I am sitting in my bedroom, curled up under the covers with my laptop and iPad. A cup of chocolate/caramel mocha latte sits strategically next to me on my Rooms To Go nightstand. I just completed my favorite part of the day - Bible Study.
And it was all done on e-books.
I have to admit, I was very hesitant at first to embrace the whole ebook idea. Sure, I heard Dr. Mohler talk about how convenient it was to have a bunch of books on one little device - especially for travel. I just don't travel that much, especially on an airplane. So for me, it didn't make sense. I even recall seeing a TV news report at the homeschool convention last year where High Schools were issuing Kindles instead of books because backpacks were so heavy. I thought the idea was crazy.
My boss purchased an iPad for me as a Christmas gift (most of my 2 readers know that). I began reading books online with the iPad in December and have become hooked on e-readers. They are convenient and I can carry several books with me at one time. This has been such a nice feature when sometimes I am just not in the mood for a particular book - I have plenty more to choose from.
My awesome and wonderful husband bought me Logos Bible Software for Christmas. Most of this is done on the laptop, although I do have the Logos app on my iPad and do use it along side of the laptop, specifically for reading the Bible and a commentary side by side. I have about 276 resources on my Logos library to aid in Bible study. I just studied today 1 Samuel 17 - David and Goliath. It is really a handy tool to simply click on a word and see the original language, definition and transliteration. The media resources are really nice too because it helps place you in the context of what is happening in the text. They give wonderful insight. Plus the software has some really great features. Since I love to study using the Precept inductive method, Logos actually has the markings built in it. So, I can read and "mark the text" the same way I would do it with my bag of colored pencils and my New Inductive Study Bible. Logos even sets up reading plans, making staying on track easy!
I now even only take the iPad to church. Between the ESV app from Crossway that was free and my Logos app, I have several Bible translations and commentaries available very easily. This is helpful in Sunday School conversations sometimes.
So with that, I just wanted to share a few books and links I am reading and working through.
First, the books. I get most of my ebooks from the Amazon Kindle store. And here is a secret....they are free or really really cheap! You can even sample the first chapter of most books to see if you really want to purchase it! So here are the books I am sampling or reading through.
Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Riven by Jerry Jenkins (fiction)
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
Doctrine: What Christians should Believe by Mark Driscoll
The Centurion's Wife by Janette Oke (fiction)
Valeria's Cross by Kathy Macias (fiction)
What the Bible Says about the Doctrines of Grace by Nathan Pitchford
Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore
I also read all of Six Ways to Keep the Little in Your Girl by Dannah Gresh on the iPad.
Now, some links. I already mentioned that Amazon's Kindle store has plenty of free resources. You can get a lot of books and sermons from Martin Luther, Calvin, Jonathon Edwards, etc for free or really really cheap!
I also found a link to Monergism's selection of ebooks. You can see those here.
You can view the list of ebooks from Christianbook.com here.
So between my iPad and Logos, I have become an ereader fanatic. With the iPad app, I can access a large portion of my Logos library because it interfaces with their server/website. Now, some books are not available because Logos has not worked out an agreement with the publisher to allow the books in the library to be available through the app. However, all in all, I am very happy with both.
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