Build up your library for little money

I just ordered Overwhelmed: Winning the War Against Worry by Perry Noble for the Kindle device on my I-Pad.  The book was free.  Every week there are dozens of excellent books offered for free or at very low prices for Kindles.  This is a great way of building a library especially for persons just entering the ministry and for those who do not have a lot of money to spend on resources.

For the record, I still prefer buying real books, holding them in my hands, underlining passages that I find interesting, and writing my thoughts in the margins.  However, books are becoming more and more expensive and they take up a lot of room.  Right now I am looking at seven bookcases in my study all crammed with books.  I've got a few dozen on my I-Pad that don't take up any room at all, and most of them I either got for free or at little cost which makes them an even better deal.

Long time readers of this blog will know that I continually advocate that those who would lead a church must be a life-long learner and a consistent reader of good books.  When I was a bivocational pastor our small church was kind enough to provide me with a $400.00/year book allowance.  I spent every dime every year.  To make that money stretch I was always looking for ways to buy books at the lowest prices.  I went to our local library every year for their annual book sale and bought some great books for pennies on the dollar.  I visited a used book store close to a seminary on occasion and found some good bargains.  Yard sales, auctions, and the Goodwill store also proved to be an occasional source for some good books.  However, most of the books I purchased were new which quickly used up my allowance.  That was before e-books were available.  If e-books had been available back then my library would have been much larger!

It's easy to find the Kindle bargains.  Several websites list these deals every week (sometimes every day).  Aaron Armstrong provides a list several times a week on his site.  Tim Challie's blog often lists Kindle deals as well.  These are the two sites I use most often to see what's available, but there are dozens of others as well.

As I often say, leaders are readers, and these low prices make it easier for anyone to build a library that will prove most helpful to his or her ministry.