My Top Ten Books of 2024

     I archive my books on Goodreads. I also review each book I read. In 2024, I read 50 books totaling 20,571 pages, an average of 430 pages per book. The shortest book I read at 92 pages was C. I. Scofield's book on the Holy Spirit. The longest book I read at 1500 pages was the John R. Rice Reference Bible. Today's post contains my top ten books for the year. For those who are interested, I also maintain a recommended reading list here; it contains hundreds of recommendations spread across a couple of dozen categories.

     Enjoy.

The Treasurey of David, Volume 1, Parts One and Two, C. H. Spurgeon - As a long-time pastor, I have often sampled from these volumes in preparation for one sermon or another. But in preparing to teach an extended series from the psalms (one Sunday School lesson on each psalm) I decided to read them in their entirety, beginning to end. I have found them as rich in reality as they are in reputation. The staggering amount of content, good content, is matched only by Spurgeon's peerless ability as a wordsmith. It isn't often that I read a book/commentary on the Bible and think to myself, "Well, there isn't anything else left to say." This is one of those rare cases where I feel that way.

In the edition I have the print is tiny and the pages thin. It makes for laborious reading yet I have found myself more than amply repaid. I am quite sure that to whatever extent you read them - sampled here and there or read as I am doing straight through - you will come to the same conclusion I have.

Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson - Isaacson has done it again. He has shown us a man, and in showing us the man has shown how/why that man has changed society, and why it matters that he has changed society. Well written, as always. Mostly kept himself out of it, except for the occasional left-leaning criticism. Strikes me as fair i.e. even-handed. He praises Musk in some places; in others, he takes him to task, not personally, but historically, so to speak. The only fault I can really find in this as biography is that it was written too soon. The tale of Musk's life is not yet told. Mid-life biographies are always sketchy things.

Isaacson does an outstanding job tracing the arc of Musk's life from gritty South Africa in a broken family to Canadian immigrant to dot com millionaire to risk taking space pioneer. It is a marvelous tale, and an insightful one. You come away with a sense that you understand what makes Musk tick. It contextualizes the Musk you see in interviews and on Twitter. I know I'll never look at the guy the same again.

As for Musk. Wow. I've read biographies of all of the robber barons of the 19th century, trains, oil, banking, etc. I've read biographies of the movers and shakers of the internet era, Brin, Zuckerburg, Bezos, Thiele, etc. Musk is more impressive than any of them save Rockefeller. And he matters more than Rockefeller. I told my wife, "If Musk lived 2000 years ago, he would be on the back of an elephant leading an army conquering Rome." He risks everything. Constantly. It has produced big wins and big losses both, but more of the former b/c it is generally intelligent risk.

Musk the person/man is much less impressive. Foul mouthed. Serial adultery/practical polygamy. As horrible to work for or more than Steve Jobs. OTOH, I can't see him falling into a second juvenile childhood like Bezos is doing. He will press hard to the end, I think.

Back to the book... I think we need to read books like this b/c we need to understand the forces shaping our society. You must understand that to know where we are going next. With Musk, I feel terrified encouragement. What he has done for the cause of free speech alone is enormously important in the medium term. Much less so, with electric cars. Much more so, with space. And who knows what he will do next?

My compliments to Isaacson. He has done society a great favor to peel the mask back and show us the man.

When Pride Still Mattered, A Life of Vincent Lombardi, David Maraniss - This is my first Maraniss book, and my first bio of Lombardi. Together, they became an interesting discovery. Maraniss writes clearly here, following a mostly chronological order, but resisting the impulse to turn this into a dissection of football/football games. It isn't. Oh, he discusses both and in some detail, but this is absolutely a biography rather than a sporting history.

As a biography then this work stands or falls. And stand it does. Maraniss shows us Lombardi's neighborhood/family milieu, his education, and the influence of his church. He spends substantial time on his college career at Fordham, weaves in his marriage, and then relays his early struggles to find his footing. Then we see his coaching career, high school, West Point assistant, NFL assistant, the legendary years in Green Bay, and finally the sudden sunset in DC. Throughout, Lombardi's family plays an integral role in the book as it would have in his life.

Good biographies are measured on two things, in my mind. First, do they hold my interest? Second, do they give me a flavor of the age and a sense that I really know the man? Maraniss does both well here.

