FREE/BARGAIN — Christian Interest

[GtrsRGr8]

Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ, by Darrell L. Bock and Daniel B. Wallace is currently 99 cents at both Christianbook (ePub, DRM Protected) and at Amazon (Kindle mobi).

The book is a healthy 248 pages long. Ratings are very good, in my opinion, considering the polarizing nature of the subject matter. Authors Bock and Wallace are New Testament scholars with, as far as I aware, impeccable credentials.

One caveat, however. Though not changing as fast as in, say, the hard sciences, developments in religious studies are changing at a fairly rapid pace. This book has a copyright date of 2007, and a publication date of 2010 (I can't quite figure that one out). A lot has changed in Biblical studies since 11 or 8 years ago. For one thing, the book discusses the Talpiot (or Talpiyot) tomb, which a decade ago was touted as evidence that Jesus was not physically resurrected from the dead. For some reason, the ones who seemed to be the chief proponents of the theory--Simcha Jacobovici and James Tabor--have been very quiet about this tomb, and their theory, in the last few years. The theory evidently has become passe, for some reason. But this book has at least one chapter on this topic.

However, with 248 pages, a 99-cent (88% off of retail) price, and authorship by renowned scholars, I think that I can find more than enough highly useful information in the book to make it a "buy" for me.

[badgoodDeb]

Just a guess: 2007 for physical book, 2010 for electronic version? Quite often happens that way.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Just a guess: 2007 for physical book, 2010 for electronic version? Quite often happens that way.

Good point. I don't know that I've ever thought about that possibility when there were two different dates.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Good point. I don't know that I've ever thought about that possibility when there were two different dates.

When a publisher releases a book there is a finite number of books published (unless it is on demand). A second run of the book would have a new publish date and may include typo fixes. Typo fixes do not constitute a change big enough to re-copyright the book. That is done with a new edition.

Dale

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

When a publisher releases a book there is a finite number of books published (unless it is on demand). A second run of the book would have a new publish date and may include typo fixes. Typo fixes do not constitute a change big enough to re-copyright the book. That is done with a new edition.

Dale

I perceive that thou art a publisher, or at least a printer. Glad to have your expertise available in this forum.

I have no experience in publishing, but I have owned two small used bookstores in the past. My perception, about publishers of dead-tree books, is that there is, of course, an initial printing ("run"). If sales are so good that it appears that demand will outstrip the supply from the first printing, the publisher will order a second printing. Sales may be so poor from the first run, however, that the publisher will sell the unsold books to one or more liquidators, however. And, of course, the publisher will do no more printings of the book, unless something very unusual happens to warrant it.

However, if there is a second, and maybe other subsequent printings, none of them will be considered new editions, unless, as I inferred from what you said, there are more changes to the books than minor things like corrections of typos.

Often, I've seen on one of the first pages of a used book (it seems like this was more common in older books, than ones published in modern times), a long list of printings, along with the dates of those printings. For example, "First Printing, 1923; Second Printing, 1930; Third Printing, 1932," and so on. I think that that system may have been completely, or almost completely, replaced by a different system, of which the following is an example:
1234567890123
23242526272829303132
If memory serves me correctly, the last number, "3," on the first line would indicate the printing number: the third. The last two numbers, "32," of the second line would indicate the year of that printing: 1932. (BTW--When I closed my second used book business, there were still a handful of publishers which stubbornly refused to use that system and, instead, used their own proprietary system). If there was more than one edition, it would still be written out to that effect, e.g., "First Edition, 1923." Unless perhaps the publisher is expecting there to be more than one edition, though, I think that any mention of the book being the first edition usually is omitted; if it is a second or subsequent edition, that fact definitely will be mentioned.

Oh, and I've read that what it means when a book is said to be "out of print" is that there are no more copies in the publisher's warehouse. It does not mean that a copy--even a new copy--is not available somewhere. It certainly might be available from a liquidator's store or, if nowhere else, on the used book market.

Now back to the different dates on the Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ book and ebook that we were initially talking about, I will just have to defer to your knowledge about that. I had been assuming that, since the advent of ebooks, different publication dates were analagous to different editions, with their requisite changes in the content, to some extent, not just change in minor things, like correction of typos.

