“I have seen with the eyes of my heart the great hope to which he has called us, but out of some shyness or diffidence I rarely speak of it.” (Frederick Buechner)

Lord let that no longer be the case in my life, give me a boldness to speak of you, and the words to say.

Why I Read

I’ve been thinking a bit today about why I like reading, and wondering how that affects the books I choose to read.

Broadly speaking, I read four types of books. I split roughly equal time between fiction (usually fantasy or sci-fi), and what I’d describe as Christianity/Christian Living. Occasionally I’ll also pick up a popular science or a biographical text, but far less frequent than the former two.

Now I won’t deny that I like a good story, but more than that, I think reading allows me to be curious. Let me explain. I’ve always liked asking questions, trying to figure out the how’s and why’s. I like the puzzle of it I guess, trying to figure stuff out, then searching for the answer when I can’t reason it by myself.

This perhaps goes some way to explaining why I’ve always enjoyed science. I like learning, especially how stuff works, which explains why I read science books and journals.

The same logic follows for the other books I read. Biographicals because I’m particularly interestind in why that person made the decisions they did, and Christian literature becuase there are still so many questions to explore in that, and looking into how other have reached their opinions.

Fiction might be the hardest to make the link to, but in essence it is the same: what are the characters like, why do they act as they do etc. Yes they’re constructs, but they’re still being constructed with a certain aspect of human thinking. That’s what makes them interesting.

So after writing all that, I guess the answer I was looking for was simpler than I thought. I read to learn and be able to ask questions I wouldn’t otherwise be able to ask. As such what I read naturally follows from what it is I find I most want to learn about.