Bush, Rove, and Goals

What is it about the new year that makes us think we need to make some resolutions, establish some goals--improve ourselves in some way? Perhaps it's our hubris, our innate desire to somehow improve ourselves--to think that we can somehow do something good to make ourselves look better. Or perhaps the Calvinists among us realize just how deep our sins and miseries are, and we're looking for some reassurance that there's something of our original state still within us. At any rate, most of us do it--we resolve, or, in my case, set a goal.

It all started for me last week when I was reading a Wall Street Journal piece by Karl Rove, former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to President Bush. He writes about a three-year-old competition between himself and the president: who can read the most books in a year's time. And even though Rove has beaten the president each year of the competition, President Bush has nothing to be ashamed of. The first year of the contest, the score looked like this: Rove, 110; Bush, 95. The second year was 76 to 51, and this past year--64 to 40.

Rove reports that the president also reads the Bible from cover to cover every year, along with a devotional. (I hear the devotional is My Utmost for His Highest, published by my publishing house, Discovery House.)

And that made me think: If the leader of the free world read 40 books in his worst performance of three years, I ought to be able to set some kind of reading goal for myself. He probably isn't responsible for meal planning and preparation, doing laundry, and cleaning the White House bathrooms, while working a full-time job, but he probably has some other tasks that make getting some reading in a challenge.

Mind you--a reading goal is not a torturous thing for me. I love to read. It's not like I'm committing to eliminating sugar, chocolate, losing ten pounds, or running a marathon. This is a goal that would be an incredible pleasure for me to accomplish. And this is what I've come up with.

I want to read one fiction and one nonfiction title a month. Part of this is circumstance. I've joined a book group (which I'm very excited about) and will have to read at least one book every other month anyway. And believe it or not, I'm less disciplined about reading fiction than nonfiction. And, as in previous years, I plan to read the Bible through--Genesis through Revelation (even Leviticus and Numbers). And the other big goal for the year has to do with an important event: Calvin's 500th birthday. Readers are being challenged to read Calvin's Institutes, following a daily reading schedule. I'm already two days ahead on that one!

So for January, I'm reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield for my book group. I've read it once before, but this time I'm reading it to lead a discussion--and it's really a fascinating and intriguing novel. My nonfiction title is also fascinating: Why We're Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung--a young pastor in Lansing, Michigan, and Ted Kluck, a writer who is a member of DeYoung's congregation. Look for a book review on that one. It's an excellent, well-researched critique of the emergent movement and its leaders like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.

So what are you reading? Have any suggestions for me? I already have a stack of books I've purchased or been given as gifts that will take me through the first half of the year, but I'd love to hear your suggestions. And maybe if I spend that much time reading, I'll even lose five to ten pounds . . .