Way back in July I posted about Amazon's Kindle device. My main complaint back then about having a digital library for Kindle was that most of what I read is not available in Kindle format. I also wondered why there weren't more available what with all the digital versions of biblical studies resources created for Bibleworks and Logos.
I have since discovered that more of the books I'm interested in reading have appeared in Kindle format over the last several months. Back in July, I think I found 3 or 4. The prices have also dropped. David Carr's book was $28 in July but it's $19.25 now.
Here's a list of what I've found for biblical studies (especially Hebrew Bible, Judaism, and religious studies) now available for Kindle (listed alphabetically). The asterisk * indicates its on one of our reading lists at UW-Madison.
Robert Alter - The Book of Psalms
*Robert Alter - The Art of Biblical Narrative
David Carr - Writing on the Tablet of the Heart
Shai Cherry - Torah Through Time
Brevard Childs - Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture
John Collins - Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
James Crenshaw - Defending God
*William Dever - Who Were the Early Israelites and Where did They Come From?
William Dever - Did God Have a Wife?
*William Dever - What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?
Peter Enns - Inspiration and Incarnation
Hanan Eshel - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State
Craig Evans and Emanuel Tov - Exploring the Origins of the Bible
*Israel Finkelstein - The Bible Unearthed
Richard Hess - Israelite Religions
*Barry Holtz - Back to the Sources
Jodi Magness - The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Roland Murphy - The Tree of Life
George Nickelsburg - Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah
Susan Niditch - War in the Hebrew Bible
Peter Schaefer - Jesus in the Talmud
William Schniedewind - Primer on Ugaritic
Rodney Stark - Discovering God
Benjamin Wright, ed. - A New English Translation of the Septuagint
There are even more if your interests run more towards NT or theology or Christian history materials. I think it's quite an impressive increase for the last 7 months.
Now these books require purchase, but you can get the whole text of the Bible for free in the English Standard Version. That alone makes it worth it, right?
Thanks for the list! I have a first-generation Kindle, but - to your point - have really only been using it for recreational reading thus far. It's good to see the Kindle catalog reaching into the theological shelves.
ReplyDeleteI like the e-paper a lot because my eyes get very tired reading from my computer all day. Are the kindle books less expensive than their physical counterparts? You can transfer all your .pdf articles to it as well right? Besides the price, the only thing I don't like is that I need to be able to mark my books up and make notes.
ReplyDeleteMost of the books in this list were around $20 or less for the Kindle edition. This was usually about the same or a bit less than a paper version. For example, Carr's book is $31 paperback, $19.25 Kindle. Alter's Psalms commentary is $23.10 hardcover and $19.25 Kindle. One of Dever's books is only $9.99 Kindle and $12.24 paperback. I did happen to see a DJD volume with a Kindle edition. I was a bit surprised since the Kindle price tag is $243 vs. hardcover $270. Why even bother for that type of volume?
ReplyDeleteYou can send PDFs to Kindle but they say it's still a beta feature and might not transfer perfectly. On the other hand, you could send a word or text document and it would convert it.
Hey, I just discovered your blog - i know a student of yours. This is a great resource - even being in the pastoral realm.
ReplyDeletehow can you get the esv for free on the kindle? i clicked the link, but it's $8 on the website.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, this post is from way back in February 2009. Back then, the ESV was free and publishers were still trying to figure out if this Kindle thing was really going to catch on. Obviously they decided to start collecting some money at some point. Not being a Kindle owner myself, I haven't kept up on their pricing practices.
ReplyDelete