Sometimes the difficulty is not commitment, but learning how to read without rushing past what matters.
For many years, Dell encouraged people to read the Bible five chapters at a time. The aim was practical and pastoral. By keeping a consistent pace, readers could move through entire books, and eventually through the whole Bible, without getting stuck or discouraged.
When people felt overwhelmed or disoriented, his counsel was often the same: Don’t get bogged down. Just keep reading. For many, that permission was freeing. It helped them keep going when stopping might have meant giving up altogether.
But not everyone experienced that approach in the same way.
For some readers, moving quickly helped them stay engaged. For others, the pace itself became discouraging. When reading began to feel rushed, some quietly stepped away—not because they lacked interest, but because they felt lost.
It is hard to know how many fell into that category. Reading five chapters at a time, let alone working through entire books and then the whole Bible, can require more patience than some readers feel they have, even when they genuinely want to keep reading.
When Reading Moves Faster Than Understanding
Over time, we began to notice something important. Many people were not resistant to reading the Bible. They were unsure how to stay oriented as they read.
Names blurred together. Journeys were difficult to picture. Events felt disconnected. Even when readers kept going, they often felt uncertain about what they were reading or how one passage related to another.
What seemed to be missing was not effort, but the ability to slow down enough to notice what they were passing over.
Slowing down does not mean stopping or losing momentum. It can help uncover insights that were missed when reading too quickly—those moments when a reader later realizes, “I did not see that before.”
Over the years, Dell has also encouraged a different approach at times: reading a paragraph or a chapter at a time, then briefly summarizing it before moving on. For some readers, that practice made it easier to notice what the text was actually saying, rather than what they assumed they already knew.
Staying With the Text
For readers who felt overwhelmed, slowing down in this way did not always mean reading less. It meant reading differently.
When the pace changed, some readers found they were more willing to keep returning to the Bible. Confusion no longer felt like failure. Questions no longer demanded immediate answers. Reading became something they could stay with, rather than something they had to push through.
We saw this again and again. When readers were given permission to slow down, many of them stayed with the text longer than they had before.
Why This Shapes Our Writing
These experiences have shaped how we approach historical fiction.
We do not see reading a story as a substitute for reading the Bible, or as a way around it. Rather, we hope that carefully grounded storytelling can help readers notice details they might otherwise pass by—places, movements, conversations, and ordinary moments that shape how the larger story unfolds.
When readers are able to picture the world of the Bible more clearly, reading often feels less rushed. Familiar passages settle differently. The story becomes easier to follow, not because it has been simplified, but because more of it can be seen.
Author Note
Over the years, we have learned that readers come to the Bible with different needs at different times. Some need encouragement to keep reading. Others need permission to slow down. Both responses grow out of a desire to stay with the text. Our hope is simply to honor that desire and the patience it sometimes requires.
Explore More
You can explore related posts across the remaining areas of the St. Hans blog: Behind the Books, Faith & History, Characters & World, and Updates & Releases.
Written by D. D. Shiell — Authors of the Nightingale Mountain Trilogy
