Reading in Small Chunks

January 4, 2007

In a comment on a previous post about my reading Grudem’s Systematic Theology, “Re” expressed the disappointment of not having much time to devote to reading. She said, “o to have the time to read GST…”

I am appreciative of her desire to read more and study rich theology. So I thought I would encourage her (and I trust there are many others like her, including me!) that it may be surprising what can be read with a commitment to short periods of reading. This is a quote from a book by John Piper called “Brothers, We are not Professionals”:

“Suppose that you read slowly, say about 250 words a minute. This means that in twenty minutes you can read about five thousand words. An average book has about four hundred words to a page. So you could read about twelve and a half pages in twenty minutes. Suppose you discipline yourself to read a certain author or topic twenty minutes a day, six days a week, for a year. That would be 312 times 12.5 pages for a total of 3,900 pages. Assume that an average book is 250 pages long. This means you could read fifteen books like that in one year.”

At the same rate you could read Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in twenty-five weeks. While I think it would be tough to read 12.5 pages of Grudem’s book in 20 minutes, it could still probably read twice in a year in 312 twenty minute chunks.

So be encouraged, those who have only a short amount of time to read great theology. God is sure to reward any effort made for His sake, and a little bit of regular reading can lead to finishing some great books in a year’s time. Or a lifetime!

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Quotes 

Comments

One Response to “Reading in Small Chunks”

  1. on January 5th, 2007 5:49 am

    Thank you Larry…often I can be overcome by the task of reading and studying w/ diligence and give up…this is encouraging!
    Reading and reaping,
    Re

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