A young man I know is working his way through college with an eye toward attending seminary and eventually pastoring a church. That’s a great aim, for sure. God may redirect him along the way, but for now, and perhaps for good, that is his passion.
He asked me a few months ago some questions about books which I only recently got around to answering. I decided to post my answer here (modified for blog consumption) for two reasons.
1) There may be other students in a similar situation who might find some helpful ideas here, and
2) I’d like to encourage other pastors to add via the comments below their own ideas or guidelines for my friend.
His questions were two:
1) Where do you get your books?
2) How do you decide which books to get?
The first is markedly easier to answer, for sure. My answers for both questions will span four separate posts.
So, where do I get my books?
In general, I buy all my books from Amazon.com. It is so convenient that I can’t force myself to go elsewhere. I have occasionally checked prices at and purchased from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, but it is so much more convenient to search and buy on Amazon. [I know that there are many, many worthy small independent Christian booksellers. My conscience smites me here. But at Amazon I can go from login to payment in about 30 seconds and have my books in two days. I’m hooked.]
Occasionally, I want to buy a hardcover for a book that is no longer published in hardcover, or I need to buy a book that is simply out of print. For that, I use one of two on-line used book clearinghouses: ABEBooks (normally) or Alibris (sometimes). I’m sure there are other sources out there, but those are the ones that I have used successfully.