What Sparked Your Love of Reading?

Most of us have that one book that seemed to spark our love of reading. What was that one book for you? What do you enjoy reading most now?

I use to hate to read. I was a boy full of energy and never wanted to sit still that long. I still remember the day when my mother handed a book to me and encouraged me to read a couple of the stories in it. The book was called A Touch of Wonder by Arthur Gordon which was a book full of heart warming stories, much like Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield. I opened the book at random a read a story called "Fraidy Cat" and I was hooked. I couldn't put it down. The book is hard to find in print now but you can get it in Kindle version. For many years I would buy multiple copies of that book and give them away to people who were down and out or those I thought might appreciate it. I remember one time when I was working at Camp Ozark and I took it on one of our campouts and one counselor there was so touched by the couple of stories I read she just had to have my copy. I gladly gave it to her, of course, and she eventually passed it on to her mother, who was going through a divorce. Years later I was working at a school district and was in the administration building for a meeting when all of a sudden this Assistant Superintendent walks into the meeting and asks to see me. I thought immediately, "What did I do now?" She took me into her office and gave me the biggest bear hug you could imagine. She told me she was the mother of the counselor I gave the book to and said that book helped her make it through that very difficult time in her life. That incident encouraged me to read even more and share what I was reading when it had a profound impact on me.

“Without a plan, you're growing nowhere.” - John C. Maxwell

Readers are leaders. Whether it is fiction or books to help you grow personally, books have a way of adding to our experiences, knowledge and insight. I am a quote fanatic. Whenever I am reading I try to always have my app, notebook, or anything I can write down those nuggets I get when I read. It is important for me to recall those nuggets, memorize those quotes, and meditate on them as I apply them to my work, relationships, and my life as a whole.

What are My Favorite Books, You Might Ask?

This is an "off the top of my head list" and I am sure I will leave several out. I can add those later as I refer to them in another post!

• The Bible

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

• A Touch of Wonder

• As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

• The Chicken Soup for the Soul Books

• The Book of Virtues

• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (and anything else written by John C. Maxwell)

• The Travelers Gift by Andy Andrews

• The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

• The Energy Bus, Soup, and Training Camp by Jon Gordon

• If Disney Ran Your Hospital by Fred Lee

• Be Our Guest by Theodore Kinni

• The One Thing by Gary Keller

• 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker

• The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll

• Radical and Forgotten God by Francis Chan

• The 10 Second Rule by Clare Degraaf

• The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

• The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns

• Cat and Dog Theology by Bob Sjogen and Gerald Robison

• Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman

• This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti - These books sparked

my love for Christian fiction.

• The Presence, Promises to Keep, and The Great Divide by T. Davis Bunn

• Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

• The Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

• Black, Red, White, and Green by Ted Dekker - also, Blink of an Eye

There are obviously many more but these are my go to books that many I have read over again, and some, like As a Man Thinketh and How to Win Friends and Influence People, I try to read every other year or so. I hope you enjoy my list and I look forward to hearing your story in the comments of what sparked your reading.