For Valentine’s Day, my wonderful wife purchased for me a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader. I have to say, this is probably one of the two best technology purchases I’ve ever made. I love reading from this device!

Curiously, as a software developer, I’ve never been comfortable for reading for long periods of time from a computer screen, particularly when reading for pleasure. But the eInk display is so much more like paper that I’ve already read through an entire novel in the week or so since I got the e-reader.

A lot of people have asked why the Nook, vs. Amazon’s Kindle or other e-readers. (Or, for that matter, why not wait for the Apple iPad? But that is a topic for another day. Short reason? eInk.)

In a nutshell, what drew me to the Nook specifically were those features which distinguish it:

• Native support for PDF and ePub formats – Without any conversion, as the Kindle requires (or at least did initially), you can drag and drop any PDF or ePub (which means pretty much anything from Project Gutenberg – but more on sources of free and cheap books in a later post) directly into your Nook’s storage, which shows up on your PC as just another drive, like an SD card for your camera.
• The “Lending” feature – This feature has gotten some bad press, mainly due to the restrictions (you can only lend a book once per friend, and for a maximum of 14 days with no renewal) as well as the publishers’ reticence to allow it (they can turn it off for any title), but the plain and simple fact is this: B&N are the only big player doing something about making the eBook market friendlier and more like owning a hard copy book. (Now if they’d just figure out a way to do used eBooks that would be something…)
• In-Store features – Speaking of making it more like hard copy books, the in-store features of the Nook (which they really need to actually get around to activating) are pretty intriguing. In a nutshell, while you’re in any B&N and connected to their (free) Wifi, you can read the full text of any book they offer. Which you can do with the hard copies, so why not with your Nook? This is a stroke of genius – browse the stacks from the cafe or while watching your kids in the children’s area.
• The color touchscreen + Google Android OS – The combination of these two opens up wonderful possibilities for future developments….
• Expandable Memory – I’m a hoarder when it comes to books, and no doubt will be when it comes to eBooks as well. The Nook has an SD card slot which you can expand up to 16GB of memory.
• Replaceable Battery – The Kindle’s battery is, I believe, like the iPhone, not replaceable. This means a hefty price down the road to either replace the device or send back for factory battery replacement when it finally dies. With the Nook, on the other hand, you can already purchase a replacement battery should you so desire.

So… what’s wrong with the Nook? Well, a few things, still:

• Different features for B&N eBooks vs. “My Library” - The Nook separates the books you’ve purchased from B&N, from those you loaded yourself (PDF’s, ePubs, 3rd party eBooks, etc.). With B&N content you get coverflow view, searching by author or title, sorting by last read, etc. With your content, you get – none of those. You are limited to a view sorted by title or author (and BTW – the title sort doesn’t handle “a, an, the” properly). I could, in theory, load the hundreds of books I’ve downloaded from Project Gutenberg into my Nook. But that would mean having to scroll through the list to page 20 every time I wanted to read “Tarzan of the Apes.”
• Sluggish – The Nook is not the fastest thing in the world. After using an iPhone for a year+, the touchscreen is not as responsive as it should be. The eInk takes a second to turn pages, but that is actually tolerable.
• “Open” OS, but… – OK, so it uses Google’s Android OS. Give us custom apps!

I’m hopeful that in future updates (there have been 2 already since Nook’s debut), they will continue to enhance the device and address these shortcomings. I understand from previous reviews that the first releases of the Nook system were barely usable with regard to performance, but that newer updates have really gone far in addressing speed issues. as I said, the sluggishness is tolerable, but could still stand improvement. I’m also hopeful that they open it up to more apps, or even 3rd party development (The guys at nookDevs have already started down this path with hacking the Nook. I’ve tried their stuff, and it has possibility, but is not ready for prime time yet.)

In the coming days (weeks?), I’ll be posting more on the Nook and eBooks, including good sources for free and/or cheap content for the Nook, and a review of the classic novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Stay tuned…

Bobby Jamieson at 9Marks reviews Scott McConnell’s book Multi-Site Churches: Guidance for the Movement’s Next Generation:

Me reviewing this book is like a PETA employee reviewing a hunting manual.

Let me explain. I don’t think churches should be multi-site. I think that the New Testament church’s example, the meaning and use of the word ekklesia, and the nature of congregational authority all indicate that a church is by definition, and therefore should only be, a single assembly that meets in one place. Strictly speaking, I don’t think that multi-site churches even exist. I think that each site or campus or venue is by definition a separate church, at least if we use the word “church” the way the New Testament does.

via Book Review: Multi-Site Churches – 9Marks.

It’s no secret to those who know me, but I love to read. As a Christian, I enjoy reading “Christian living” and theology, and I was challenged by a question on the humor site Stuff Christians Like, in one of Jon’s more serious posts.

At the end of that post, he asked the questions:

• What are you reading?
• And what is God showing you through it?

Answering the first question is easy, but admittedly, I often neglect thinking through the second question enough. Not that God is not showing me plenty through my reading, but I often don’t bother to think through it thoroughly and reflect up on it.

So, with that in mind, right now I’m reading…

• The Sinfulness of Sin, by Ralph Venning. Through this Puritan Paperback from Banner of Truth, I’m getting a very deep serious sense of God’s absolute and total hatred of sin. While “God hates sin” is a basic foundational idea of Christianity, I think we don’t reflect enough on just how repulsive our sin is to Him. This is important not just as an idea, but because it makes the cross of Jesus Christ that much more powerful – that God poured out His holy wrath upon His Son for our sake, that Christ took on that repulsive sin, and that for that, those who believe shall never suffer for it.
• Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, by Donald S. Whitney. Here God is showing me how to be closer to Him through His Word, through prayer, and through other spiritual disciplines and attitudes.
• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, by J. I. Packer. I’ve been very convicted of my failure to evangelize lost friends, relatives, and strangers. God continues to convict and through Packer’s classic, I’m getting a very solid, biblical view of evangelism, and what is important (and what’s not) when sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m also gaining confidence to proclaim Christ.

