I think this may well be my third or fourth attempt at posting some sort of a personal reading update/reading progress type post, which I have always planned to do on a regular basis. On each occasion the attempt though well intentioned, has never been long lasting and rarely achieved any measure of consistency. There are plenty of reasons I can postulate for my failure to do so, however I will spare the reader the need to navigate through them. Hopefully I may accomplish such a feat this time round. I’m sure many of them would be acknowledged as valid, but more than likely also tedious. So a fresh start will do.

I have been enjoying reading again, which has always been something that I have done, at least prior to the four or five years previous to this and last year. That was a period when I barely read anything, thanks largely to my library being in storage, a serious car accident, etc. Now that I have progressed to digital reading, it has been so much easier reading when my tradional library has been nowhere in my vicinity. Now I have a large digital library stored on a device (or rather over several devices and gadgets) which is accessible in any location and that takes up little actual space. How much easier it is to read these days!

However, I haven’t completely left my traditional library behind and this has been something I have been very much aware of over the last couple of months as I have tried to physically clean each and every individual book in my library, as well as to catalogue and even to cull what I could bring myself to part with. The cleaning is done (and with a large library that is some process) and the cataloguing is progressing well. The digital library is where the real work is needed as far as cataloguing is concerned, if I am to have any hope of managing a large and growing library of both traditional and digital books. Combined I must have somewhere in the vicinity of 3000 to 2500 books and ebooks, and the number is growing at an alarming rate each and every week. At least I am no longer being pressed in by more and more books in my home as primarily my library is growing digitally these days. Still, a further external hard drive will soon be needed – though that is nowhere near as bad as trying to find more
space for another bookshelf.

Social Networks, Web Applications & Other Tools

I have been adding books to my Goodreads profile and into my Access database, which continues to be a very slow process. I don’t think I’ll ever complete this project, especially with the number of ebooks that I keep adding to my collection. I really would like to get my entire library, both taditional and digital, into some form of manageable and useful order. It is very difficult to know just what I have in my ebooks collection – I pretty much know my tradional library like the back of my hand. It really is the digital library that is proving quite the handful, in a virtual sense of course. I also have a Word document that I am using for cataloguing, using the old and proven method of Dewey for classification of my books and ebooks. All these tools will help me enormously in trying to manage them all I think. Once I have entered all of the information these tools really are a great help to me and the time well spent in my opinion.

Somewhere along the way I’m also going to begin using Evernote as well, taking photos of the bookcovers (front and back), the title page and perhaps the contents page. I will then make individual notes in Evernote for the quotes I highlight (which I can simply scan into Evernote via my iPhone), as well as any other relevant information. Evernote – what a great tool for so many purposes.

Visit My Goodreads Profile at:
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4675745-kevin

Visit My Blogs at:
https://atthebookshelf.wordpress.com/
http://bookstand.tumblr.com/

Currently Reading:

I have a number of books that I am currently reading. I post progress updates to Goodreads, so that will provide a way to see my current progress at any particular time.

So what am I currently reading:

• Weirdos in the Workplace: The New Normal… Thriving in the Age of the Individual, by John Putzier
• Foundations of the Christian Faith, by James Montgomery Boice
• Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, by Wayne Grudem
• A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, by Robert L. Reymond
• Sermons on the Book of Micah, by John Calvin
• The Attraction of the Cross, by Gardiner Spring
• Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life By Beginning in Jesus Name, by Bryan Chapell
• The One Year Bible Arranged in 365 Daily Readings – King James Version

Finished Reading:

I have finished reading in the last little while the following books:

• The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, by D. A. Carson
• Such a Great Salvation – Expositions of the Book of Judges, by Dale Ralph Davis
• Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament, by David Murray
• Power and Glory: Jacobean England and the Making of the King James Bible, by Adam Nicholson
• A Song of Fire and Ice: A Game of Thrones (Book 1), by George R. R. Martin
• Eureka Stockade: A Ferocious and Bloody Battle, by Gregory Blake
• Breaking Ships, by Roland Buerk

The Book Stand

I have all manner of Blogs and websites at different places on the web. I have three Blogs at tumblr and one of those is a site for ebooks that are currently available for free or are on special. Most of the ebooks highlighted on the Blog are for the Kindle, but there are other selections from time to time. The site is simply called ‘The Book Stand.’

Visit The Book Stand at:
http://bookstand.tumblr.com/

Particular Baptist Reading Group

I have recently started a reading group over at Goodreads called the ‘Particular Baptist Reading Group.’ The group is for Particular and Reformed Baptists in particular, though other Christians are still welcome and will find the reading material of great value. Anyone can join and all are welcome – just keep in mind that it is a moderated, Christian reading group.

The idea is that a chapter/portion of a book will be posted once a week, with discussions concerning the chapter/portion taking place within the group at Goodreads. I haven’t completed the necessary web infrastructure at this stage, but hope to have it all up and running by the end of May 2013, when the first section of the book, ‘The Attraction of the Cross’ by Gardiner Spring will be made available.

Visit and Sign up at:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/101137-particular-baptist-reading-group