Commentary reading habits

[Henoch]

When you're picking up a huge tome(like a commentary or even maybe some purital devotional work) do you ever struggle with finishing it? Most often I start a book- like a huge commentary(this one was on the psalms) and after I read a bit I think if other topics and books and start reading other books and the stop the first book
Do y'all ever do this? Are commentaries meant to be read cover to cover(e.g. like a 700-800 page long exegetical work) or do you ever use them only for reference when you want to look up what it says for a particular passage?
I feel like my reading habits are quite erratic
Any advice?

 

[alexanderjames]

I am the worst for starting books and not finishing before beginning others.

There's no law or special reward for completing books cover to cover. Commentaries are a mixed bag too. But I personally want to be a little more thoughtful before I crack open a new book from the start.

 

[Solparvus]

Commentaries are like tools. You don't need them all the time, and you might not do with them absolutely everything you can do, but you have them for the time you need them, and in those moments you are glad you have it.

I don't think full reading of a commentary is necessary in many cases. They will often address issues that may not be important to you, or get into details that aren't useful to you at the moment. Sometimes the content may be above your head (eg. if you don't know Biblical languages or Latin). Best practice is to know what you need from the commentary, get it, and make use of it.

 

[Andres]

Different commentaries have different "feels" to them, as in some read much more devotionally and some read more technically. Obviously the former are much easier to read from cover to cover. I have read some commentaries all the way through and really enjoyed them but I have also got bogged down in others that, while profitable, were a struggle to read in their entirety.

 

[Ed Walsh]

Do y'all ever do this? Are commentaries meant to be read cover to cover(e.g. like a 700-800 page long exegetical work) or do you ever use them only for reference when you want to look up what it says for a particular passage?
I feel like my reading habits are quite erratic
Any advice?

In 2015, I started getting super serious about studying. During the next five years, I read 25 to 35 commentaries cover to cover. It was a discipline I set for myself and a very good, edifying thing. Specifically, I'm going through the preaching the word series of commentaries, which, for me, are perfect. I also remember a five-commentary series on the Penatook, averaging 500 pages each. The good Lord led me to this and enabled me to read this much. Of course, this took some time, so for these five years, or 2015 to 2000, I never missed a day, and most mornings were roughly 3 hours long. But then, 5 years later, it stopped. I still read commentaries the same way, but only about a quarter as much as I did for those years.

Those years were, I think, the best years of my life. I'd often smile at my wife and say, "Hey, babe, you got some real competition now."