Maybe this will become a monthly exercise as I can’t seem to stop collecting links related to reading and writing. Here is July’s by the way.

Personally summer has not been a good time for reading and I’m in something of a reading slump. I don’t think it’s the books I’ve chosen to read, they’re pretty good, I think it’s a time and energy issue. When I have the time to read I don’t seem to find the mental energy and when I have the energy I don’t have the time because, you know, life. I’ll sort it out.

On reading

• The Literate Soul: What 4,000 Years of Reading Books Teaches Us About Loving God – check out this forthcoming book from Nadya Williams. “What is this book about? It’s about bibliophilia—the passionate and all-engulfing love of books that cannot help but be life-changing. The question I was mulling over, which led to writing this book, was: do Christians, people of the Book, love books differently than others? If so, how might Christian bibliophilia be different from those of others?”
• This is a lovely interview with a Christian bookseller. I think this lady would heartily approve and enjoy selling Nadya’s book: Green Pastures and the Ministry of Reading
• The ‘Literacy Crisis’ — More Than You Wanted to Know. A deep dive into whether or not America has a literacy crisis and what that means
• This Is Why We Opened A Banned Books Library (In Rural Texas)
• All the Horrifying Things We Do to Our Books
• Reviewing Christian Books I Haven’t Read. Funniest thing I’ve read in a while.
• Here’s the first of two book & map projects. Which book? will show you a globe and help you broaden your sources!
• And reading maps show you where the adventures you read about in fiction happened. Love it!

AI and the world of words

Some of these may well appear in my next AI related round-up because AI is unavoidable right now

• Our Line in the Sand on AI: TGC’s Missional Opportunity – this one caused and is causing a lot of discussion
• How to spot AI writing – related.
• Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?
• The race to collect every book ever written

Let me know any of the books you’ve read, reviewed, or articles on reading and writing and I’ll happily share some of our crowd-sourced finds!