Sports biographies are not my usual forte. Glad I stepped out of my comfort zone for this one.

The Frontiersman, Allan Eckart - What a delightful discovery this book was. I've read thousands of history books. Eckert wrote history in such a way that it seems a series of connected short stories ala Louis L'Amour. And he did a staggeringly good job of it. This particular work traces the settlement of Kentucky and Ohio, and the Indian wars in which they were birthed. Eckert does this via a focus on two individuals primarily, Simon Kenton on the American side, and Tecumsah on the Indian side. In the process we see religion, warfare, technology, torture, economics, geo-politics, geography, massacre, and nature. Most of all, we see the human interest side of it all. What a generation that was, a generation of struggle and loss and triumph.

I finished it this morning. As I sit here, the superlatives that come to mind are many. I will resist the urge to spill them across the page. I read fifty books, give or take, in a typical year. Suffice it to say, it is the best book I have read so far this year. Simply superb.

Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen - As an author, Annie Jacobsen was a delightful surprise. As a book, Nuclear War: A Scenario was terrifying. I've read more books than I can count, and while I have read sadder books and deeper books and more important books, I have never read a book that scared me more than this one. In my life.

Jacobsen, who has clearly done her homework, writes a bit like the early Tom Clancy back when he was good. There are lots of acronyms, albeit explained. There is tension, then mesmerizing tension, then horrifying tension, then terror, and each of these are carefully attached to what comes before. Intellectual honesty compels me to mention that she stretches her scenario nearly to the breaking point in order in order to write it. The Soviets are really going to launch all out war even though they know the Americans know it was North Korea that struck them? Really? China is just going to throw in at the last minute because several hundred thousand of her people died on the border? Neither of those are believable to me. But all else was eminently believable, and I do not doubt her analysis of the results at all. Additionally, I think this is precisely the type of profound thought exercise national leaders should engage in, and I dearly hope they will read this book.

It is a good thing I am a Christian. That grounds me and contextualizes such fears with the sovereignty of God and the great arc of redemption in Christ. But if it were not for that, this book would give me an untreatable ulcer for the rest of my life.

What a book. Wow.

The Other Side of Calvinism, Laurence Vance - I came to this work at the tail end of a several year personal study of Calvinism. In the course of that, I read works both pro/con for intellectual integrity's sake, though I freely confess I am certainly not a Calvinist. I saved it for last because, frankly, it is massive. Took me most of a year to plow through. I'm glad I did.

Vance opens the work with an almost 200 page history of the primary players (Augustine, Calvin, Armenius) and the arc of the development of Calvinism as a doctrine. The next 400 pages are spent on a deconstruction of Calvinistic doctrine. The final 200 pages are appendices, bibliographies, footnotes, and indexes. And may I say in relation to this latter section, I don't think I have ever read a more scrupulously detailed and cited doctrinal work in my life. There are thousands of footnotes. It is one of the clear strengths of the work.

I have given it here a five star rating. The writing itself does not deserve that. Vance repeats himself in places, and in others allows his personal animosity/snark too much reign. He also functions as if more arguments for his position are better even if they aren't better. Though grammatically correct, the book could have used a strong editor. Having said that, the work still deserves a five star rating for several reasons. First, the sheer volume of work that went into it. Second, his approach includes hundreds of quotations from respected Calvinist writers to establish the truth of his claims regarding their positions. This helped me immensely, being largely ignorant of those writings for the most part. Third, he fearlessly tackles both the large and small, the forest and the trees. He discusses the overarching failures of the structure, and the apologies offered for it, but he also delves into the individual passages and words in great detail.

I have no doubt that Calvinists have a negative view of the work. That does not concern me. What does concern me, what drove me in fact, was my search to find a detailed, heavily cited defense of an anti-Calvinist position. Well, I can stop looking and so can you. This is definitely it.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham - Adam has done it again. This is as good as his book on Chernobyl, at least. Though the scope is smaller (a tragedy vs a civilization threatening event) the approach is similar. He traces the biography of the individuals involved, how the technologies evolved, and how the culture of political and performance pressure produced man-made errors. His blow-by-blow narration of the event itself kept me on the edge of my seat even though I already knew the result. Finally, he discusses the follow-up investigations, and how the truth came to light. 

