According to the ESV blog

I have not yet picked up a copy of the ESV Study Bible and I have to confess to being moderately curious as to how the format works on the Kindle. I would expect a large amount of clicking to access verse notes, as with any Kindle-formatted Bible, but the additional articles and maps would be additional challenges to access. The full-color illustrations would definitely lose some impact with the Kindle’s greyscale presentation.

** Update ** Crossway has made the Gospel of Luke available as their free “sample” download on Amazon – I’ve downloaded that and will take a closer look at how the notes work.

In lieu of a more formal book review, here is my capsule summary:

“In response to the sudden appearance of extraterrestrial visitors, philo-math monks gather together to discuss multi-state causal consciousness models as a outflow of quantum mechanics.”

Sound interesting? Anathem is a great book and I highly recommend it if you like mathematics, philosophy, Neal Stephenson, alt world literature, monks and/or just a good adventure story. There is plenty of typically dense Stephenson writing where math intersects with philosophy, but the narrative keeps the story moving forward in an unforced manner.

I read this on the Kindle and really appreciated the convenience of the eBook format – I have the hardbacks of Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle trilogy and those were a pain to haul around.

I suppose it’s only fair to mention that Zondervan is offering the TNIV Kindle Edition for $0 – that’s right, it’s a free download.

Crossway has made the same offer available with the ESV, which currently sits at #24 on the Amazon bestseller list, as has Baker Publishing with their God’s Word translation in the #15 slot. I’m happy (blessed?) to have all three of these editions on my Kindle.

Titles I’ve purchased:

1. KJV Bible
2. NET Bible (Noteless)
3. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal
4. The Message// Remix: Solo: The Uncommon Devotional

I tend to read the Bible during the morning commute and my “fluff” stuff in the afternoon when I’m tired. I’ve been looking for a way to integrate The Message into my reading and a daily devotional is as good an approach as any – though it remains to be seen whether this particular format will be appropriate or not for commuting. I’ll write more about this book when I have some time with it under my belt.

I’m disappointed that the TNIV The Books of the Bible is not readily available for Kindle – I had hoped to make that my “reading Bible”, but only the NT books are available on Amazon and for ~$40 total, whereas you can order a print version for under $10. Go figure.

Reading on the Kindle is brilliantly simple – I’m able to sit on the bus and read page after page with only the twitch of my finger on the Next Page button. This ease can not be overstated enough when you’re packed together like sardines and everyone is wearing their winter combat gear. I don’t have to worry about shifting hands to turn pages and accidentally elbowing the person sitting next to me. That said, I haven’t tried Kindle reading and drinking coffee at the same time nor have I had to read while standing on a full bus yet…

The Bookmark feature is very easy to use – flagging a “page” saves your current location in a book and you can return immediately to that spot. The Kindle even “dog ears” the page you were on to help out if you’re visually “flipping” through pages instead.

Finally, I’ve downloaded a copy of Mobipocket Creator, which promises to be able to convert PDF files to a format that is readable on the Kindle. So theoretically, I will be able to convert my PDF version of the NETS (New English Translation of the Septuagint) to a Kindle-compatible format, as well as any other articles or books I’ve collected. Of course, those wouldn’t have any coding or indexing, e.g. Table of Contents, but the content at least would be accessible.

These are some initial thoughts and impressions on physically using the Kindle:

• The vertical line cursor and wheel button are quite intuitive. The shiny reflective cursor is very visible unless viewed obliquely.
• The keypad is where it needs to be, but feels awkward if I try to use it with one hand. The functionality is much better with two hands holding the Kindle, but that means I have to take it out of its protective case.
• Speaking of the case, the factory included one is almost impossible to use for reading as you have to keep one hand gripping both the case and the Kindle to keep the latter from falling out. Eventually I’ll spring for a third-party upgrade.
• Love having the Back button for browser-like navigation (not page navigation) – would really like to see a Forward button too.
• Popular books are generally $9.99 or less, though academic titles are considerably more, e.g. Witherington’s “The Problem with Evangelical Theology” is $19.22. Even so, $10 feels expensive for a few hundred Kb of data; even worse, a pulp paperback like some of the new Star Wars stuff is $7.99 paperback/$6.39 Kindle. I’ve gotten really used to buying used books from Amazon et al. for pennies on the original dollar – paying the premium price makes me think twice.
• Through the experimental “Basic Web” feature, I can enter my blog’s URL and access current content and links, including comments. I can even post comments!

Of course, the real value is in interacting with content. As I mentioned above, I’ve downloaded several samples, including HCSB, NLT, TNIV, NASB, KJV and NET translations of the Bible. I think it’s important not to make the Kindle be something that it’s not – i.e. dedicated electronic Bible software. The Kindle is first and foremost for reading. For example, the Search feature allows you to look up words in the text, but searching for “Genesis 17″ will give you results in the Table of Contents index, not the actual chapter in the book.

