A Book A Week For A Year: Help Me
We have all heard it said, “Leaders are readers”. I heard that Zig Ziglar reads three hours, per day!
And one huge example in my life is my wife Hannah.
I told her about this idea that I had been mulling over because I wanted her thoughts (okay, and her encouragement).
I informed her that I wanted to read a book a week for a year.
She proceeded to tell me, “What do you think I have been doing all this time?!”
At the Echo Conference, I found this notion about the importance of reading to be unspoken yet true. As I took notes I noticed something. Each breakout speaker, on average, mentioned 3.6 books during their talk (that is approximate of course, I hate math). And they didn’t read from their notes when they discussed a quote or a concept, it was clear they had soaked it up and were applying it in their field.
So, I am making that commitment. Right here, right now.
I am going to read a book a week for a year starting next week.
But I need your help.
Comment below to help me chose what I will be reading. I will be blogging about each book I read during this year long journey.
If you have an extra copy of the book (or want to buy it for me), that would be even better I am trying to keep this as free as possible
I am looking for non-fiction books that would help me as a leader, communicator, etc.
Here are a few books that are already on my list:
- Church in The Making by Ben Arment
- God Is by Craig Groeschel
- Linchpin by Seth Godin
- Forgotten God by Francis Chan
Seriously, suggest a book or a handful of books. They can even be unpublished manuscripts (for all you inspiring writers out there).
I would totally recommend “The Barbarian Way” by Edwin McManus! Awesome book! Also I haven’t read it personally, but I have heard nothing bad about it: “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream” by David Platt. That one is on my list!!
Check out “Making Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky
Sounds like a great idea and will definitely keep your blog content fresh.
Two ideas:
“Getting Naked” by Patrick Lencioni
“Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the bomb.com
“This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti. An awesomely written and fast paced Christian Thriller about a young pastor and a newspaper editor who both stumble upon the Society, a group of men and women who are being subverted by demonic forces. They must risk thier lives, thier jobs, thier reputations, and thier families to uncover the truth and bring the Society down.
I think I am going to check if they have a Kindle version and jump on that thing this weekend. Thanks for the tip, I am in the mood for fiction!
Also… “Out of the Silent Planet” by C.S Lewis is something my brothers have always recommended to me.
I feel almost un-Jesus-like to say this, but I have never heard of this book. But that makes me want to check it out even more…stay tuned, as I will post reviews once I read!
So how’re you doing in this journey? I tip my hat to you. I try to read quite a bit. Not sure I’m doing one a week. But at least two a month.
Best Preaching book: communicating for a change by andy stanley
on Assimilation/member integration= fusion by nelson searcy
He also wrote a great one on semester based small groups called activate which is really really good.
I recently read “who’s afraid of postmodernism” which goes through a recent history of the origins of post modern thought and its implications for the books.
So many books out there.
I’m just starting to read some books by Alan Roxburgh, he’s one of the originators of the conversation on the missional church movement. A great thinker. I just started one from him called “Missional Map-Making” that talks about that the skills that we learned in seminary cannot really help us anymore as we delve into this post-modern world. So it’s a scary thing, in a sense, but there’s a way to lead through it.
I have reviews of most of those on my blog if you want an executive summary.
Anyhow….kuddos to you on the reading goal. Keep it up!
I am playing a little bit of catchup this weekend, but it is still on!
Surprisingly, I have never heard of that book but I dig Andy’s communication style…
Nelson is the man, the only person that competes when it comes to that stuff is Chris Hodges (Church of the Highlands).
I am clicking over there now, thanks for stopping by!
Fit Bodies Fat Minds – Os Guinness
The Four Loves – C.S. Lewis
Rework – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
Unceasing Worship – Harold Best
City of Pearl – Karen Traviss
Dune – Frank Herbert
Rules of the Red Rubber Ball – Kevin Carroll
Oh, the Places You’ll Go – Dr. Suess
Bonhoeffer – Eric Metaxas
The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Ok, I will stop.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
I haven’t read any of them, so this is a sweet list!
Sweet! It has a little of everything including a kids book.
Also, if you are interested in any of these books I would be glad to send them to you since you are trying to keep a low budget.
Fo’ real?
Send them my way man! DM your email and I will shoot you my address – that would be HUGE!
For communications, Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath:
http://www.madetostick.com/
All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin
and the Wizards of Ads trilogy:
wizardofads.com
Made to Stick is great, we went through it as a staff this past summer.
We have listened to excerpts from Wizards of Ads, but I don’t like it as much as Made to Stick.
I will have to check out the Godin book – thanks for the suggestions!
Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Island of Shame by David Vine
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Those are all on my list of favorites…