The Hidden Life of Prayer, by David M. MacIntyre, is now available for the Amazon Kindle. This is fast becoming my new favorite book on prayer. The book is a treasure trove of spiritual insights and practical instructions. MacIntyre draws from Scripture, Christian literature and Christian experience to encourage and instruct the believer in the rich subject of prayer. There are also many fine quotations about prayer from across the centuries sprinkled throughout the book’s pages.

But don’t just take my word for it. Here are John Piper’s and Wayne Grudem’s recommendations:

“God brings books at their appointed times. The Hidden Life of Prayer arrived late but well-timed. This little jewel-strewn tapestry has done for me at 64 what Bounds’ Power Through Prayer did at 34. I could be ashamed that I need inspiration for the highest privilege. But I choose to be thankful.”
-John Piper, Senior Pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“I have read The Hidden Life of Prayer again and again since Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia first gave it to me when I visited there as a prospective student forty years ago. Every time I read this book, the Lord uses it to deepen my prayer life and encourage my faith. I strongly recommend it!”
-Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

You can purchase the book from Amazon or you can get it right here at my website in ePub or Kindle/Mobipocket format. It is also available at Barnes & Noble for the Nook. And remember, you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books. Click here for a free e-reader.

So when ebooks take over the world, will protesters just get together and delete files?

Related posts:
    • Ebook Formatting for the Ipad, Kindle and Nook
    • Top 10 Kindle Features

Please help by participating in the poll below. (If your preferred translation is not in the list, please leave a note in the comments and I will add it to the poll.)

This summer I released the first book in The Bible Memory Version series, using the King James Version of the Bible. I hope to release The Bible Memory Version in all the major translations so that anyone can use this tool to memorize Scripture in their preferred translation. I have started contacting publishers to obtain permissions for other translations, so I thought it would be helpful to run a poll and find out which translation(s) people would most like next.

 
Note: If you are reading this by email or RSS, click here to participate in the poll.

The Bible Memory Version is available for purchase here at my website (in ePub or Kindle format) and also through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If you don’t have an e-reader, you can download a free e-reader here.

Related posts:
    • Amazon Kindle’s Most Popular Bible Highlights
    • The Bible Memory Version

Here’s how Mark Twain did it with the dedication to his first book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Cavalerous County, published in 1867.

“To John Smith: Whom I have known in divers and sundry places about the world, and whose many and manifold virtues did always command my esteem, I dedicate this book. It is said that the man to whom a volume is dedicated, always buys a copy. If this prove true in the present instance, a princely affluence is about to burst upon THE AUTHOR.”

Not a bad idea. If you’re writing a book, you may want to give it a try!

Note: If you have a book you would like to publish on the Ipad, Kindle or Nook, I can help: Ebook Formatting for the Ipad, Kindle and Nook
 

If you or someone you know is working on an ebook or interested in self-publishing, I encourage you to check out Fowler Digital Services. I produce quality ePub and mobi/Kindle conversions which are readable on all standard e-readers including Apple iPad/iPhone, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble Nook. I am careful to preserve the original format of the print book, as well as provide extra features such as an active table of contents, fully-linked footnotes, and even a page number grid (with links to pages from the print edition of the book).

• ePub and Mobi formats suitable for iPad/iPhone, Kindle and Nook
• quality hand-builds guaranteed to work on all standard ereaders
• active table of contents with NCX navigation
• all files validated XHTML and ePubCheck compliant
• convert from a variety of formats (Word, PDF, Text, RTF, etc.)
• additional services available upon request:
  • fully-linked footnotes, indexing, etc.
  • special images, tables, charts
  • book page-number grid (This unique feature provides links to pages from the print edition of the book.)
  • proofreading, editing, transcriptions, etc.
• will work with you to handle the unique demands of your project

 
ePub and Kindle/Mobipocket copies included with each order.

If I can be of service to you, please do not hesitate to contact me. Click here to learn more about Fowler Digital Services.
 

BOOKS AND E-BOOKS EDITION.