The following are some brief impressions of the translations that I’ve looked at so far:

• NASB (Lockman) — If you want a paragraph-formatted NASB, this is the one! Great TOC aligned to the right with the selection cursor/wheel. A right-aligned TOC is a great way to see if the publisher is “in tune” with the way the Kindle works. Like most of the editions considered here, you have to know where you are in your reading, as the Bible book and chapter are not provided in the header info.
• HCSB (Holman) — TOC is right aligned, with multiple book options on each line. This allows more TOC content to be shown on each Kindle “page”, but also means you have to drill down an extra layer in picking the chapter and verse to read. The HCSB sample unfortunately does not include any actual scripture content, just the TOC details.
• NLT (Tyndale) — The TOC is left aligned, meaning that the entries are physically separated from the selection cursor, forcing me to more-or-less guesstimate which item I’m selecting. A nice feature of the NLT, however, is that I only have to make one selection in the TOC to get to the text – selecting a book takes me to Chapter 1, verse 1, with a mini TOC at the top for other chapters.
• TNIV (Zondervan) — The TOC is center aligned, which is a compromise of sorts, I guess, but doesn’t make much sense to me. The TNIV has single book entries (compare to the HCSB) and a lot of white space in the TOC, which means that you have page through several pages of content if you’re looking for something later in the book. And you have to select Book, Chapter *and* Verse before getting to the content itself – that’s three levels of menu selecting before being able to read.
• NET (Biblical Studies Press) — The TOC of the NET Bible is not premarked – that means that you either have to page forward from the beginning every time or make your own bookmark on the appropriate page.  Like the NLT, the TOC is left-aligned, which makes it very difficult to be confident on what you’re selecting.  Whereas they were maddening in a print edition, the NET’s use of “1:1″ for “chapter:verse” within the text body is very appreciated in this electronic edition as chapter numbers are not given in the header info (or in any other translation edition I looked at). None of the NET’s footnotes are included – this is a text only edition.
• KJV (Diana Mecum) — This edition of the KJV text features a center aligned TOC with the same type of selection system as the NLT (selecting a book takes you to 1:1, with a mini TOC at the top of the page). Verse-by-verse text formatting with the NET-style “1:1″ numbering ensures that you always know where you are. I am interested in this one because I wonder if the new electronic format will allow me to move beyond any internal hangups regarding the “old language” – the presentation is very readable.

All that said, I wonder if the Kindle would shine more with some of the daily reading Bibles, like the One Year Bible or the new 24/7 Chronological Bible from Tyndale. The latter doesn’t appear to be available for Kindle yet, so I’ve sent a note to Tyndale wondering when/if they plan to make an electronic version available. I’d also be interested in an electronic version of a daily devotional like Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, which is also not available yet for Kindle.

As you may or may not know, I used the NASB almost exclusively for 20 years, until just 4-5 years ago. I also had a NEB from college, which led to the REB, but by and large I was toeing the “literal is best” line. Ironically the first crack in that position was the ESV – implicitly marketed as “a more readable NASB”, I used it for a year or so before continuing to search for “more readable”. I already had the REB in my hands, but spent a year or two comparing it to the TNIV, HCSB and NLT (which my wife uses regularly) before deciding to stick with what I knew.

Coming into this year then, I had resolved to keep using the REB as my primary translation, augmented with the HCSB and TNIV as secondary resources when appropriate. For example, my church uses the NIV as its pew and pulpit translation, so the TNIV comes with me on Sundays more often than not, though it is not my regular private translation. The HCSB more-or-less replaced the NASB and ESV as my preferred “formal” translation, though I still refer to the NASB regularly. For the most part, these are the three translations that I used in 2008, though certainly the blogging world’s spike in interest with the NLT led to increased use there as well.

I do also have to say that I’ve referenced the NEB more this year as well. Whether it’s just checking what has changed in the REB or reading the NEB for its own pleasure, I have definitely given the older translation more visibility in my personal reading and writing here on the blog.

It was at this point in my original draft of this post that I began to speculate on my similar 2009 translation usage: NEB/REB, HCSB, TNIV, etc. etc. However, for Christmas my wife gave me a new gadget “toy”: Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. I’ve been a hesitant technology adopter in the past, so this normally would be a stretch, but after playing with it for a few hours now, I can see this being very useful, especially on my bus commute to work. I normally have my backpack stuffed with 2-3 books and a Bible for reading, but this would/could replace all of that!

My dilemma is that the REB is not available electronically, so my primary time for reading – if given to the Kindle – would require a different translation choice. The TNIV probably makes the most sense, but I’ve been thinking about the KJV too – having it as a reading resource might finally push me over the edge and “open” it more regularly. In all likelihood, I’ll have multiple translations downloaded – now it’s just a matter of sorting through the reviews and trying to determine which Kindle edition of each translation is the one to get.

As for print Bibles in 2009, I will say that I’m going to make a better effort to use the NJPSV/Jewish Study Bible as a regular reference point for Old Testament studies. Perhaps the NLT or Lattimore as an additional New Testament translation reference. I did end up with a full edition of The Message and I plan to possibly look at The Voice as well, though I suspect those will not be primary translations.

In the meantime – any recommendations on Kindle editions?