Category Archives: On Reading

Posts that reveal a bit of my own reading philosophy. Perhaps reflections of things I’ve been reading about reading, etc.

Everyone Needs a Reading Space

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On Fridays I will be featuring a snapshot of different reading spaces of people at Gracepoint Berkeley church and beyond. We’ll kick it off with a short tour of Jacob’s reading nook. This video was shared with me a couple months ago, so he might have redecorated since then!

Shout out to dad, Kevin, one of the college ministry staff at Klesis Berkeley  for setting this up. Not sure if you caught it, but he said he’s reading a Punchinello book! If you recall, he’s from the Wemmicks series.

jacob loves reading!

That smile says it all!

There’s something to be said for having a favorite reading spot. It doesn’t have to be a big space, it could even be a favorite chair. But situating our reading experiences in an actual place strengthens our positive associations and memories of reading. And it’s awesome to see Jacob starting young!

Come back on Fridays to see others’ reading spaces. Going through my emails, I actually found a few more book nooks people shared with me, even going back more than a year. So I suppose they’ll be throwback posts to book nooks that may or may not still exist. Ooh, the mystery!

How about you? Do you have a reading space or spot? How have your reading spaces changed over the years? Share below!

2019: Reading Resolutions & Turning Over a New Blog

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henrietta's 21st

I’m only 23 days late with a Happy New Year to you all in Gracepoint churches in Berkeley and beyond! I cringe to notice that my last post was from June 1 of 2018, though I don’t cringe at the fact that I recommended reading I Can Only Imagine. I stand by my recommendation and will be recommending many more in the weeks to come. As usual, I am backlogged with books I have been telling people they just *have to* read.

For now though, I wanted to write a short post to assure everyone this blog is alive and kicking. I am going to build in some time to write here each day so that I can roll out a post every few days or so.  While Victor Hugo’s daily writing routine was admirable, I’m going to start with a modest 15 minutes a day.  Some of you know that last year, I experienced building a new habit of scripture memory (shout out to ScriptureTyper), and I started with just a few minutes a day, and now I’m up to quite a few verses. So hopefully, I can build up some momentum here, as there are so many great books out there that I want to share with you all!

One more thing — it’s not too late to make a 2019 Reading Goal or Reading Resolution. My goal is to read 168 books:

  • 42 non-fiction
  • 42 children’s/young adult fiction
  • 42 new picture books
  • 42 poetry/fiction (especially the books I’ve been meaning to read since forever…Brothers Karamazov, I’m coming for you! It wins for being on my TBR list the longest — since 1994, before many of you were born!)

What are your 2019 reading goals? Share them in the comments below, and let’s encourage one another to read more books this year!

Creating Culture: Books & Bins

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If you’re from our Gracepoint Berkeley church, you know that in addition to creating a culture of reading, we have been trying to create a culture of systems to reduce clutter in our homes and our lives.

Once your home is organized, and you’ve gotten rid of the gajillion pieces of mismatched tupperware bursting from that cabinet everyone has been scared to open, you will find yourself with more space not just in that cabinet, but in your mind. And you can use that space to read a good book. Or read The Good Book!

The other day I received a heart-warming picture from a mom of one of our Berkeley Bibliopolis patrons. I will protect his identity, so as to avoid the whole, “Awwww, I saw what you did! That’s great!” thing that well-meaning (usually) aunties say. His family had recently experienced the joy of a decluttered and organized home, replete with bins and labels.

On his own, he made the following bin. And he decided to place it near the door, so that he could remember to return his books on Bibliopolis day! That’s what we call Working Smart.  Perhaps we have a budding Systems Engineer in our midst. 🙂

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I claim responsibility for his misspelling, since I gave our library such a challenging name!