I got out of the used book business just before ebooks started taking off in popularity (I wish that I could say that it was because of my insight, intuition, perceptiveness, etc., but it wasn't. It was more like kismet or serendipity. ha. At any rate, the new dead-tree book publishers were the ones which suffered the most). Anyway, a lot has already faded from my memory. Please do show my ignorance on any of the things that I said above, shoot holes in it, whatever--I genuinely appreciate it when people correct me, because it will keep me from appearing stupid the next time that I talk to someone about the matter.

[GtrsRGr8]

I ran across this website at some point in the past, but didn't have (or take) the time, then, to vet it. I did a little vetting--about 45 minutes' worth--of it this morning.

The website is LaymansBookstore.com. The organization is a bookstore/ministry. They've got the slogan "Where the Truth is Free." (Well, most of their truth is free, anyway--they do charge for a very few things. . But, still the slogan is clever, don't you think?) They request donations, but it is on a purely voluntary basis--I've seen no indication that there is any pressure to contribute before you can download what you want. And they don't make you feel like a heel if you choose not to contribute.

Anyway, this website has some high-quality ebooks, and other materials. And most of them are things that I just haven't seen anywhere else, free at least. It seems that most websites with free ebooks appear just to have thrown together whatever they've happened to find; the organization behind Layman's Bookstore seems to do some real curating before they post their ebooks and other items. This website of freebies of "Christian Interest" is like a breath of fresh air.

Being a ministry (or associated with one), the organization does, of course, espouse certain beliefs. But it's all very low-key, and really the only way that I could find to determine where they stand on doctrines is by examining the particular ebooks that they offer. There may be a "statement of beliefs" or something to that effect somewhere on their website, but I never did see one.

This is a website that, in my opinion, you definitely need to check out. And that's exactly what I plan to do more of later today, soon after I've gotten some (much-needed) shuteye.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

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[GtrsRGr8]

It's a little late in the day, but I just now started to check my email . . . .

I'd like to highlight two ebooks that Christianbook has marked way, way down:

Warren Wiersbe's Be Confident: Live by Faith, Not by Sight is 79 cents, regularly $12.99. This is about the cheapest that ebooks in this series get, except for the occasional free one. https://www.christianbook.com/confid...132/pd/21441EB.

J. Warner Wallace's Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. 79 cents. Regularly $16.99. I'm afraid to check to see how much I paid, but it wasn't nearly this cheap. https://www.christianbook.com/christ...464/pd/35258EB.

Amazon usually matches the prices on these daily deals.

Christianbook usually ends the old day's post, and makes a new one, a little after midnight to one extent or another.

[GtrsRGr8]

Aneko Press has a promotion going on now for a free ebook. Get it at Amazon.com. The book is Men of the Bible, by Dwight L. Moody.

What I remember from reading, in the past, about Moody is that he was a preacher who attracted very, very large crowds. Sort of on the order of Billy Graham in his prime. While he was living, he faced some very stringent criticism, although I've forgotten now what that was all about. He is associated with Chicago. There is a school--it's probably a seminary--in Chicago named after him, Moody Bible Institute. He was a very prolific writer, and many of his works are considered classics today.

Moody passed away a long time ago. The aforementioned book, along with many others of his, are probably readily available . . . . well . . . . just about "everywhere" (Internet Archive, Gutenberg, et al.). I haven't looked through this present book, but I'm sure that it has been "cleaned up" considerably from any version that you can get free at any time from the usual sources for free ebooks. This Ankeko Press edition has been annotated, and has been updated from the original book; I am anxious to see what improvements that Aneko Press has made.

I won't quote the full description of the book, but I think that you'd be curious (I was, anyway) what men of the Bible that Moody selected to be included in his book.
Men of the Bible Contents
1. Abraham – Faith and Obedience
2. Moses – God’s Voice
3. Naaman – God’s Methods
4. Nehemiah – Uncompromising Vision
5. Herod and John the Baptist – Dealing with Sin
6. The Blind Man and Joseph of Arimathaea – Boldness
7. The Penitent Thief – It’s Not Too Late

The regular price of this ebook is $3.99; so the price now is 100% off.

[GtrsRGr8]

This month's free ebook from FaithlifeEbooks [sic] is Francis Schaeffer's Escape from Reason.

Schaeffer, who died in 1984, was very influential in the evangelical movement, primarily in Switzerland, through his own personal efforts and through his organization there called L'Arbi.

