I think it was at a Willow Creek Leadership Summit several years about that Bill Hybles (http://twitter.com/#!/BillHybels) challenged me to “Read for 30 minutes a day.“ I know this is a DUH statement but, “reading helps me be a better thinker.” It is just like watching other pastors teach, I am challenge by their ideas, it generates new thoughts, and “I don’t know what I don’t know.” One of my undergrad professors said years ago, “you need to read a lot and read from experts in the field, they ask questions you never thought to ask and give you answers you never knew you didn’t know.” I am not a reading = relaxing kind of guy. Reading is work, I need to focus, sit still, and take note or highlight. Here are a few ways I get a minimun of 30 minutes in (yes in one sitting).
Twitter:
Spending 30 minutes reading 140 characters does not count but sometimes you get a rich nuggets to chew on. I use the iPhone twitter app
Books:
I am a Kindle user. All my eBooks are with amazon, I love it but if I hated it I would be stuck. Before you start an ebook collection do some research…you will want to keep your library intack for years to come. I own 2 Kindle devices, and Amazon has an app for all my mobile devices. If you have Kindle books then all your notes and highlights are searchable and downloadable here https://kindle.amazon.com/.
Articles:
I reading PDF files with iAnnotate PDF http://www.ajidev.com/iannotate/. If you have an iPad and read a lot of PDF documents this app is more than a reader. Click the link and look at it’s features, t is kind of pricy at $9.99 but this app is robust!
News:
I have looked at a newspaper twice this year…both times were because I got bored in line at McDonalds. If I am looking for news I get it from an app on my iPad like Fox News, CNN, USA Today, or apps like Zite or Flipboard. Get digital YO!.
Blogs:
Google Reader is my favorite feed reader for collecting and reading a lot of blogs (the “J” and “K” keys are your friend!) but it will die soon so I have switched to feedly and when I find stuff I like and want to read later I star it or send it to my Instapaper account.
Logos:
This is my goto Bible app! I have hundreds of book and I can read & study from nearly all those books directly on my iPad. I thought it was great taking only a laptop home to study, now all I need is my iPad and maybe a notebook. Portalbe, readable, and accessible! BOOM! Thinking about getting Logos for some super powerful searching and portable studying? Contact my friend Dave at Logos and tell him Brandon Early sent you.
I am sad that Google is discontinuing Google Reader, what are you using as a blog reader or what will you switch to when Google Reader goes away?