Round the Sphere Again: Reading
Friday, December 31, 2010 at 9:54AM 
The Bible
Do you have a plan for your Bible reading in the coming year? Nathan Bingham posted a long list of Bible reading plans you could use. I’ve done the whole Bible plans in the past, and I acknowledge their benefits for showing the big picture, but I find them excruciating. I hate doing the kind of fast reading/skimming of the text that I have to do to get through the daily readings. Last year I covered just the gospel of John and Romans in my reading/studying/poring over the text. Most people would find my pace painfully slow, but it works for me. This year I’ll be tackling Ephesians first, and after that I’ll move on to an Old Testament book, maybe Leviticus.
Update: Justin Taylor also has a list of Bible reading plans, including a Bible reading record by Don Whitney that would be useful for someone who is reading through the Bible the way I am.
Other Books
There’ve been more than a few top 10 of 2010 lists posted by others. If I did one of those, it’d include almost every book I read during 2010. (I told you I read slowly.) But here’s a shorter list of books I read in 2010 that were particularly valuable to me and that I recommend to you.
- 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer. Easy to read and extremely useful for anyone who wants to understand the Bible better.
- Always Ready by Greg Bahnsen. An intro to presuppositional apologetics. As I wrote in my review, “If you desire to ‘be ready to give a defense for the hope’—and shouldn’t every believer want this?—you will surely benefit from the substance of this book.”
- The God Who Is There by D. A. Carson. I didn’t get around to reviewing this one but I’m putting it on my list anyway. Read this to gain an understanding God’s purpose in history.
- Unleasing the Word by Max Mclean and Warren Bird. I didn’t review this one, either, but if you ever read scripture out loud in public and you want to do the text justice (and who wouldn’t?), this little gem will be invaluable. (And speaking of Max McLean, did you know his whole performance of the gospel of Mark is available online? (Justin Taylor))
Reader Comments (5)
I liked your posts about "40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible," and I bought a copy. Looking forward to reading it.
I know what you mean about the hurried pace of the regular bible reading schedules. I decided to try one that goes through in two years.
I'm going to try an expedited reading plan this year since I've done the year rounds and I've done the single book focus years. Last year I just focused on 1 Corinthians, Numbers, Leviticus and Hebrews and I'm still in Hebrews but I want to keep that going while doing the expedited hopefully every 70 days or so. We'll see.
Happy New Year Rebecca.
I am with you! I rather study in depth different books of the Bible; right now I am studying Romans and will be soon tackling Matthew; while memorizing Philippians.
Thanks for all you give!
Happy New Year, Sister.
Excruciating! Exactly. lol. I'm using MacArthur's through the Bible in a year only doing just the OT in the am. Trying not to get too sidetracked with questions (that's pretty much impossible though!). That way I can save the rest of my study time for digging deeper into NT books and subjects. Have a blessed Lord's Day!