14 tips for cultivating a reading habit

June 29, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
14 Comments

Do you actively work towards fostering a reading habit? Are you one of those people who always has their face in a book?

I don’t read anywhere near as much as I would like to. I admit that I really enjoy spending time in a good book and I’ve got shelves of good books at home waiting to be read.

If I love reading so much, why do I do so little of it?

I suppose it has a lot to do with cultivating a habit of reading. I’ve always been a competent reader but I don’t ever remember being encouraged to read books when I was growing up. That means that I don’t naturally gravitate to spending huge chunks of time between the pages.

One of my fondest holiday memories was spending a week on my own in a small country town. I read seven or eight books during the week. There was nothing I had to do so I sat around and consumed the words and thoughts of a variety of authors.

The problem is fitting reading into the normal daily schedule. How does it fit around work, family and the dozens of other committments that make up our daily routines?

I was so pleased to read a recent post at HisMethod which suggested 14 tips for cultivating a reading habit. Bruce took the list from this very helpful post at LifeHack which goes into some more detail for each of 14 tips points.

1. Set times.
2. Always carry a book.
3. Make a list.
4. Find a quiet place.
5. Reduce television/Internet.
6. Read to your kid.
7. Keep a log.
8. Go to used book shops.
9. Have a library day.
10. Read fun and compelling books.
11. Make it pleasurable.
12. Blog it.
13. Set a high goal.
14. Have a reading hour or reading day.


What do think? Do you think that those tips could work for you?

What are your reading habits? What are some of the ways that you’ve cultivated a habit of reading?

Rodney Olsen

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Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture

March 14, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

exilesEvery now and then I get to record a radio interview that I want to listen to over and over again. One such case is my interview with Michael Frost about his current book, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.

Mike has so many good things to say and he says them so well.

He previously wrote The Shaping of Things to Come together with Alan Hirsch. ‘Shaping’ is a book aimed at church leadership giving leaders ideas on reshaping church for the current culture. It was a great read and so I was very keen to get copies of Exiles and Alan Hirsch’s current book, The Forgotten Ways when I heard that they were available.

I’m currently working my way through Exiles and thoroughly enjoying it, so it’s wonderful to be able to spread Mike’s message to a wider audience through the interview.

We live in a time when more followers of Jesus are living outside the church than ever before. People who are still very keen to follow Christ are giving up on going to church. What does that say about the people that are ‘dropping out’ and what does it say about the church?

In the interview with Michael Frost we look at just what is meant by the term post-Christian culture. We also talk about Mike’s use of the term exiles. Are we really exiled in a foreign culture? How do we thrive in a post-Christian culture while staying faithful to Jesus? How much should we engage with the current culture? How much do we stand up against the existing culture?

My interview will be broadcast on 98.5 Sonshine FM this Sunday night and then replayed on Monday night. You can hear the interview by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

If you missed my earlier post, I interviewed Alan Hirsch about his current book, The Forgotten Ways, a couple of weeks back and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.

If you’ve read Exiles I’d love to hear your thoughts. I look forward to your comments.



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The Forgotten Ways

February 25, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
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forgottenwaysI read The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch some time ago. I imagine that most people who have read the book have continued thinking through the issues it raises a long time after they’ve filed the book away on their bookshelf.

Both Frost and Hirsch have since written new books. Michael Frost has written Exiles while Alan Hirsch has released the book The Forgotten Ways.

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, covers some of the same ground as The Shaping of Things to Come which makes it worthwhile as a follow up or as a stand alone book.

The Shaping of Things to Come asked a lot of deep questions and pointed us towards possible directions. The Forgotten Ways seeks to build on the ground already covered but helps to plot a way forward for the missional church.

Introducing the book on the website of The Forgotten Ways we read a couple of questions that set us up for what the book is looking to answer.

How did the number of Christians in the world grow from as few as 25 000 one hundred years after Christ’s death to up to 20 million in AD 310?

How did the Chinese underground church grow from 2 million to over 100 million in sixty years despite considerable opposition?

In The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch reveals the paradigmatic insights he discovered as he delved into those questions. He then translates these findings into the context of the contemporary Western church.”

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Alan Hirsch about his book and his understanding of missional church last week. My interview with Alan will be broadcast on 98.5 Sonshine FM both tonight and tomorrow night.

To listen to the interview online simply press the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.



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Don't buy this book

February 11, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
5 Comments

I enjoy reading Seth Godin’s blog but I don’t think you should buy this book.

To tell the truth, bestselling author and entrepreneur, Seth Godin, doesn’t think you should buy this book.

The reason he doesn’t think you should buy the book is because you can already get it for free by clicking here and downloading it.

Seth didn’t authorize the book to be published and he has no idea who the publisher is. He wrote the book back in 2005 and intended it to be a freebie all along. You can get Seth’s view of the whole saga here.

Due to the nature of the creative commons license Seth chose for the copyright, whoever has published the book may well be within their rights but you and I know that what they’ve done isn’t right. It’s being passed off as a new book, which it isn’t and the whole exercise is simply misleading.

If you want to read more from a very talented writer, save your money, download the free version and then spend some time looking through the archives at his blog. You’ll even find links there to some of his top selling books which he did authorise for sale.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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A Million Penguins

February 2, 2007
by Rodney Olsen
1 Comment

Want to write a novel but need a little help?

How about having millions of people from all over the world throwing in their opinions?

Now that we’ve all got used to Wikipedia and the idea of everyone having a go at editing an encyclopedia, you can now help write a wikinovel.

A Million Penguins takes the wiki idea a step or two further asking people around the world to take part in an exersize that seems to be as much a social experiment as a writing project. The website says, “A Million Penguins is an experiment in creative writing and community. Anyone can join in. Anyone can write. Anyone can edit. Let’s see if the crowds are not only wise, but creative. Or will too many cooks spoil the broth?”

So, will you be leaping in to add your writing skills to the mix?

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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