Reading The Acknowledgments

Reading the Acknowledgments

Have you ever considered why you buy a book? (You do buy books, right?) Some of the best reads I’ve found came by way of recommendations—from friends and from strangers. I’ve bought books a few times for their covers, at least twice for their inscriptions, and often for their authors. I’ve purchased more than a handful because they were the current buzz, but those have frequently fallen short of the hype.

Lately, I’ve abandoned these book-shopping techniques for one that is almost always reliable. I’ve started reading the acknowledgments page. Here authors sometimes list other writers whose thoughts and words have inspired them—or colleagues who have sharpened their thinking—or agents whose suggestions gave their work needed clarity and focus. Editors whose unseen hands made a good work even better are cited, along with friends and family members whose encouragement bolstered the author’s faltering will to finish.

Producing a book worth reading is a lot like growing a life worth living. Things worth doing are seldom done easily and rarely alone. And the real story is more often found in the acknowledgments than it is in slick cover copy or reviews.

Names like William and Liz, Howard and Annie, or Lee and Noel may not make the marquee. But they (and hundreds of thousands more) are part of the nurturing community surrounding names that do. Their influence is enormous. Without them, and others like them, what happens on the page simply wouldn’t.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve written a book. You’re writing a life—and you’re not doing it alone. So whose name would be on your acknowledgments page, and on whose acknowledgments page would your name appear? Most of our names won’t make the headlines or the book jacket. Our impact may not be broad, but it can and should be loving, intentional, and deep. Because there are no small contributors to any glorious endeavor. Not ever.

Greet Mary. . . . Greet Andronicus and Junias. . . . Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Greet Apelles . . . Herodion . . . Tryphaena and Tryphosa . . . Persis . . . Rufus . . . Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas.

Romans 16:6-14, NASB