What We Read

Many, many years ago, I joined an online group of other Christian writers, many of whom who were far more established than I was (they still are!), and I was amazed to learn in a conversation what kind of books all these amazing Christian novelists were reading.

See, at that point in my life, I was deep into my homeschooling days, and our curriculum required at least an hour of read-aloud time to the kids. I LOVED this time. We read so many wonderful children’s classics together, many Newbery Award winners, lots of historical fiction that brought the time periods we were reading about to life. It was precious, joy-filled time.

It was also a lot of, well, time. Between homeschooling, writing, editing my own books and also every book that WhiteFire put out (one of my jobs at the time) as well as my freelance design work…it didn’t leave a lot of energy on the table. I was lucky, honestly, to read one book a month just for fun. One that I chose for myself.

So when I did? Well, I made a choice I definitely don’t regret. I read other Christian fiction. Historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense…those were my go-tos, though other genres certainly made their way into my list as well. 

Those other authors, though? The ones who’d been writing decades longer than me? The ones whose books I’d grown up reading? I was fascinated to learn that while they read plenty of Christian fiction, they also read plenty of mainstream fiction. Classics, sure, but also modern, trending fiction. 

I probably thought something brilliant at the time, like “Why??”

I needn’t even ask, really. Those wonderful writers explained themselves in the very conversation that surprised me. And their explanation has stuck with me all these years later.

There are several pieces to it. First, the Christian market trends tend to follow mainstream market trends but about 2 years behind. So if, say, Regency Romance is topping the charts in the general market now, that means it’s likely to hit its peak in the Christian market in two years. Which means that now is the time to pitch books in that genre to Christian houses, who also keep tabs on general market trends. This is Very Useful Information.

But it’s also far more than that. We have to be honest–generally speaking, general market books sell more than Christian market books. This is NOT a rule without exception, but if one were to take averages, it’s simple truth. There are more readers for that broader market than our niche one. Which means, in large part, that the mainstream market is representative of our country and world as a whole in a way that the smaller faith-based market is not.

Why is that important? Because it means that by reading the books that are selling the best and resonating the most with the world, we can know what the world is looking for.

Here’s the thing, though. Books without faith, without God…they can meet a lot of needs, but we as Christ-followers know they’re missing something, right? Yet we can look at those other books, those compelling, fascinating, well-written books that are selling millions of copies, and we can read them, love them, be disappointed by them, see where God is missing, and then let the Spirit work in our imaginations to say, “The world is looking for this…and if we give it to them with God, they’ll also receive something far greater.”

It’s been a few years, now, since I began venturing into the general market book world for some of my reading. I’ve read Colleen Hoover. I’ve read Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, J. K. Rowling and Rick Riordan, James S. A. Corey and Andy Weir. I realized at the end of 2023, upon seeing a list of “the most borrowed books” from NYC’s biggest library systems, that I’d read about 75% of them, and that was…cool, honestly. To realize that I knew those books that had people buzzing. I knew why they were buzzing about them.

For the most part, I liked them. I honestly tend to like most things I read. It doesn’t mean I like everything within them. That I agree with their every stance. That I enjoy the bad language or spicy scenes. But I have been trained to look for the merits in everything I read, and that’s what I do. I look for why these books are popular.

And then I think, “But how much better would they be with God between the pages?”

Colleen Hoover did an amazing job, honestly, of showing how someone might slide unwittingly into an abusive relationship in It Ends with Us. But I found myself wondering, “What if she’d met a God-honoring man, one who knew how to show her love and respect and not try to get her into bed? What if these characters understood that?”

Rebecca Yarros is crafting an edge-of-your-seat, compelling world of dragon-riders, daredevils, and the fight of good versus evil in the Empyrean series (Fourth Wing, etc) that I absolutely tore through. But I found myself wondering, “What if these characters weren’t just playing lip-service to a god in a pantheon, what if they heard a call in their souls to a Creator who held those battling forces in His hand?”

Emily Henry is FANTASTIC at pulling us deep into a point-of-view and sprinkling amazing, bookish wit into the pages of her stories, and writing about complex, not-just-romance relationships. Yet how much more fulfilling would those relationships be, if the characters were recognizing their identities in Christ as they’re finding their places in the world and with each other?

I could go on and on. I read these books, and I see why they’re applauded, and I thoroughly enjoy them for what they are…and then ask, “What if God were in the midst?”

Why do we authors do this? Because we want to write stories for the aching hearts of our day. We want to pen novels that capture the imagination, that resonate with a generation, and which take those things and point to God.

Literature, movies, shows, music…these are some of the Church’s best indicators of what the world really thinks, believes, and yearns for. They’re windows into the souls of our time. They are billboards shouting, “This is what your neighbors want! What they believe! What they think!”

That’s powerful stuff, friends. Because my goal, the goal of most writers I know, is to find that resonance. To find those things that make people go, “Yes, this is what I wanted, what I needed!” in a way that points them to the Lord. But I can’t do that half so well if I don’t understand the people I’m writing for. If I don’t know what appeals to them.

I remember a couple decades ago hearing a very common complaint about Christian fiction: “It’s unrealistic. It’s all sweetness and happy endings and sermons, and my life looks NOTHING like that.”

Well, Christian fiction has come a long, long way. I am so proud of our industry now, of the work we do, of the amazing books we produce. And friends, it isn’t by living behind blinders. It isn’t by refusing to look into the shadows. It’s by walking boldly in the midst of our culture with a heart to see, with the Light in hand to cast into the shadows. And casting the light doesn’t always look like judgment. It quite often looks like love.

In the early days of the church, those who wanted to become leaders were expected to go to school–and I’m not talking seminary. They went to the Greek and Roman schools of their day, where they learned rhetoric and law and poetry and literature along with their heathen neighbors. Why? Because they needed to be able to speak to those neighbors. They needed to understand the way they thought, the plays they watched, the dialogues they read. They needed to be able to engage with them on that level and then offer more.

So if you get my newsletter and look at the “what I’m reading” section, you’re going to see a lot of general market books in there, along with a lot of Christian ones. I’ll usually say what I liked about them…and then make clear if they have things like language and spice. My theory is that grown-ups can decide for themselves what they want to read, and only YOU know what is best for you. Maybe, like me, you find it infinitely valuable to keep up-to-date with the bestselling books so that you can have conversations with people who are reading them. Maybe, on the other hand, you long ago decided to fill your mind only with God-honoring books. I respect both stances! I will obviously never tell anyone not to read Christian fiction. 😉

But in my quest to Read Dangerously, I’m also trying to read widely. I’m trying to read popularly. I’m trying to learn the general-market side of the genres I love best, so that I can deliver God-honoring fiction that meets those standards…and then surpasses them. I want to write books that are relevant to today’s world–and which always, always point to the World beyond.