For me, this book has moved Adam up into the rarified air of the must read historian. Writing an outstanding book once is remarkable. Doing it again is awesome. My compliments, Mr. Higginbotham.

The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides - Hampton Sides has done it again, a balanced historical account written in an absolutely compelling fashion. If Sides is not on your must-read list as a modern historian I don't know who is. 

In this work, we find the dramatic account of the last voyage and death of the great British seaman and explorer, James Cook. Sides gives us some context, but largely confines the story to exactly that. We see the ships, the men, the officers, the food, the medical issues, the map issues, all of it. We travel with Cook into the Pacific, partake of the baleful delights of Tahiti, bump into the Hawaiian islands, and taste the useless Arctic quest for the Northwest Passage. Finally, we are back to Hawaii for the gripping account of Cook's reception as a god and murder thirty days later. Lessons abound, in morals and economics and religion and leadership and hubris. 

If you haven't read Sides, start. Anywhere, but this work is as good any. And keep reading. He makes history come alive. 

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles Mann - I picked up this book with some trepidation. I do not have much use for revisionist history, especially of the left-leaning woke variety. And much of what gets written about this era of American history recently is precisely that. To my surprise and gratification, this wasn't. Rather, it was a thought-provoking and absolutely balanced view of a wide variety of aspects of this era of history. 

Mann does a staggeringly good job of bringing up the original historical take, tracing that historical take along its development, and then applying modern information to that take. It isn't revisionist near as much as it is corrective - of left-leaning revisionism. Whether the discussion is disease or archaeology or economics or politics or weapons or transportation or communication or ethnology or demographics, Mann does an excellent job of showing us the Americas prior to Columbus. The picture that emerges is much more complex than our childhood textbooks showed us, and yet humble at the same time. 

Good book, and earned a rare five stars from me.

My Top Ten Books of 2023

 

We begin the year with what has become a traditional post for me, my top ten books of 2023. Years ago, in an effort to stop buying the same used books repeatedly, I archived all of my books on Goodreads. I still use it frequently to track my books owned/read. I also review each book I read, and participate in their annual reading challenge. For 2023, my year in review shows I read 54 books totaling 21,757 pages. My shortest book completed was 50 pages (Riley Barrett’s Not The Exception.) My longest book completed was 2,368 pages (The Strand Study Bible.) Average book length was 402 pages. My most shelved book, Killers of the Flower Moon, is on 745,000 other shelves. My least shelved book, a biography of William Biederwolf, is only on my shelf. Along with this annual post about my reading, I also maintain a list of books I recommend in general. You can find it here at Brennan’s Book List. It currently contains 423 recommendations spread over 41 different categories.

Without further ado, in no particular order, here are my top ten books for 2023:

 

The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People by John Kelly

As a direct descendant of Irish immigrants who fled Ireland to escape this event, I have a natural interest in it. This is by far the best book I've read on the subject. Kelly does an outstanding job of telling us the story in context rather than just relating dreary statistics. There are statistics, of course, appalling ones, but he frames them well within the overarching story. In the process we learn about the Irish climate, economics, and farming practices. We discover how the peasants and landlords of that time lived and were viewed. We see how philosophy shaped relief, and the uninenteded massive consequences of laws passed attempting to fix things. Perhaps the most compelling part of a compelling book was the discussion of the flight via ships to North America, and how the Irish were received in Canada and the United States.

As the Irish said, "God sent the blight but the British sent the famine." I do not necessarily agree with that, nor does Kelly, but after finishing this book I certainly understand better why the feeling existed. If your heritage is the Irish diaspora in America you owe it to yourself to read it. And you won't be sorry. 

 

Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm

 This has to be one of the most difficult if not the most difficult books I have ever read. This is not because of the writing. I have no complaint there. It was well written. But the content - which was painstakingly reconstructed and is pure history - is savage, vile, and heartrending. I've read other works on the Holocaust, I've watched the documentaries and movies, I've been through the Holocaust Museum in DC, nothing affected me like this book did. It is not a book I will remember; it is a book that will haunt me.

Evil exists in this world, and it is good and right to fight it, tooth and claw. My deep gratitude for Sarah Helm's work here. If it was difficult to read I can only imagine how difficult it was to research and write. We owe her, no, strike that, we owe the tens of thousands of women who were enslaved and tortured and murdered there not to forget.