• E-Book Surge in China. “A survey by the Chinese Institute of Publishing Science found that almost one in four people in mainland China aged between 18 and 70 now primarily used digital formats for their reading material. Among those aged under 29, though, that figure was 50 per cent. And an astonishing 91 per cent of the 20,000 people polled in the survey said they would now not bother to buy printed books if they could find a digital version.”
• 129,864,880. Using a series of complex algorithms, Google counts up how many books exist in the world. Their answer is 129,864,880. At least until Sunday.
• Plagiarism in the Digital Age. “Digital technology makes copying and pasting easy, of course. But that is the least of it. The Internet may also be redefining how students — who came of age with music file-sharing, Wikipedia and Web-linking — understand the concept of authorship and the singularity of any text or image.”

I am excited to announce the release of what I hope is the first book in a series: The Bible Memory Version: A Tool for Treasuring God’s Word in Your Heart.  Bible memory has long been a passion in my life, and I hope The Bible Memory Version will help others catch a vision for Bible memory in their lives too.

The Bible Memory Version is an interactive book that helps you memorize and review whole sections of the Bible. Click on any verse or passage of Scripture, and it instantly switches to first-letter view. (Click here for an example of how this works.) The first-letter method is based on memory research which shows that recalling information is a far more effective way to memorize than merely repeating information.

The Bible Memory Version includes:

• the entire text of the Bible in both full-verse and first-letter view
• an introductory chapter with helps and hints for Bible memory
• a quick-start guide with list of recommended passages
• a topical section with 100 key verses arranged according to 20 topics
• five popular gospel presentations with accompanying Bible verses
• a helpful Bible Memory Resource guide

    Available in ePub, Kindle, and Mobipocket formats
    Works with all standard e-readers including iPad, iPhone, Amazon Kindle, and Nook

I am excited about this project and hope to work with publishers to produce Bible Memory Versions in various translations. If you would like The Bible Memory Version released in a specific translation, please email me at digital-books@rayfowler.org. If you don’t have an e-reader, you can download a free e-reader here for your computer or portable device.

So what do you think of this project? Let me know in the comments section below!

Click here to purchase The Bible Memory Version now.
Click here to see all the titles available at Fowler Digital Books.

Related posts:
    • Bible Memory Version Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon
    • The Bible Memory Version Poll

Amazon is offering free Amazon Prime memberships to college and seminary students with a student.edu email address. Amazon Prime gives you unlimited free two-day shipping on most orders or overnight shipping for just $3.99. The cost of an annual membership is usually $79 so this is a great deal for students. If you are looking for textbooks, you can visit their textbook page here.

Christianbook.com has some great prices on some great books in their Spring Academic Book Sale. Here is a sampling:

• The Cross of Christ, by John R.W. Stott; Price: $9.99 (retail $17.99) – One of the most important Christian books ever written. (How’s that for a recommendation?)
• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds NT Commentary, 4 Volumes; Price: $39.99 (retail $129.99) – Excellent new resource from Zondervan.
• The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey; Price: $34.99 (reatil $69.99) – One of the best commentary sets available on the Minor Prophets.
• Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by G.K. Beale, D.A. Carson; Price: $39.99 (retail $59.99) – Comprehensive commentary on every quotation, allusion, and echo of the Old Testament that appears from Matthew through Revelation
• The Letter to the Hebrews, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, by Peter T. O’Brien; Price: $29.99 (retail $50.00) – Latest volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series. Looks to be an excellent contribution to the study of Hebrews.

      (Note: For ebook and audiobook conversions, visit Fowler Digital Services.)

As much as I still love good old-fashioned print books, there are new benefits that come with ebooks and ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle. Here are the top ten things I like about the Kindle, including my absolute favorite (and little known) Kindle feature listed below.

Order the all New Kindle Fire here!

