I prefer to read stuff I suspect I’ll want to recommend for my readers.
Even though I don’t fancy myself as a watchblogger, I do enjoy critically engaging with Christian books. Plenty of reviewers have noticed that the huge number of evangelical readers out there have created a market for this kind of Christian publishing. Not all high print volume books have these flaws, but I’ve read a few of them to know their common characteristics. In order to aim for a wide audience, they have to minimize doctrinal distinctives, focus on motivation and practice, and sugar-coat the materials so it goes down easy. It’s just that they often have significant flaws as “lower common denominator” books.
Not that there isn’t anything valuable in these sorts of mass-market volumes. You know which ones I mean: The Purpose Driven Life, Jesus Calling, The Gospel According to Veggie Tales. (Hey, I’m a pastor, so I’ve come to expect people will ask about these.) Unfortunately for these folks, I rarely read any of those “It” books that every evangelical Christian is talking about all at once. Usually it’s a popular Christian book, sometimes a bestseller. Every now and then I get asked whether I’ve read such-and-such a book.
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