With the rapid development and deployment of technology Christian readers must leverage it for a win for our sanctification. This was my conclusion about 36 months ago. I approached the task like I was writing a paper. I spent time talking with people, reading articles, trying products, and stubbing my toes (or swiping thumbs). Now, 3 years later, I feel like I have settled and have something of a battle plan and philosophy.
Before sharing it, just a disclosure: I am a pastor who has to read and likes to read. I read for information, transformation, and recreation. My issue has always been time and more recently medium. Should I buy e-books? Hard-copy? Use the Library? Borrow friends? The possibilities are seemingly endless.
Here is a landmark conclusion for me: there are some books that I need to read quickly, others I want to read slowly and contemplatively, and still others to pick and choose from over time as reference. This liberates me to find a suitable medium for my reading needs.
Hard-Copy Books: I feel like I need to have commentaries, Systematic Theologies, biographies, and other academic resources in physical form. My study is littered with books right now. I have shelves full and stacks all around me. These books, even while closed, speak to me in a way a jam-packed Kindle cannot not. I have many commentaries electronically but still want to purchase the hard-copy for study when preaching through or studying a particular book or issue.
E-books: I absolutely love this technological advancement. Gone are the days of waiting for a book to be delivered, we can simply click and begin reading in seconds. This is great. I use my Kindle Fire to read fiction, some biographies, and various issue books. I also like to purchase Kindle Books for those books that preeminently quotable. For example, I was reading through Center Church by Keller and Pilgrim Theology by Horton recently. These books are pure gold. I noticed that they were on sale on Kindle for under $5. I gobbled them up so that I could highlight and have the text available for quoting at any time. The note-taking and highlighting from Kindle is fantastic and very useful for teachers.
Audio Books: This is a game-changer for me. If you are looking for the secret sauce to take your reading to the next level, let me suggest two options.
- Kindle Fire Text-to-Speech (TTS): When Kindle first started doing TTS it was pretty lame. It sounded like the robot on the Jetson’s reading you a book. Since then they have come a long way. My wife and I listened to most of the 937 pages of Les Miserables while driving to Colorado. I have listened to book after book while riding the bus, walking, or driving. Another feature of this is that I can speed up the playback. This is money. I nestle in for most books in the 1.5x − 2.0x speed. It saves time on your efficent use of time, which I’m pretty sure is the same thing as time travel.
- Audio Books: When Amazon purchased Audible it made for the natural pairing of e-books and audio books. Sometimes you want to have a book read to you in more natural way. This was my choice for the Bonhoffer biography. I wanted to let my kids listen to this as well. With the Audible app for iphone/android they can easily listen on a mobile device. Audible will allow you to get the audio file for free for many of their books and a relatively inexpensive cost for other titles.
My purchase of the Kindle Fire was a gamble. I thought that I could leverage that time commuting or walking for reading. The audio feature was my answer. It has worked and far exceeded my expectations. The Audible.com enhancement is just gravy.
I’m curious what others are or have been doing. I feel like I’m constantly evaluating and trying to be more efficient with time and proficient at reading. Stewardship is far-reaching!
-One note: I noticed that Amazon has the Kindle Fire HD on sale for Father’s Day for $179. Just remember to enter DADSFIRE at the checkout.