...so read it. As difficult as it will be to read. Because you will not forget.

 

The Trial of Jesus from a Lawyer’s Standpoint by Walter M. Chandler

 I would liken this book in my mind to mold. It grew on me slowly as I read it. And I had to read it slowly. This particular edition has print that is not tiny, it is infinitesemal. It was more than just a pain, it was a serious handicap to reading the book. But I plowed ahead and I'm heartily glad I did. Divided loosely into two main sections or volumes, one discusses the Jewish examinations of Christ and the other the Roman.

Chandler as an author is not necessarily fantastic, but he quite clearly knows his stuff, both historically and legally. He does not compare the trials of Christ to trials in our own day for such would be pointless. He painstakingly and damningly compares them at all points with the Jewish and Roman law of Christ's own day. He does not work on theory or probability but strictly on law. The book is true to its title. Though narrow in that sense, it is a highly valuable thought exercise overall. It's the kind of book you can lean on. It is patently reliable in its knowledge, logic, and argument. I had heard all of my life that Jesus' trials were illegal; after finishing this work I am utterly convinced of it. 

 

The Incomparable Christ: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ by J. Oswald Sanders

 This is my second Sanders work, and this one excels his more widely known and praised work on spiritual leadership. As a pastor, it is apparent to me this work was the result of a series of messages Sanders preached about Christ. It makes the book no less impressive for all that. He walks us through aspects of Christ's character, strengths, and attributes before finishing with an examination of the seven sayings on the cross. Each chapter is short, and would serve marvelously well as the foundation of a lesson or series of lessons. Along the way Sanders gives us not just pithy comments, which he does in spades, but downright enlightening ones.

I really, really liked it, and on the basis of this book will move Sanders up in my estimation and willingness to read him. 

 

Cobalt Red: How The Blood Of The Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

 Kara's work, while not flawless, is nonetheless searing. Recent. Painstakingly sourced, at risk to his own life and limb. Damning. A century and a half ago, it was Belgium raping the Congo; now it is the Chinese - and, by extension, their American customers. I've read King Leopold's Ghost; this is like the mad sequel made 150 years later. Truly, the Apostle Paul was right when he said, "The love of money is the root of all evil."

The task Kara set for himself was simple: to match the pledges made by tech companies in relation to the cobalt in their supply chain with the situation on the ground. The kindest word Kara uses in the whole book is "fiction." Which is precisely what they are. Focusing essentially on (badly named) artisinal miners, he shows how men/women/children labor in life-threatening conditions for practically no pay, and are exploited at every possible turn. Children under the age of ten digging in tunnels 18 inches high, left to rot by the dozens when the tunnels collapse. Teenage girls sexually abused, lives wasted away before their 18th birthday. Soldiers shooting children for the high crime of wanting to find another buyer for their precious sack of heterogonite. Politicians looting their homeland of tens of millions of dollars. Incalculable environmental damage. Organized crime. It goes on and on and on.

Kara's work is not flawless, as I said. He gets too emotional, though I can hardly blame him. He inserts himself into the reporting entirely too often, though even that helps us understand how he functions and how he came by his information. What he does do is research the industry, the economy, and the technology. He rests his case on countless interviews with ordinary, everyday, impoverished Congolese. He is at his best when telling their tales. You catch yourself looking at your 21st century American life entirely differently.

This is a book that cries out for answers, for solutions, but the problems are so deep-seated and so complex I am rather at a loss. At the end, it seems so is Kara. This is not the tale of a past crime. I have read those by the score. It is the tale of a present, on-going crime, one facilitated by my desire for inexpensive electronics.

This is a sobering work, and one I hope is widely read. 

 

The Crisis by Winston Churchill

 It is not often that you read a book thirty-five years after the first time you read it, and find it to be just as achingly beautiful as the first time. But today I have. It has been my custom to read to my children all their lives. Today, I read the last chapter of this book to my now adult daughter. What a book to end on.

I do not know why America history has forgotten this Winston Churchill. I find his writing illuminating, compelling, haunting even. It is historical fiction of the greatest variety, showing us both great character studies and perfectly drawn portraits of the age and place in which they live. No book has shown me the South better than this one.

