I very much encourage you to pick up a book and dive in!

-Riley