I'm so excited to have Jason taking over my blog today. I shared my own 2019 Christian Reading Challenge for Women earlier this week. If you're a man, feel free to follow along with this challenge by yourself OR wrangle your wife into the women's companion challenge to do it with you.

If you are a woman reading this, send over the link to your husband and you can then go through this challenge together! It's a great way to have a built in accountability partner. Many of the books are the same but Jason changed the feminine and homemaking categories to male equivalents. - Jami
I have a lot of hobbies. I enjoying playing video games. Board games are my love language. I'm a Netflix junkie. I sometimes dabble with MTG deck-building.

But one hobby stands head and shoulders over all the rest, for me. I LOVE to read. You probably already know that about me if you've been hanging around this blog or podcast for any amount of time. But it's worth stating again. Books are my favorite thing.
Listen to the Podcast:

Jami and I hopped on a podcast episode to share all about the challenge, my tricks for finding the time to read in a busy schedule, a little bit about the books I picked and more! Listen below or keep scrolling down to read all about the challenge. 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. 



Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.
Two years ago,  Jami and I came up with a year-long reading challenge. Most times, the biggest obstacle to reading as much as I'd like is lack of time. I'm a father, husband, small-business owner, and dabbler in many hobbies as previously established. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of free time. Well, I am happy to report that implementing the reading challenge has SIGNIFICANTLY helped me to increase the number of books I've read in the last 2 years. Something about setting a goal, and having a list of books I want to read, has been very effective for me. So this year, we're doing it again! Welcome to the 2019 Men's Reading Challenge.

Yesterday, Jami posted her reading list, which is geared primarily toward women. So she asked me to put together a companion list to hers that would be more male-oriented. Many of the categories and book recommendations are the same, as there are LOTS of books out there that are great reading for both men and women. But I've tweaked the list to add some books on things like fatherhood, being a husband, etc. 

Also, like Jami's list, I have not included any fiction suggestions in the list. I personally love to read fiction, and would encourage others to as well, but, at least for me, picking up a novel is much easier than digging into a history text or book on theology, and so I tailored the list to non-fiction only. I highly recommend reading some fiction as well, though. Go ahead and add a few novels you've been wanting to read, or, if the 13 or 26 books on the list is already the maximum you want to commit to this year, swap out a few of the categories for fiction, keeping the total count the same. Bottom line, this list and challenge is for you, so don't hesitate to customize it to your liking. As long as it gets you reading, I've done my job.

Also, if you're not already familiar, I highly recommend using Goodreads on your reading adventure. It's a great way to track what you're reading, what you want to read, and what you've already read. You can get book recommendations, and even see reviews on books you're not sure about. Plus, you can follow me on there if you'd like to see what I'm reading. You can also see my fiction selections on there, if you want some inspiration in that department.

On more note before we get to the challenge. Back in November, I started a new podcast called Hurry Up and Read, on which I read and discuss classic works of Christian literature. It's been an absolute blast so far! We just finished up our first book on the podcast,