Building an e-library: suggestions?

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I posted this over in Sacred Scripture, since that will be my focus, but I’d hate to miss good advice by limiting myself too narrowly. I want to start building my theological library with e-books for practical reasons, but I’m not a techie so I’m a bit behind the curve. I want to be able to take at least a portion of my library anyplace, so I’m focusing on tablets or Kindles. I know tablets are still in their infancy, and due to my financial situation, I won’t be able to buy one until the design has matured somewhat. That said, I also realize that not every book will be available in the same format, so I will need a platform that will allow me the flexibility to use multiple formats (tablets get a point here).

Anyone have experience doing this already, or just have general advice?
Thank you.
 
I have an iPod, and the best $3 I ever spent was on iPieta, an app which contains so much It is available for Android (slightly different), and iPad (fullsize and mini).

There is so much more you can do with what’s available online in terms of both reading and listening, like Audio Sancto. Will try to post more info tomorrow.
 
Dump it and get a real library. Once the power goes out there goes your “library.”
 
Dear Servus, I already have 15+ boxes of books alone. There is a certain level of impracticality there. Also, it is difficult to take more than 3 or 4 books, depending on their size, anyplace for study.

Francis, thank you for the suggestions! There are so many apps out there that it’s nice to get recommendations.
 
ServusHumilis said:
Dump it and get a real library. Once the power goes out there goes your “library.”
Click to expand...
Um…a tablet runs on a battery and as long as its charged, its fine… A regular library would require a flashlight if the power went out. Some ebook readers have backlights.

If you’re looking for book ideas…

Summa Theologica
Confessions
Any Scott Hahn Book
 
There’s not substitute for have a real book that you can hold in your hands.

It reads better.

Also, it lasts for life and won’t disappear when your KINDLE malfunctions.

Amazon brags about the number of KINDLE readers they’ve sold,
but the number of KINDLE books they’ve is a secret as closely guarded as the formula for Coca-Cola. Why don’t they brag about that? 🤷 It must be embarrassing. 😊
 
Jedeliz, I have copies of the davinci code and the shack that I could burn, those would give me some light.😃

Empther, I still prefer real books as well. But after 3 moves and a growing library, taking advantage of e-books is practical. Amazon and other e-publishers keep track of your purchases in a “cloud”, so if the Kindle or tablet dies, I haven’t lost my “books.”
 
I’m struggling with a kindle reader that came as a gift (witness my other posts asking for help). I’ve been hoping to find free Catholic ebooks, but almost every search seems not to work out, partly due to my tech incompetence, partly because many ads are misleading. I presume that you’re not leaning toward kindle (due to search for multi-functionality–which I encourage) so I won’t belabor this, except to suggest that before you plunk down your money, make as detailed wishlist as you can of the (new) books you want, and spend some time researching what they will cost and where you can find them. It seems to me the e-prices are soaring. God bless you.
 
And one quick ps–so the other post doesn’t look absurdly long. When you go to a website on kindle, almost always the display is vastly different than what you would see on a laptop. I can’t recall any time that I thought the kindle display was better. Out of curiosity, would anyone explain why the difference?
 
Hi David,
Here is a general list that i keep so I don’t have to re-write everything:

My list may be superceded by this one 🙂

catholicview.wordpress.com/resources-for-catholics-and-other-inquiring-minds/free-catholic-audio/

Forgot this one!!! Where I found John Rao’s talks 🙂

alabamacatholicresources.com/

Links:

Quick articles I found helpful (or regretted not having sooner!) Handling people’s “drive-by” comments about the Church

About Discernment and decision-m
aking

mrstreasures.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/are-you-really-doing-the-will-of-god/

When has one prayed enough? Good advice and good comments too!

Librivox page of Douay Rheims readings Librivox is an organization of volunteer readers. This page has what they have recorded of the Douay Rheims, which seems to be the Deuterocanonicals and the NT–about the 9th one down right now–the link takes you to a page on which the downloadable, 1-hour parts are linked. Use the zip file if you are downloading to a computer. I don’t know how the zip file works on an iPod or similar.

Go ahead and search for other out-of-copyright books. They have quite a few of interest to Catholics, including several of GK Chesterton’s books 🙂 and Introduction to the Devout Life.

Mp3 audio Scriptural Rosary

A review of iPieta. Run a search for the version on your platform or search for it in your platform’s store if you want to get it.

Teacher’s edition of Baltimore Catechism which includes explanations

A page on which are linked the sections of several catechisms, including the current CCC, under the appropriate topic, so if you are studying one topic in one, you can easily find alternate explanations.

A note on the Baltimore Cathecism: this comes in several versions some of which are simplified for the use of children. I hope to find one page listing them all soon.

Radio Replies These were a series of collections of letters and answers to 2 Australian priests from the 1930s to the 1960s or so. These are excellent, and a bonus for me is I always feet like my mind has been sharpened up when I read them 🙂 Very thorough explanations of Catholic teaching, and often answering somewhat antagonistic questions and so an excellent resource for people who get a lot of questions about their Faith.

Sonitus Sanctus. A blog containing links to many online audio resources of interest to Catholics. Altho he has not posted very much since he married and had a baby, there was so much up there that it is also a wonderful resource.

Sermons in MP3 and podcast version on many Catholic topics. On the right, there are headings to where the sermons are sorted by topic, so this is helpful when learning.

Catholic ebooks, similar to Sontitus Santus above, only with Catholic e-books online.

Don’t be overwhelmed by all this; it is a list I have developed over the course of many years and should be considered as more of a library than a list of textbooks for one course.

This does not seem as high level as the program you are investigating, but it is much less expensive.

I understand the difficulties of books… i would much rather have real books, but to be honest, to get the books just in IPieta would cost more than the app *and the iPod! *which is the latest one.

Best of luck to you with your endeavor 🙂
 
www.archive.org - has a lot of older books that have been scanned in to their system. Books are free for a kindle type reader.

Project Gutenberg has a lot of free books, too

Neither one is specifically catholic, but I’ve found a lot of catholic books on the Archive site.
 
One other route you might consider is something like Verbum (which is the Catholic version of Logos Bible Software.

Verbum has apps that run on all major devices and platforms. So you could start out with an Android phone and end up on an iPad or a PC and your content will always be there. I’ve been told that the license for the books you purchase are yours forever (and you can even bequeath your collection to someone else in your will).

The packages are a bit pricey, but you can start small and add titles gradually (which is what most of us do with regular books anyway). The software itself has a lot of neat tools that allow you to do much more with your books than you would be able to do with e-books in other formats.
 
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