I didn’t intend to revisit the topic of books (see here and here), but a great post on the DesiringGod.org blog sparked me off again.
The article is full of reasons to read:

Reading is one of the best ways to develop our minds. It can help us to know God and ourselves, gain vicarious experience, increase our perception and imagination, train our minds to think critically and logically, and teach us self-discipline….. Few of us are a Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, J. I. Packer or John Piper, and we would be wise to learn from them.

Check out the rest of the article for more gold reasons.
I agree with it. READ! And read widely.

But is there a ‘good’ way to read and a ‘bad’ way to read?

As school gets harder, there are more and more ideas to grasp. When you have a question and you’re short on energy, time, and sleep, the easiest option is to open a book (or Google) and find the answer.
You learn, which is great, but I wonder if you also learn a bad habit. I suspect I am learning the ability to think critically.

Christians are often criticised for accepting everything fed by ‘them’ (whoever that is). I would like to think I’m not stupid enough to devote my life to something I haven’t checked out, but perhaps the criticism rings true at least in part. When reading, should we accept everything the author says? I suggest, ideally, no.

The answer isn’t to not read. There must be a balance between being humble (i.e. allowing yourself to learn) and being critical. “Test everything”!

An even more radical idea, something that only occurred to me recently, is to not read straight away. If you have an interest or question, think about it yourself first. (I’m usually too lazy, but I’m working on it.)

Ironically, this idea didn’t occur from my own thinking… but from reading an Einstein quote:

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – Albert Einstein