The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

I’m wondering why inspiration should be the theme? Just curious. I don’t mind that it is, I’m just not sure what inspired inspiration as the theme.

This question can be taken two different ways: what inspires me to read, and what inspires me to read what I read.

I didn’t grow up in a reading family. My dad read the occasional Zane Grey novel but otherwise didn’t read much. If he saw me sitting and reading he thought I was being lazy and gave me something to do. (He did discover a love for reading in his later years.) I don’t remember my mom reading much except at night before she went to sleep. I probably had some books before I started school, but I don’t remember them. So it was probably when I started school and learned to read than I discovered the wonderful world of books. What wonderful worlds to explore, people and places to learn about! I think I’ve been an insatiable reader ever since.

My grandmother was a reader, and for a few years when we lived in the same town I remember spending the night with her, making dinner, watching a little TV, then reading in bed. She had an extra bed in her room, and we’d spend what seemed like hours with the bedside lamps on and our books open.

Semicolon and Janet have written excellent posts about reasons for reading, and they list many factors that have inspired my own reading over the years.

As to what inspires the specific choices I make to read, there are many factors.

I love to learn and books are my primary means of learning. I seem to learn best from a narrative or story format. I can read non-fiction informative books, but usually things make sense and stay with me better from a story format.

I also love reading books that make me think. I can and do occasionally read “lite” books just to relax, but even then I want to get something beneficial from them.

I often read biographies or true-life stories because I love finding out what makes people tick, what shaped them into the people they became.

I love to be inspired. I was reading some time back about a book of Victorian stories for children (wish I could remember what it was) but the men who published it, though they thought the stories charming, discounted the clear moral teaching of the stories. They were almost apologetic about that aspect. But I have always loved book that did inspire me to be a better person in some way.

I developed a love for biographies of missionaries and other Christians, both leaders and average ordinary people, when I was in college and heard a lady speak about missionary biographies. I wrote a post about missionary biographies earlier, but one paragraph from that post says:

We learn history for a number of reasons, among them: to better understand our current times, to appreciate our heritage, to avoid repeating mistakes. There are heroes in our national history who inspire us to a love of country and duty and courage. There are heroes of our spiritual heritage who inspire us in love and dedication to God and to greater faith in remembering that the God they served and loved and Who provided for and used them is the very same God we love and serve today and Who will provide for us and use us. Though times and culture change, human nature at its core doesn’t change much, and God never changes.

Plus I benefit from reading how others lived out their faith, how they wrestled with hard questions or truth, how the Lord taught them and used them.

When I find an author I really like, I am usually inspired to read others of his or her works. Plus I am often inspired by recommendations of other people I have an affinity for. Sometimes I am inspired (influenced might be a better word for this one) by mood.

I’ve been inspired to read the classics mainly to find out for myself why they are classics, what has made them appeal to so many people over so many years.

With all those inspirations to read and an ever-growing “to be read” list, I expect to keep busy for many years!