Vacation

"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." -- Atwood H. Townsend

I have recently come to the realize that success depends on knowledge. Knowledge comes from a handful of places. The key storehouses of knowledge are found through experience, trial and error, and reading. Obviously, the quickest and least frustrating of the three is simply reading.

Rewind

I have never been a prolific reader of books. In school, I don't remember fully reading as assigned book after I finished seventh grade. There are lots of good fiction books that I wish I would have taken the time to read, but I never really like people telling me what to do without telling me why to do it, and I was always able to figure out a way to pass without doing the assigned readings. Perhaps I would be more cultured if I would have spent that resourcefulness rather doing what was asked of me!

Christ Enters

When I tasted of conversion and began to truly live for God back in 2000, I began to read the Bible a lot more than I ever had before. I also began reading Christian nonfiction books. In fact, at that time, I read some of the Left Behind fiction books. I liked learning what I learned in the nonfiction stuff. Since that time, I have collected quite an array of the so-called Christian Living books. I also have a handful of biographies. I have experienced times when I've read and times when I've not read. Up to that point, I had never really had a desire to go out and read books. I really hadn't read many magazines or newspapers either. I simply didn't read. Not for school, not for entertainment, not for learning, not for nothing.

Summer Precipitates Change

I have lately started quite a few books, but very often do not finish them. In June, I got a copy of Dave Ramsey's latest book, The Total Money Makeover. I read it in less than a week. I also have been finding quotes from some of the people that he references and they seem to be very high on reading. So I've looked into it more. In that same month, I borrowed a copy of his book Financial Peace and read it, too, within a week. I went to a discount book store the other day and bought copies of about four or five books. I have completed two more books this week. Maybe one day I'll get a bookshelf to hold all of them in instead of filling an empty closet with them.