I read almost zero fiction anymore. But walking through this book with my daughter over the last year or more was like walking with a dear friend, one I hadn't seen in decades. If you like historical fiction, I cannot possibly recommend Mr. Churchill highly enough. He will make you see. And think. And feel. He will stay with you. And when you meet him again, you will be glad.

 

Biblical Youth Work by Jim Krohn

 Every once in a while, in a great while, you walk away from a book with the realization you have just read the classic work in the field. I had that feeling after I had, at long last, put this book down. I say at long last because I read it slowly, out loud, paragraph by paragraph, with our church's youth pastor. I suppose it took us a year and a half, give or take. Along the way we discussed almost every paragraph. I was looking for something that would help him grow; what I found was a masterclass in youth pastoring.

Krohn's work is dated, in the sense that the illustrations and some of the applications are old, but the content is spot on. He is fierce, unapologetic, detailed, compassionate, thorough, wide-ranging, committedly conservative, and above all, scriptural. His many years as a youth pastor leaven the work, but they do not provide its foundation; that is biblical. Unafraid to tackle any aspect of the ministry, the value you will find here is enormous. Every independent Baptist youth worker in the world should read it. Slowly. Taking notes. And then immediately plan when he is going to read it again. 

 

The Baptist Distinctives and Why They Matter by Paul Frederick

 Paul Frederick, you have created here exactly what I wanted - a short, well-written, doctrinally accurate, easy to understand explanation of the Baptist distinctives. My compliments. I expect I will purchase/pass out many over the years. It will be a perfect accompaniment to our membership class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost A Miracle: The American Victory In The War Of Independence by John Ferling

 This is the best one volume work I've ever read on the American Revolution. It is broad without being fuzzy, and detailed without getting bogged down. It shows us the politics, geopolitics, economics, technology, morale, strategy, tactics, and differing cultures that came to bear on the outcome. It shows us army life, paints a magnificent yet balanced portrait of George Washington, and doesn't even shrink from addressing slavery. While it justifiably focuses early on New England, it pays great attention to the war in the American South. And it does all of that without being overly repetitive. In fact, it isn't boring even in spots. Above all, it refuses to accede to the modern trend of revisionism. It is just history, pure and simple, albeit very well designed and effected in its execution as a book.

If you are interested at all in American history, you owe it to yourself to read it at some point. It will clarify the Revolution for you. 

 

The Strand Study Bible by Brad Strand

Having been a Bible-reading Christian for decades, I have found myself in recent years finding new ways to read the old Book. One manner I have hit upon is to read study Bibles. I do this during my personal devotion time. There are two things I always read out loud - the King James Bible and poetry. So I read the Bible portion out loud and the notes silently. 

This year I took down from my shelf the largest study Bible I own, the Strand. I never had the privilege of meeting him, though we have numerous connections. But I do feel as if I know him pretty well at this point after reading more than two thousand pages of his Bible notes. And, for the most part, I like the guy. Further, I respect him. Indeed, respect is the best word I can think of to describe this study Bible. Strand clearly loved the Lord, studied and knew the Bible, and produced a life's work that is deeply edifying.

In giving this a five star rating, it is not that I do not have disagreements with Strand in places in his notes. I did, and some of those were rather serious disagreements. He repeatedly corrects the King James translators, for one, and embraces numerology, for another. It should also be said that I found the notes lacking in places. For example, he often seemed to throw in a random sermon outline from a particular passage. Such did little to carry the over-arching narrative arc of Scripture.

By the same token, I want to make plain I found some great strengths here as well. Strand excels at connecting Scripture with Scripture. He puts the words of the each member of the Trinity in a different color, which adds to readability and understanding. He neatly summarizes core Biblical doctrines and points of emphasis. He does an excellent job showing us where one writer quotes another from the Word of God. And he does an outstanding job tracing Bible prophecies throughout the entire volume. So well done was the latter, this book is practically an eschatology course all on its own.

I do not recommend it without reservation for the weaknesses I found cited above. But I do absolutely recommend it. No matter how long you have walked with the Lord and lived in the Book you will find some things here you have never heard before. And you will profit from it.

