5 Books From the First 5 Months of 2024
As many of you know, I am an absolutely massive reader. Any chance I get, I like to sit down for a moment and read. Every night, you can find me reading a few pages of a book in my recliner. Sometimes I read for hours, sometimes just a little bit, but almost always a chapter a day.
This has benefitted me on multiple levels throughout my life and career. There is the old adage, "Leaders are readers." While that may not be true 100% of the time, it helps your leadership in a profound, powerful way. When you aren't in the situation yourself, you can see the positives and negatives of other people's decisions. You can make the right decisions based on THEIR decisions.
I talked about it on stage this past weekend; one of the best ways to "sharpen our blades" is to learn from others. Of course, that means learning from others in our lives, but one of the critical things I communicated was learning from people who aren't in our lives.
Two quotes have influenced my desire to read consistently.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” - George R.R Martin
“My philosophy of reading: 1 BOOK = 2 YEARS of WISDOM. read 50 books this year and gain 100 years of life experience.” - Mark Batterson.
A thousand lives, 100 years of wisdom. Yeah, I'll take that all day, every day. Keep sight of the impact of reading.
So yeah. Here are 5 books I have read in the first 5 months of 2024.
1. The Bible.
"Woah, shocker there. The pastor reads the Bible. Breaking news."
Look, I get it. I really do. But here is the reality for pastors: You spend so much time IN the Bible that you don't READ the Bible. It's a dangerous thing that can quickly demolish even the best-intentioned pastors. There is no substitute for spending time in God's word. It is the single most impactful book ever written. It's because it is God's primary way of speaking to us!
Charles C. Ryrie once said, "The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals." that says enough.
2. Why do I do what I don’t want to do? by JP Pokluda
This book was a fascinating study of the human condition. We don't want to sin, yet we consistently fall into the trap. We vow never to do it again, and the next thing we know, we fall right back into the habit.
If you want to stop that cycle, this book contains some great words of wisdom from J.P. Pokluda. I highly recommend it.
3. The Call of The Wild by Jack London
““There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad in a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight.”
Are you kidding me?
I have rarely read more beautiful writing. But it really made me consider—what is the equivalent of that for me? When am I at my most alive? What brings passion to my soul? In what ways have I lived a pampered, boring lifestyle, and how can I step into the wild and find that forgetfulness of living?
4. Gospel Patrons by John Rinehart
Have you ever had a book recommended so many times by someone that you DIDN'T want to read it? Yeah, that was Gospel Patrons for me.
Due to our series, I finally read it, and it floored me. It was one of the most unique offerings on what it means to be a good financial steward of God's blessings that I have ever read. I loved the history, the message behind it, and the application of it. This is a book that every Christ follower should read if they want to honor the Lord with their money.
5. Hidden History of Walt Disney World by Foxx Nolte
I love books like these for a couple of reasons.
It was a very kind gift from one of my team members.
I could see a little behind the curtain of something I really enjoy.
I have learned and read a lot about Walt Disney and Disney World. This book attacked it from a different angle and went into a lot of the backstory of why things operate the way they do. Most of the things I have read talk about the how or the what of Disney. By looking at the why, I began to put a lot of the puzzle pieces together.
For example, I have always thought that the layout of Hollywood studios was really dumb and made zero sense. Every time I go, I have to backtrack to where I was because I went the wrong way.
The reason why it's funky? Hollywood Studios was never designed to be a park; once it was designed, it was never supposed to be as popular as it is. It is forced wonkiness due to growth and no other reason.
That was fun to learn.
I have read other books I have enjoyed this year, like Armored, 24, The Well of Ascension, Speak Like Lincoln, Stand Like Churchill, and more that I just remembered I need to log into my Goodreads account.
The point is that there are literally millions of books. Go read them, enjoy them, and learn from them.
It will make you, your life, your leadership, and your soul better.