Quarantine doesn’t necessarily mean more time to read. If you’re anything like our family, you have less time, fewer outlets for stir-crazy kids (and adults), and general exhaustion at the end of each day. For moms, juggling remote work and kids, you might feel like you have five jobs. Yet, in the age of social distancing and a relentless spigot of news, books are still selling well. Children’s books and books about pandemics are popular. According to one bookseller, “People are definitely buying stacks of books. More people are buying what might be called ‘ambitious reads,’ or big, fat books.” Apparently we make time to read, even amid global pandemics.
Whether you’re looking for something to stir your heart in the gospel, a fun read about distant lands or imagined places, or a book to give to the littlest ones around you, there are plenty of options to choose from. Thankfully, a number of publishers—Christian and non-Christian alike—have steeply discounted or made several books available for free. Our own TGC bookstore has a number of significantly discounted titles you can browse.
Happy reading.
Audible
On their website, Audible wrote:
For as long as schools are closed, we’re open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Explore the collection, select a title and start listening. It’s that easy.
Littlest Listeners
- Timeless Tales of Beatrix Potter: Peter Rabbit and Friends (Beatrix Potter)
- Winnie-the-Pooh: A. A. Milne’s Pooh Classics, volume 1 (A. A. Milne)
Elementary
- Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
- Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
- Great Poems for Children (Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson)
Tweens
- Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories (Rudyard Kipling)
- White Fang (Jack London)
Teens
- The Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis)
- Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (C. S. Lewis)
- A Grief Observed (C. S. Lewis)
Literary Classics
- The Call of the Wild (Jack London)
- Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
- Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
- Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
- Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
- Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
- My Antonia (Willa Cather)
- The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
- Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
- Paradise Lost (John Milton)
- Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)
You can view the entire library here.
B&H/LifeWay
B&H has discounted a number of titles to $4.99 in ebook for trade (Kindle, Apple, Nook, Kobu, and so on) as well as $4.99 for print on LifeWay.com (website only).
- Steadfast Love: The Response of God to the Cries of our Heart (Lauren Chandler)
- Running from Mercy: Jonah and the Surprising Story of God’s Unstoppable Grace (Anthony Carter)
- Mere Hope: Life in an Age of Cynicism (Jason Duesing)
- Mercy for Today: A Daily Prayer from Psalm 51 (Jonathan Parnell)
- Suffering Is Never for Nothing (Elisabeth Elliott)
LifeWay has made their entire curriculum available for free, including The Gospel Project.
Banner of Truth Trust
Banner of Truth writes:
Friends, we are in the midst of a situation that, for most of us, is unprecedented in our lifetimes. We do well to remember that our God is the God of the Bible; the same today as in days gone by; the God who Flavel wrote about; the God who the scriptures tell us is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. In these difficult times when our churches, jobs, and physical health are being so disrupted we can be encouraged that our Lord is carrying out his providential care for all of his children and he does so with all mercy and wisdom.
To that end, Banner of Truth has steeply discounted several books on God’s providence:
- The Sinfulness of Sin (Ralph Venning)
- The Mystery of Providence (John Flavel)
- All Things for Good (Thomas Watson)
- Sovereignty of God (A. W. Pink)
Crossway
Crossway has made the following ebooks available for free:
- Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age (Bob Cutillo) — (MOBI | EPUB | Discussion Guide)
- Big Picture Bible Crafts (Gail Shoonmaker)
- A Shelter in the Time of Storm (Paul Tripp) — (MOBI | EPUB)
- Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church (John Onwuchekwa)
- The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived (Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor)
Crossway is also giving free access to their ESV.org basic subscription plan to those who haven’t yet subscribed through May 31, 2020. The basic plan includes the following resources:
- 9 study Bibles, including the award-winning ESV Study Bible (containing 20,000+ study notes, 80,000+ cross-references, 200+ charts, 50+ articles, and 240 full-color maps and illustrations)
- A suite of original language tools related to The Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge
- The complete interactive Knowing the Bible study series which consists of 45 volumes covering the Bible’s 66 books
See all the free resources Crossway has produced.
Focus on the Family
Adventures in Odyssey—one of the best radio programs for children and adults alike—is making four weeks available for free.
The Good Book Company
Most books and ebooks here are discounted 40 percent off.
- Where Is God in a Coronavirus World? (John Lennox)
- Goodbye to Goodbyes: A True Story About Jesus, Lazarus, and an Empty Tomb (Lauren Chandler)
- The Friend Who Forgives: A True Story About How Peter Failed and Jesus Forgave (Dan DeWitt)
- Teach Me To Feel: Worshiping Through the Psalms in Every Season of Life (Courtney Reissig)
- To Seek and to Save: Daily Reflections on the Road to the Cross (Sinclair Ferguson)
Lexham/Faithlife (Logos)
Lexham/Logos/Mobile Ed are preparing an offer for institutions whose students are losing access to their libraries but need to complete courses, assignments and projects. It will offer free access to Lexham, Mobile Ed, and Public Domain resources along with select journals and other resources to students and faculty of these instructions through the end of the semester.
Faithlife provides free books every month, so take a look at this month’s offerings.
Ligonier
For the first time ever, Ligonier had made their entire library of hundreds of teaching series free to stream. And for those who have Amazon Prime, these are available to stream on that platform. Through at least June 30, Ligonier has also made their group studies available for free.
Moody
Moody is offering several of these titles for 50 percent off.
- The Pursuit of God (A. W. Tozer)
- Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture (Mark Sayers)
- Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves (Trillia Newbell)
P&R
Sally Michael’s “Making Him Known” series for children is discounted on Kindle. Normally $16.99, these are priced at $7.99 each.
10 of Those
As always, 10 of Those is offering steep discounts on their titles. You can get 10 ebooks for $10! Here are some of TGC’s books:
- Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land (Elliot Clark)
- Lost and Found: How Jesus Helped Us Discover Our True Selves (edited by Collin Hansen)
- Steadfast: A Devotional Bible Study on the Book of James (Courtney Doctor)
- Identity Theft: Reclaiming the Truth of Who We Are in Christ (edited by Melissa Kruger)
Westminster Bookstore
Westminster Bookstore has released a free PDF document of 15 chapters from 15 different books that help us to orient ourselves to God in uncertain times. You can purchase those books at a discounted price, with free shipping if you use the code “READSLOW.” This expires March 31, 2020.
Zondervan
Sale on Zondervan’s Counterpoints series. Save up to 74 percent on eBooks. Save 50 percent on print editions. Discounts expire March 29.
MasterLectures by Zondervan Academic allows you to stream thousands of video lectures on the Bible and theology. It is now free for the first 14 days, and then 50 percent off the first three months when you use the code “LEARN.” Titles include:
- America’s Religious History (Thomas S. Kidd)
- Know the Heretics (Justin S. Holcomb)
- Systematic Theology (Wayne Grudem)
- Evangelism in a Skeptical World (Sam Chan)
- Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Gregg R. Allison)