1. Portability: The Kindle is lightweight, and easy to carry around. And it almost feels like a regular book when you put it in its book cover.
2. Readability: The E-Ink screen is amazing. It is just like reading paper. I can adjust the font size up or down as needed. I also like that I can hold the Kindle “open” and “turn the pages” with just one hand (leaving the other hand free for coffee or tea).
3. Accessibility: I have access to all my Kindle books and magazine subscriptions at all times. Plus, I can browse new books, read samples, and download directly to my device. As a result, I find I am reading more with my Kindle, which is a good thing.
4. Flexibility: I am not limited to the Kindle reader but can read my Kindle books on a variety of devices, including my desktop computer, laptop, or netbook. When I switch devices, each book opens up exactly where I left off reading on the former device. Multiple devices also means more than one family member can be reading Kindle books at the same time. Amazon offers reader apps for PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android, and now Tablet Computers (including the iPad). .
5. Searchability: I can search for specific words or phrases in individual books or across my whole library.
6. Free samples: Who doesn’t like free samples? I can download free samples from books or magazine subscriptions and preview before purchasing.
7. Cost savings: This one is simple. Books are cheaper on the Kindle. Most books I have purchased are $9.99 or less. Many of them you can get for free (including over 30,000 classic titles from Project Gutenberg).
8. Space savings: We ran out of bookshelf space a long time ago. Many of our books are currently in boxes. With the Kindle I can purchase new books without worrying about where to put them.
9. Note-taking: It is easy to highlight text and make notes on the Kindle while I read, and I never need to look around for a highlighter or pen.

 
And my absolute favorite Kindle feature? (Most people don’t know about this one.)

10. Note-retrieval: I used to type up important notes and quotes from a book when I finished reading it, but it was a long, laborious, time-consuming process. Amazon saves all my highlights and notes along with their locations for me at a special password protected website. When I finish a book, I can go to the website and easily access all my underlines and notes for that book in order. Then I copy and paste them into a Word file for permanent reference. This is a huge time saver, and one of the best advantages of digital over printed books for me. Note: This is different from (and far superior to) the Kindle’s clunky My Clippings folder.

Did you find this post helpful? If so, please help support this site by making your Amazon purchases through one of the links below or through the portal in the top left side bar. Thank you! (And check out the new Kindle Fire below!)

Related posts:
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(Note: For ebook and audiobook conversions, see Fowler Digital Services.)

There’s a new film version of A Wrinkle in Time in the works by the same people who brought us the first two installments in the new Chronicles of Narnia series. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Jeff Stockwell has been hired to adapt author Madeleine L’Engle’s classic time-travel head trip, “A Wrinkle in Time,” for Cary Granat and his new Bedrock Studios …

The BBC made a film version of the young-adult novel, and Dimension produced a telefilm for ABC in 2004. Disney carried remake rights from that deal and is developing the new feature iteration with Bedrock, which had negotiated rights to the property from the L’Engle estate. Catherine Hand also is producing, and L’Engle’s granddaughter, Charlotte Voilkis, is exec producing.

Granat has a relationship with Disney from when his Walden Media produced such films for the studio as the “Chronicles of Narnia” series and “Bridge to Terabithia,” co-written by Stockwell. L’Engle wrote a handful of follow-up novels to “Wrinkle,” now called the Time Quintet, and Disney’s Rich Ross is seeking more franchise material in the mold of the female-driven success of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite books as a child, and I enjoyed the other books in the series as well. I don’t know if they can pull a whole film franchise out of the series, but I am excited that at least Wrinkle will get the big screen treatment. Any other Madeleine L’Engle fans out there?

HT: CT Movies Blog

Related post: Madeleine L’Engle Passes Away (1918-2007)

I am fascinated with the emergence of the Ebook market and try to read everything I can on the subject. I would have loved to attend the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference this week (my brother was there), but now that they are putting some of the addresses online, I am doing my best to catch up. Here is a great presentation on Ebooks and how technology is impacting the publishing industry.

Are Ebooks Dead? -Skip Prichard (Video length: 19:52)

Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishing has a good summary of the conference here: The O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, along with some great quotes from the conference. The money quote as far as I am concerned? “Obscurity is a bigger problem for authors than piracy.” (Tim O’Reilly; see also linked article below) As the book industry enters the digital age, publishers need to look carefully at the early missteps taken by the music industry and avoid making the same mistakes.

What are your thoughts on Ebooks and how they will change book reading and publishing?

Related article: David Pogue Revisits DRM Question about Ebooks