[GtrsRGr8]

I want to give you all a sort of "heads up." I say, "sort of" because I've just got a strong hunch here. I'm not absolutely certain of this, yet. But if i'm right, it might be a way for you to save a lot of money on religious books over the years.

A few years ago, when I was still pretty new to the ebook-buying thing, I learned two salient things about Christianbook. First, with maybe an exception or two on a book that they sell, the only ebook format that they sell is ePub. Second, sometimes--maybe most of the time--if they have the same title as Amazon, their ePub will be a little bit cheaper than Amazon's Kindle mobi. So, in quite a few instances a person can save a few cents buying Christianbook's ePub over Amazon's mobi. And it's been on not a just a few occasions that I have taken advantage of that spread and bought from Christianbook.

Well, it seems that IVP (InterVarsity Press) is going into pdf in a big way, at least at Christianbook. There may be a few bad hits among these, but a search that I did just now on Christianbook for IVP pdf's returned 329 items (I had no idea that IVP even had that many different titles!).

Now for those of you who have started dozing off (ha), here's where the money-saving potential comes into play. These pdf's appear to be not just a little, but substantially less expensive than Amazon's Kindle mobi's.

As a "for-instance," take a book that I just purchased. I learned that Amazon has a book, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church by Gary Parrett on sale for $2.99. That seemed like a great price (it is 88% off of the digital list price of $24.99), and the reviews looked really good. I decided to buy it. I went over to Christianbook, though, to see if I could save a few pennies. Lo, and behold, they have a pdf of it for $1.69 (a 93% discount to the digital list price of $24.99)!

I had to find out if this was a fluke. So I started checking, more or less randomly, some of the IVP pdf's at Christianbook, comparing them with their Amazon mobi counterparts. Now, keep in mind, that most of these are not even sale prices. Here are the ones that I checked. In some instances, there wasn't an Amazon Kindle or Christianbook pdf, so I eliminated them from consideration, of course.

The IVP Introduction to the Bible, by Philip S. Johnston. Amazon $18.67; Christianbook $10.89.
Culture: Living in the Places of God, by Scott Nelson. Amazon $6.99; Christianbook $3.99.
Just Business: Christian Ethics for the Marketplace, by Alexander Hill. Amazon $9.99; Christianbook $8.59.
Mapping the Origins Debate: Six Models of the Beginning of Everything, by Gerry Rau. Amazon $9.99; Christianbook $8.59.
Thinking about Christian Apologetics: What It Is and Why We Do It, by James Belby. Amazon $9.99; Christianbook $7.99.
Evil and the Justice of God, by N.T. Wright. Amazon $9.99; Christianbook $7.39.
Exploring the New Testament, Volume 1: A Guide to the Gospels & Acts, by David Wenham, Steve Walton. Amazon $22.92; Christianbook $14.29.
We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, by G.K. Beale. Amazon $18.83; Christianbook $11.99.

Now, you may like only mobi and/or ePub. I know that some of you, especially the tabletized among you, don't care much for pdf. So, it's a moot point to you. Fine. But, personally, not only do I not mind, but I think that I actually have come to prefer pdf's. And some of you, when you see how much that you might be saving going to pdf's at Christianbook, might decide that you like pdf's after all. ha

Stay tuned.