How to Write a Book

 

          I am clearing out my mailbag for a few weeks between blog series. From time to time, I get asked by aspiring authors how to write a book. While I do not consider myself an expert by any means, especially in marketing books, I have some writing experience. I also know nothing about writing fiction, so please factor that in. Understanding these caveats, then, in today's post, I will attempt to explain the processes I use that I have found helpful.

 

Should You Write a Book?

          Before discussing how to do so, let us briefly examine whether you should write a book. There are people who should write, who are not writing, and people who are writing who should not be writing. So which one are you?

          Writing is distilled thought. It is the best of the essence once you have boiled away the superfluous. If your thought processes are often unexplainably muddy to others or your explanations are often misunderstood, you should probably not be a writer. On the other hand, the more time you have spent thinking, organizing that thought logically, and expressing that thought to others, generally speaking, the better of a writer you will be.

          This is why pastors usually (not always) make good writers. They have not just experience but actual expertise in that process.

          Sound arguments convince people by moving from the intellect to the emotion to the will. You reason with them, convincing them of something. Once convinced, they begin to be passionate about it. Being passionate about it, they are moved to action. Most of Western society at this point, however, short-circuits this. Primarily, they seek to produce emotion and then use that emotion to move people to action. This explains almost everything you see on television and social media, for example.

          If you are in the latter category (emotion produces decisions) versus the former category (intellect to emotion to will), do not write. Why? Well, first, because you will not know how to do it. Writing emotional non-fiction is possible but is somewhat complex and, for that reason, rare. While writing produces emotion, it does not rely on emotion but on reason. If you do not know how to reason, layer an argument to convince someone logically, or unpack and examine a thought systematically, you will write badly. In addition to that, if you write emotionally, you will damage people. You will place their thought process and decision-making on a faulty foundation, one that is prone to harm them. I say again, if you are not a clear, logical thinker, do not write.

          Finally, please do not write a book so you can say you have written a book. The self-publishing industry is called vanity publishing for a good reason. It is sustained by people who should not write because they do not know how to write or should not write because they are writing for the wrong reason. Write because you have something to say and are good at saying it.

 

What Book Should You Write?

          While there is no one particularly correct answer here, several good principles are worth briefly examining.

          First, write the book you do not see on the shelf. What I mean here is this: if you are looking for a good book on a particular subject and cannot find a good one, then one needs to be written. Write the book you need because chances are, if you need it, other people also need it.

          Second, write what you know. Earlier, I referenced the fact I do not feel particularly qualified to discuss how to market a book. There would be little point then to me writing a book discussing how to sell a million books. I do not know how to do that. But I do know how to write a book. Ergo, in this blog post, I am writing what I know.

          This knowledge can be something you have gained by experience, by study, or by some combination of both. But if you do not have one or both of those to hand, do not write that book.

          Third, write your passion. Hemingway said, “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” I used that quotation in Schizophrenic for good reason. Writing that book hurt. In 1949, Walter Smith asserted that writing is not difficult; all you have to do is sit down at a typewriter, open a vein, and bleed. Yes, I am the same guy that argued your writing should move from the intellect to the emotion to the will. But if you care deeply about the subject you are discussing, that passion will reach out of the book, grab the reader by the throat, and compel him to pay heed to your words. On the other hand, if you care little about what you are writing, I promise your reader will care even less. And soon, will not be your reader.

          Lastly, write what God tells you to write. So many authors first ask themselves what will sell and let the answer inform their pen. What a sorry way to approach writing. The result is writing that appeals to the masses, that satiates their desires. Their mind is not informed, their heart is not filled, their life is not ennobled, their soul is not lifted, nor is their future helped by that kind of writing. Say what God leads you to say, and let Him decide what the result will be.

 

How to Write a Book

          First, do not write. Research. Read. Study. Ponder. Throw in other assorted synonyms here. But do not begin by sitting down to a blank page to see what develops. The stream of consciousness that results will help precious few.

          Let me speak plainly at the risk of being criticized for the next sentence. Only write a book if you have read at least twenty-five books on similar subjects. So you have read a book or two, displayed some knowledge about them in conversation, and some starry-eyed would-be acolyte whispered, "You should write a book, ya' know?" No, you should not. A little learning is a dangerous thing. It leads people astray, all the while purporting confidently to provide the answer. Reading a book or two barely helps you to grasp the questions at hand, let alone offer answers of substance.

