100 days of reading over the break

Normally over the break I try to listen to a sermon series and encourage others to do the same with the extra time they have. This year I was thinking about either listening to the six talks by John Piper on Essential Truths for the Christian Life or his six talks on Quest for Joy. They both seemed like a good topical series and something I could easily finish listening to before I go back to work, but recently I changed my mind.

Last year I encouraged people to read their Bible in 2011 and every year some people try to do it, and for some reason or another we all lose steam... In the past I have tried a few reading plans. I find the ones that have you jumping to different sections every days gets too much and I prefer reading chunks of chapters from the same part. This year my summer break plan isn't so much to listen to a sermon series, but to read The Essential 100. This bible reading plan is meant to go for 100 days and takes you though an overview of the story of the Bible. It's length sounds to me more achievable. It spends 50 days in the Old Testament and 50 in the New. I say "meant to" as each day has a variable amount  of chapters/sections to read, making some days quicker and so easier to read ahead (some days readings take about a minute).

YouVersion (the main Bible app for iPhone and Android) has The Essential 100 reading plan in it so it is quite easy to access the plan in the morning, at lunch, late at night with a baby in your arms etc...  I started about a week ago and already am about 20% through. I am hoping I won't loose steam before the end of January.... I'm also doing the readings in the Holman Christian Standard Bible as I am used to the NIV and ESV language (there isn't a huge difference, but it feels "fresher").

YouVersion has as whole host of reading plans that are worth checking out. All of their plans start from Day 1 when you start them, meaning if you want to do the Book of Common Prayer reading you start from Day 1 and not from what the real daily reading is. If you want that, I suggest using the ESVBible reading plans that can take you to the current days readings, you can also start from Day 1 if you want (of cause you can only read those plans in the ESV). Both sites allow you to subscribe to RSS making it again easier to access your readings.

Tim Challies has asked people to do the 3650 challenge with him (10 chapters of the Bible a day for a year (pdf)), but my advice is to pick a plan that is realistic for you. I have no doubt Challies could pull off 10 chapters a day, I'm just saying from my track record I couldn't.

Past series I listened to over the break:
All About Jesus over the break
Song of Songs over the break
Philippians over the break