For Christmas, I got a Kindle from my partner.
Rationale: I have an iPhone but realized that I couldn’t read eBooks on it very effectively. I like to see the entire paragraph when I’m reading and iPhone screens are not conducive to that habit. The iPad was too expensive, so I finally settled on asking for a Kindle. It’s awesome. Great to read on and I want to read more. So it’s a good choice.
So I loaded all my Kindle for iPhone books on it, converted my non-kindle ebooks via Calibre, and bought a few new ebooks (including Kester Brewin’s Other: Loving Self, God and Neighbour in a World of Fractures
Then I began looking for my theological books to see if there are digital versions.
And I kept coming up dry.
Why are none of my favorite theological books digital yet? Do they want to be extinct?
I randomly grabbed 10 books that I consider academic but not obscure and checked amazon for a kindle version. Results?
- Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development
– no ebook
- The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love
– ebook available
- How (Not) to Speak of God
– no ebook (and he is emergent? What?)
- God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology
– no ebook
- Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness
– ebook available
- If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person (Plus)
– ebook available
- Story of Christianity: Volume 1, The: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation
– ebook available
- Textbook of Christian Ethics, 3rd Edition
– no ebook
- “Come Out My People!”: God’s Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond
– no ebook
- Making Room: Recovering Hospitality As a Christian Tradition
– ebook available
So 50% had ebooks…maybe I was exaggerating the unavailability of ebooks. But I’d really like to have digital versions of the books and I’m willing to pay for them and they are not around anywhere. Sure, ebooks have surpassed analog books this year on Amazon.com, but it’s still a slow process to get good theological books out there in the ebook world.
One of the projects that I’ve considered for a long time is a book scanner similar to this:
In optimal versions, it can scan a 200 page book in under an hour (video here). There are smaller versions that are slower but portable too. Check out the book scanning forum for all the different builds.
I found a walkthrough for newbies. Looks like my next day off, I’m gonna spend some money at Home Depot and injure myself in a home improvement project.
What do you think?
- Is the answer to just wait for official versions to come out? I can’t even find a decent copy of John Wesley’s sermons. I’ve found 3/7 of the Complete Works of JW, but those are not helpful without the other 4!
- Can I legally make a digital copy of my own book that I purchased?
- Is this overkill? (even though searching my ebooks for “baptism” and collecting them in “My clippings” for background for this Sunday’s sermon was pretty awesome!)
Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness post. I’ve been reading a lot. 🙂
I wonder if there’s a common thread among publishers. Some publishers are still using a restrictive e-book format for some of their older publications, where you have to use their parochial file format. I also think that there hasn’t been much demand for some books, especially older public domain books or more academic works from no-longer-active authors. The thought of never having to itinerate my boxes of books again has me coveting a digital library, but the cost of the hardware and the uncertainty of availability has me delaying action. Many thanks to you earlier adopters who are building market and availability for those of us waiting a little longer!
I agree that everyone is still playing in their own playgrounds and haven’t all brought their toys to a common lot yet. I already made the mistake of buying an epub book from borders without realizing it wouldn’t run on my kindle or even my iphone (tho I since found a reader for it). Newbie mistake!
Ethically, you can definitely make a copy of a book that you already own. Legally, not so much.
Where in copyright law is that? I know you can claim “personal use” with media like backups of music (though that has been challenged as well). But not books?
Here’s the FAQ, for the USA:
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-digital.html
So, making a digital copy of a physical book that you own, for the purpose of reading it on an e-reader, for example, would not be protected by section 117, since it is not for archival purposes. Similarly, section 117 does not protect making a digital copy of a CD that you own, for the purposes of playing it on a computer.
The rationale here is that the convenience of reading a book or playing on an album on a computer is a nice thing to have, so you might pay money for it, and that might make copyright owners more money.
I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.
I was wondering about the copyright situation too. I agree on the difference between ethical and legal but I am not sure where the lawyers would come down.
Also, I don’t know where your reading interest is or what you have already read but there is a wealth of older material at the Gutenberg Project. I use downloads on my computer for Chesterton and such.
All things said, nothing beats a well bound book, except the cost.
Grace and peace
Let me know how the Kester Brewin book is. I saw him at Greenbelt last year.
Happy New Year.
I read his other book “Signs of Emergence” and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hi, Jeremy.
I agree about the Dearth of not only theological books, but also things like Biblical Archaeology, Church History, and that sort of thing. However, my dilemma is a practical one. I retired from the Baptist Ministry in June last year, but when I had to move into a fairly decent Housing Association flat, I had no room for my books. I’ve got a few boxes of my books in the “attic” of the Church I am now attending. I’ve also got some books at home, but no real floor space for big book cases. So, my desire is to replace some of those books with e-books and/or CDs. As far as the type of books I have is concerned, there are neither e-book versions, PDF versions, or CD versions. Even the excellent resources of the free Bible Desktop (Windows and MAC) does not include such books. E. g., The Bible as History (Werner Keller), Both Archaeology of the Old (and New) Testament (Merrill F. Unger), Old Testament Times (Harrison-IVP), Ancient Orient and Old Testament (K. A. Kitchen), Documents of the Christian Church (Bettinson) – etc. Because I’ve retired doesn’t mean I don’t want to preach any more, or for myself to stop learning. I’m with you in this matter.
Rev. Vince Smith