This is going to be my last Friday Reads.
Why?
When I first started sharing what I was reading, I would share four types of books: one Christian fiction, one Christian non-fiction, one non-Christian fiction, and one non-Christian non-fiction.
That got to be a bit much as I do read widely and am sometimes all over the place.
I then went down to just two titles, a Christian fiction book and a Christian non-fiction book.
However, over the last several months, I have constantly run into issues where the books that I'm about to embark on end up riddled with questionable content.
Should I do more research beforehand? Yes. Do I? Not always. Whether it's lack of time to read reviews, or I trust the person making the recommendation, or any other reason, I confess that I have not done as much due diligence as I could have.
In real life, I come across duds and move on. Online, those mistakes linger and linger.
I've stated before that what I'm reading is not always an endorsement; however, when I see those book covers again, I'm sick to my stomach. I'm nervous that what I post might be seen as alignment. And finally, the last thing I want to do is highlight books that glorify sin instead of God, or worse yet, point away from Him. I've toyed with the idea of removing some of these posts altogether, but I also want to show how difficult it is to discern a good book from a bad one at times.
Should I read more reviews now? Certainly, yes. But I also enjoy forming my own opinions. By stopping with the Friday Reads, I hope to exercise that discernment more privately and only put a spotlight on the books that are honourable to God. I honestly wouldn't be putting out negative reviews were it not for the fact that I erred in selecting some of these books in the first place and it's quite public that I did so.
It doesn't mean that I'll seek out questionable books now that I'm offline (it had to be said!), but it does mean that I want my focus to shift back to supporting great books and authors and not getting bogged down with the ones that aren't so great.
In short, there is a responsibility involved in sharing about books and I want to get it right.
Thank you for journeying with me on this so far. I keep learning new things every day about how to grow in my faith, how to have a more sanctified mind, and how to better encourage others. My prayer is that I don't take reading lightly and that I continually evaluate it against the source of God's truth in the Bible. Soli Deo gloria!
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