Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?
I have never regretted reading a book—not for time wasted, money spent, or content mistrusted. I choose what I read, and I finish only what proves worthy. Yet I do carry one regret: that I did not read the Bible earlier, faster, and deeper. This is a regret not shared by many who decline to open it at all.
The Bible—sixty-six books, penned by dozens of writers under the Spirit’s inspiration—is to believers the fountain of life, daily bread, and living water. God’s word is a lamp to my feet and a light on my path.
Other books have nourished my mind and sharpened my craft. I am grateful for them. Yet they satisfy a different hunger—the kind that asks “how” and “what.” Scripture alone answers “why”—and feeds the part of me that other books cannot reach. Without God’s word, I eat and remain hungry; I drink and remain parched; I walk and cannot see. I confess I once lived this way. But God restored me.
Looking back, I regret not studying Scripture earnestly in my youth. I felt remorse—but mercy brought repentance, and grace renews me day by day.
If anyone regrets a book they have read, I suggest they turn that regret to action—as I did. I corrected my shallow reading by studying Scripture with others. And I began writing not to critique others, but to clarify my own understanding.
And finally, if I were a book, I would wish the Lord would not regret reading me.
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And if I am a book being read, may these words be true of me:
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On Faith That Wins the Heart
Man judges by the outward show;
God sees the heart, and there will know.
Tamar played the harlot’s part;
Rahab plied a trade of art—
Yet both are named in Jesus’ line,
By grace, in sacred truth, divine.
Ruth, whose virtue none could find,
And Mary, pure of heart and mind—
These too, in that ancestral chain,
The Mother and the King retain.
Without faith, no man can please
The heart of God, the King of peace.
First believe, then live aright—
The just walk thus from dark to light.
God sets marvels, strange and rare,
For every age to see and fear.
By faith we’re justified, and then
By righteousness we live again—
Do you believe?
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en yan hua fang 