Of course, I do not mean to be taken precisely literally here. Many authors have written wonderful books without reading a single similar book first. But I promise they had already banked the equivalent amount of information internally first. This requires hundreds of hours of study. If you have not gotten this far yet, put your pen down and go do it. Only write once you could be classified as an expert on the subject in question; that's the point.

Second, outline the entirety of your book before you begin to write. This outline may be complex or straightforward, but the critical fact is to have done it before you start writing. Why? Readers are leaders, which thus means writers are leaders of leaders. Writing influences people. It takes them somewhere. How in the world are you, as a writer, going to take anybody anywhere with your writing if you do not know where are going when you first begin? Yes, I realize as you write, other ideas will occur to you. Fine; graft them in. But build the skeleton first. One of my books had hundreds of pages of outlines prepared before I began writing. Another book had a one-page outline prepped. But there is always an outline.

Third, writers write. They do not talk about writing, tell others they are writing, or promise themselves they will write, et al. They actually write. To write a book, you must discipline yourself to write. Sometimes this is easy, and the words and phrases flow off your fingertips as if John Bunyan himself were writing. Other times you will have to fight for every paragraph. Yes, both of these will happen to the same writer and happen often. But you will not publish any book you have not written. So start writing and keep writing.

Fourth, do not begin with a book; start with some smaller writing project. Write a history pamphlet for your church's anniversary. Launch a blog. Compose a thesis. Journal for a year. Start with something smaller and easier to wrangle than a book.

This is true for a couple of reasons. Initially, when you begin to write, you will not be much good at it. Like everything, it is only done well when you have done much of it. If your first writing project is a book you actually publish, I can almost guarantee it will be a poorly written book. Go around the block a few times before taking off the training wheels.

Additionally, the larger the writing project, the more temptation you will experience to shelve it unfinished. This is true for veteran writers as well. In every large writing project I have undertaken, there have been several seasons where it just sat there for months on end, untouched. I was sick of it. But having experienced this sentiment before, I know how to fight through that now. But if you begin your authorial career by seeking to pen your magnum opus, you will never publish anything. If, by some freak of nature, you do publish, it will be bad. So do not begin with a book; start with something smaller.

Fifth, write your initial draft using your outline from beginning to end. No, I do not mean in one sitting; relax. <grin> I mean, write it all, front to back, before you attempt to rewrite or edit anything. Just write. There is little point in polishing Chapter One to a fare-thee-well if you never get to "The End." Additionally, your mind should flow from thought to thought in the same stream you want your reader's mind to swim in. In other words, you will write better if you move logically from thought to thought rather than dwelling too long on any idea. Just as well, do not write Chapter Ten, then Chapter Fifteen, then Chapter Four. Write it front to back, beginning to end.

Sixth, rewrite and edit. Ruthlessly. The difference between average and good writing is not the writing but the editing. What makes a book an excellent one is not what you put in but what you take out. Your soul will weep as you eliminate sentences and clauses and phrases, whole paragraphs even, but do it. Seek clarity. Seek impact. Throw away the urge to impress. Resist the desire to rush anything into publication. The best thought in the world may well be misunderstood or rejected by the reader because of bad phrasing, punctuation, or spelling. Do not harm your own book; only publish it when it is ready.

Ernest Hemingway

Seventh, follow the regular rules of grammar. Yes, you can break the rules, but only if you know them, know why they exist, and practice them perfectly most of the time.

Lastly, choose a publisher. At the level all of my readers are at, you will need to self-publish. I have my chosen approach here, but there may be a better way for you. At the least, in addition to a well-edited final draft, you will need a cover, an ISBN, the formatting on the inside, and a marketing platform or a way for people actually to purchase your book. Do your homework here, and choose something that works for your budget and your target audience. As part of this process, I would also advise you to consider where people buy books these days and how they read them.

 

          In Next, I write that a book is a child. Each one is related to its siblings but grows up to become something unique. There is an indescribable feeling of accomplishment the first time you hold your own book in your hands. It is not pride but the immense satisfaction that comes from having accomplished the difficult and the worthwhile. If the Lord is leading you to write, follow Him, but follow Him intelligently. God is not pleased by slap-dash work; do it well. You will be pleased, in the end, that you have, and your readers will be grateful.

          Now – go get ‘em. <grin>