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olaskyToday’s post concludes a four-part interview with Dr. Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World magazine, and provost at The King’s College in New York City. Click here for parts1 and 2 and 3.

Trevin Wax: Every few months in World, you reveal your “Treadmill Reading List” or your Summer Reading Plan. What are your reading habits? What kind of books do you find most appealing?

Marvin Olasky: I find a really good novel to be most appealing. I submit novels to the “treadmill test.” On a typical day, I walk a couple of miles. If the book is really good, I keep walking. If the book is boring, I want to walk less.

Trevin Wax: Do you put your book up on the treadmill?

Marvin Olasky: Either that or I hold it. I am not able to run and read at the same time. Sadly, my running days are over anyway. The treadmill test has showed me that what I find most engaging is a really good novel. Most novels are not really good. 90% of novels are terrible.

Trevin Wax: What is second best?

Marvin Olasky: Non-fiction that gives me information and history. Non-fiction that tells me things I don’t know. The bulk of my reading is non-fiction, but there’s a shorter spectrum there. With fiction, there are some authors whose books I look forward to because of their previous track record. I generally only get through a few pages of most novels.

One of the perks of having a magazine is that you get sent lots of stuff. Sometimes, I will ask the secretary to ask for a review copy. Both solicited and unsolicited books come in constantly, so I always have more than I can read. The flow is enormous. The people who carry up boxes of books to my apartment are suffering servants indeed!

Because of the sheer number of books that cross my desk, I no longer feel the obligation to read the whole book. My wife also does book reviews for World, and she still feels that obligation.

Trevin Wax: Your wife concentrates on fiction.

Marvin Olasky: Yes, she does more fiction. Sometimes, she will read a novel and say, “You have to read this!” So I have the luxury of having a pre-reader. That is one of the unexpected joys of marriage!

Trevin Wax: What are your future writing projects?

Marvin Olasky: Email takes up much of my writing time. The “rain never stops.” But I enjoy being a cracker barrel philosopher. I enjoy being whelmed by e-mails, but not overwhelmed.

My chief goal in life is to glorify God and to join him forever (as the Westminster Confession suggests). My immediate goal is to end the day with no more than 20 e-mails unanswered. That’s a challenge, because they keep raining.

Once I’m caught up with emails, I write articles for World. Then, I consider writing books. Right now, book-writing is difficult. When I was at the University of Texas, because of the kindness of Texas taxpayers, a full-time job was teaching six hours a week. That schedule left me time to write books. Now that I am at The King’s College, I have left the socialist sector of academia. I am in the free-market sector which actually demands a day’s work for a day’s pay!

As long as I’m at King’s (and I hope to be here for quite a while), I don’t think I’ll be writing any books. That’s fine with me. World has a circulation of 120-125,000. A book that sells 20,000 copies is considered very successful. Authors like the thought of having books on the shelf with their name. But in terms of actually being helpful to people, World is a much more effective vehicle.

Time has a much bigger circulation than World, but I can’t imagine the editor of Time has people constantly thanking him for publishing the magazine. We have wonderful readers, and if I can serve them through email and magazine articles, then I am blessed. I have the great privilege of being a pastor of sorts to 120,000 subscribers. I wish more of our writers were able to travel and meet our readers.

Trevin Wax: You do have a book coming out soon.

Marvin Olasky: Yes. It’s a graphic novel called 2048. The narrative is set in the year 2048. There are bumans, a mixture of humans and chimpanzees through genetic engineering. What happens to this bumans? Are they human or not? Can they vote? Can the be baptized?

Trevin Wax: Did you do the artwork and the writing?

Marvin Olasky: I didn’t do the artwork. I just wrote the script. I wrote this while I was finishing up my work in Texas. It’s just been a while in coming out. It’s for a start up company that is getting some funding. I suspect it should be released soon. The book was highly enjoyable. I’ve never done anything like that before.

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