A couple of months ago I traded my Kindle to a friend for a stack of old-fashioned ink-on-paper commentaries. This is now. I think I made a good trade. He is enjoying the Kindle and I am enjoying the commentaries. Win-win. Something changed between then and now—I came to see that all of the things that frustrated me about the Kindle were things that made it not like a book. It’s book-like qualities were it’s best qualities; it’s non-book-like qualities were the ones that got to me.

via The Perfect Technology :: books, reading :: A Reformed, Christian Blog.

SharperIron concludes a two-article series on the very popular Twilight series of novels, by Stephenie Meyer:

It is no coincidence that the Twilight series has spawned T-shirts proclaiming that “Forbidden Fruit Tastes Best.”

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the review.

As with his earlier volume, Venema leans towards an “optimistic amillennialism.” His evaluation of the four millennial views is fair, I believe, and he goes to great lengths to describe their beliefs accurately. When he considers the resurrection, the final judgment, eternal punishment and other such issues, he comes down squarely on the side of biblical orthodoxy, speaking out harshly against annihilationism and universalism, and affirming the reality of judgment. He looks constantly to Scripture to defend all that he teaches.

Read more at Tim Challies’ review.

In my experience, most Christians who have read the book adore it. There are people I respect greatly who love this book, without qualification, and consider it a great gift of God to thirsty people. There are others I respect as much who are deeply concerned about the book’s messages, both overt and subtle, and their impact on people. In a sense, both might be right, but both need to understand the other point of view and that many books that are good for some people are not good for others.

I believe that those who are well-grounded in the Word won’t be harmed by the weaknesses and deficiencies of the book. Unfortunately, few people these days are well-grounded in the Word.

Read the full review at TheResurgence.

Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek
by Constantine R. Campbell.
Zondervan, 159 pages.
ISBN 031029083X

Verbal aspect is one of the more difficult concepts of Biblical Greek to grasp. It is only fairly recently in the history of Biblical Greek studies that this area has been given intensive analysis. Still, it remains elusive even for seasoned scholars and commentators.

To meet this challenge, Constantine R. Campbell has put together this short but thorough text.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section, comprising 1/3 of the book, is titled “Verbal Aspect Theory.” Here Campbell presents a history of the development of grammatical analysis of verbal aspect in Greek, along with a basic overview the subject. The focus is on answering the question of “so what” – why study verbal aspect? And the question is answered effectively, as verbal aspect presents the Greek scholar, New Testament commentator, and pastor with one of the most challenging (and potentially dangerous) aspects (pun intended) of interpreting the Biblical text.

The second section, “Verbal Aspect and New Testament Text,” comprises the bulk of the book. The author presents various scenarios and shows how the combination of various elements of grammar and context combine to determine the meaning of a verb. This part of the book will be most useful for the student not only while studying verbal aspect, but also for future reference. Various combinations are shown and explained from the New Testament text, and exercises are presented to ensure that the reader grasps the concepts.

As a newer student of Greek, I have not delved very deeply into verbal aspect in my own studies as yet. But this volume will make a useful addition alongside Zondervan’s other Greek resources, from basic texts like Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek Grammer to intermediate references like Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. It explains enough to be useful for the advanced beginner, and is thorough enoug has a reference for the seasoned exegete.

Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book gratis from Zondervan.

The ESV Study Bible has about 50 essays in the back of the Bible, addressing a number of issues that people inside and outside the church have questions about (e.g., the reliability of the Scriptures and their manuscripts, the canon of Scripture, world religions, how questions of ethics and theology relate to God’s Word, etc.) In addition there are a number of articles throughout the Bible, introducing major sections (e.g., the Pentateuch, the Gospels, etc.).

We thought it might be helpful to list all of the articles, in the order that they appear in the ESVSB.

Read more at the ESV Study Bible Blog.

Men-of-War: Life in Nelson’s Navy
by Patrick O’Brian.
W. W. Norton, 95 pages.
ISBN 0393326608 (paperback – reviewed – perhaps out of print),
0393038580 (hardcover)

Patrick O’Brian brings to us a short (only 95 pages) account of the British Navy c1800, the time of the great Lord Nelson.

It was a hard time to be a sailor. O’Brian points out that the food was “usually so bad that when they could catch them, the men often ate rats, or millers as they were called in the service, because of their dusty coats as they got into the flour and dried peas.” And trust me, that’s not the grossest part he mentions…

Still, the brutal, primitive reality of the time is easily overshadowed by the romance and the heroism. And it is to this sensibility that O’Brian appeals. He gives a brief overview of the types of ships used in Nelson’s navy, and a description of the crucial armaments they would carry. He walks us through the various members of the ships’ crews, and follows the career progress of a hypothetical young midshipman as he climbs the ranks all the way to Admiral.

Finally, he concludes with a look at life at sea, including combat. As an added bonus, there is a short chapter included of various sea-songs of the era.

O’Brian’s work is a wonderful companion to the abundant literature romanticizing the era. Ever since Frederick Marryat, arguably the first novelist of the Age of Sail, countless authors have set their heroes on the wooden planks of the great “rated” ships of the line. From C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower (you may have seen the A&E series of films) to O’Brian’s own Aubrey-Maturin series of novels (filmed as Russell Crowe’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), naval fiction has been and remains immensely popular. Supplementary books like this one give good background to the reader, and extend the adventure into history.