Embarking on a journey through a challenging book is a soul-nurturing, mind-stretching adventure. Mortimer Adler suggested, “Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

My appreciation for reading was slow to develop. But when it emerged, it surged. As a teenager, I perceived reading to be a nuisance and somewhat of a necessary evil to attain decent grades in school. However, at some point early in my college experience, I learned to value the gift of reading, not just for assignments or entertainment, but for personal growth and development.

As a pastor, I need to read widely to stay current and to speak with fresh relevance on a variety of topics. More importantly, I need books like I need food, to satisfy cognitive hunger and to probe intellectual curiosity. Books stimulate my thinking, exercise my memory muscles, and challenge my presuppositions.

As I grow older, I continue to find that reading is relaxing, engaging, and often inspirational. The discipline of reading not only exercises my mind, it expands my thinking.

Typically, I read a variety of genres including fiction, spirituality, theology, history, and biography. And I usually keep from three to five books going at the same time, a practice that was recommended by Opal Lovett, one of the most influential faculty members from my college years. This approach invites a variety of authors to be conversation partners in my internal dialogue.

I also intentionally read books I disagree with. Rather than making me combative, the practice of reading opposing viewpoints challenges me to test my assumptions and it familiarizes me with a variety of perspectives. This discipline equips me to dialogue and debate intelligibly, and not just emotively.

Around the beginning of the year, I make a list of books that I plan to read during the coming year. While I expect to read 40-50 books this year, I have already compiled a list of twenty-two books I want to be sure to read in 2022:

1. What Comes Next?: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World – A Guide for Christian Leaders by Nicholas Skytland and Alicia Llewellyn. 
2. Up and Down by Bubba Watson.
3. A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of The Message by Winn Collier.
4. Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu.
5. The Wilderness Zone by Walter Brueggemann.
6. Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing without Dividing the Church by Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer.
7. Searching for Certainty: Finding God in the Disruptions of Life by Shelly Miller and Emily Freeman.
8. Letters to the Church by Frances Chan.
9. The Influential Mentor by Maina Mwaura.
10. The Stranger in the Life Boat by Mitch Albom.
11. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World by John Phillip Newell.
12. Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church by Scot McKnight.
13. Dream Town by David Baldacci.
14. The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin.
15. The Pastor’s Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry by Austin Carty and Thomas G. Long.
16. The Lord’s Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught by Adam Hamilton.
17. The Luminous Web: Faith, science and the experience of wonder by Barbara Brown Taylor.
18. Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask about Social Justice by Thaddeus Williams.
19. God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World by Andrew Wilson.
20. Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter by Timothy Keller.
21. Insider Outsider: My Journey as a Stranger in White Evangelicalism and My Hope for Us All by Bryan Loritts.
22. At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor by Carey Nieuwhof.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a fast reader or a slow reader, a hard print reader or an e-book reader, read for quality, not quantity. Richard Steele observed, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

Enjoy the books you choose in 2022!

(Barry Howard serves as the pastor of the Church at Wieuca in Atlanta. He also serves as a columnist and leadership coach with the Center for Healthy Churches.)