FaithlifeEbooks' blurb about the book is loquacious, but doesn't say much, IMHO. But I'll quote it for the sake of time, and so that you will have at least something to tell you about the book:
In this modern classic, Francis Schaeffer traces trends in twentieth-century thought and unpacks how key ideas have shaped our society. Wide-ranging in his analysis, Schaeffer examines philosophy, science, art, and popular culture to identify dualism, fragmentation, and the decline of reason. His critique demonstrates Christianity’s promise for a new century, one in as much need as ever of purpose and hope.

Faithlife is the umbrella organization for at least a couple of companies: Logos Bible Software, and Faithlife in all of its permutations and combinations. You can read the book in Logos, or in FaithlifeEbooks' app.

Here is a webpage that you can use to acquire the free ebook. (The URL looks very suspicious, but as far as I can tell there are no third party affiliate tags in it; I received the link directly from a FaithlifeEbooks email message).

Don't stop reading yet!

At the top of the webpage that I linked to above, there is a menu whose heading is "On Sale." It's easy to miss--I just noticed it while getting this month's free book. While there are some duds in the selection (and it's a huge selection), there are also some fantastic bargains. Unfortunately, they're all mixed together. And, keep in mind that you will have to use a Faithlife platform in order to read any of them.

[Fluribus]

Get your daily dose of CS Lewis from good old Dr. Amazon. A bit from his various works assigned to each day of the year. (Warning: They might leave you hanging on the 29th of February.)

The Business of Heaven for $1.99 at Amazon.com.

[Fluribus]

If you prefer your spiritual enlightenment a little more Dutch* and Catholic, Amazon.com still has you covered.

Henri Nouwen The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles for $1.99. A compendium of eight books. Not arranged to fit your calendar.

*But presented in English because nobody wants too much Dutch.

[GtrsRGr8]

Try this. The first one to try it, please pass along what you find.

There is (or was) an apparent glitch in the Amazon system. I found several Eerdmans books for 99 cents whose prices are generally much, much (think $25-40 or so) higher than those prices.

I purchased the ones that I saw that I was interested in. The prices on the product pages showed 99 cents. I double-checked, and the prices were each 99 cents in the order details in my "content and devices." However, several weren't appearing at all; I'll check again later.

I did not find the 99 cent prices by doing a low-to-high price search on Amazon's site, these 99 cent deals all showed up after the actual product information on the product pages, where it says, "Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations."

Then, the deals dried up, at least for me. There were still quite a few ebooks, under "Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations," that I saw for 99 cents, but when I went to the product pages, the prices were back to the regular prices.

I don't know why the prices dropped, and I don't know why they appeared, on the product pages, back to what they used to be. In case something in Amazon's computer said, "something is wrong here," give it a try and see what happens for you.

Good luck.

[GtrsRGr8]

In case the deals quit because Amazon's computer's flagged my I.P. address, I'm going to look right now at what I get to come up on my smartphone's browser.

No news is bad news.

[Difflugia]

This month's free book for the Logos software is Roland Murphy's Ecclesiastes volume of the Word Biblical Commentary.

I hadn't read any volumes of this particular commentary before, but I'm impressed with it (or, at least, this volume). While the author is a bit theologically conservative for my taste in a critical commentary, he does a capable job of describing less conservative points of view.

If you're inclined to spend a few dollars, the Exodus volume is $4.99 and John's Gospel is $9.99.

The free book at Verbum is Saint Augustine's The City of God, Books I–VII.

Completely unrelated to either of these and also not on sale, the Fifth Edition of The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha was published in March. This edition is exciting because it's actually been properly formatted as an epub or Kindle book (the Fourth Edition was only available as a PDF and "Kindle Print Replica").

If you get it at eBooks.com, you can download both the PDF and epub. Unfortunately, it's also list price at $23.99. That's where I bought mine.

It's cheapest at Google Play, where it's $14.39. It's also at Kobo and B&N (just the epub) at around $20.

Two days ago, it was $14.39 at Amazon, but it's not there at all now. The Fourth edition is still there and the Fifth edition is available as two separate books (without the Apocrypha and only the Apocrypha), but for some reason the combined Fifth edition isn't.

The ISBN is 9780190276119 if you want to check back at Amazon.