Among book-lovers, to suggest the supposed “benefits of ebooks (e.g., Logos Bible Software) over physical books” is to utter fightin’ words! People’s opinion on this topic can be rather strong.
My Story
So a little bit of backstory…
I use to own a lot more physical books than I do currently. When I was in seminary, I didn’t have a lot of money to buy books. But over time, I slowly and steadily gathered more and more books. I would get a lot of books from people giving them away for free. Add to that the amount of books I would check out from the library every semester for classes, and our small little apartment soon became overcrowded with books. I ran out of space. Soon I began keeping stacks of books on the dining room table (our only table, mind you), and keeping them in my closet next to my clothes!
I began to question whether this was the route I wanted to go. I knew I would likely have a decent amount of moves ahead of me; and I already new from new past moves that moving (and reorganizing and reshelving) boxes of books is no fun.
Now I already owned Logos Bible Software from back in my days in Bible college, where they had us buy it. And so I had some experience using electronic books, and the power of this particular program. So after much thinking, after several months of weighing the pros and the cons, I decided to go all in with Logos. I sold a bunch of my physical books, and used the profits as funds for transferring my library over to Logos’ system.
And I’m glad I did. The benefits have been great.
Caveats
Before I outline those benefits though, I feel like it’s important say, “I’m not against physical books.” I agree; there’s just something about holding an actual book in your hands that you don’t have when reading a book electronically (#nostalgia). And I’m also aware of the advantages in comprehension and retention in reading physical books in comparison to ebooks. So that all needs to be considered as you weigh things.
But all that notwithstanding, I have found the benefits of Logos to outweigh any of its detriments (for me).
Benefits of Owning a Library in Logos
Allow me to outline some of the benefits I’ve found in owning my library in Logos.
1. Takes Up Less Space
The first benefit, as I alluded to above, is that my books in Logos take up far less space than if I were to own physical copies of them.
At this point, I own over 6,000 books in Logos. Now that would take up a lot of space if I had to store all those books physically. But as they are, it’s just my computer.
Also, if I ever have to move, it’s so much easier. No more moving boxes and boxes of books. And if you’ve ever moved a large library, you know that’s not an insignificant thing to take into consideration.
2. Your Library Goes with You
This one has proved especially beneficial for me.
After seminary, I served as a bivocational church planter. I would prepare my sermons in my spare time at home, in coffee shops, and during lunch breaks at work–but no matter where I went, as long as I brought my laptop with me, my entire library came with me. … Let me say that again: Essentially my entire library (outside of the few physical books I owned) came with me as long as I had my laptop. I have a traveling, portable (and massive) library. That is awesome.
And now that I work full-time for a church that doesn’t own any office space, it’s proved incredibly valuable in this situation as well. Whether I work from home or a coffee shop, when I pack up and go, all my books come with me in the size of a laptop.
3. Your Library is Accessible Across Devices
With Logos’ mobile app, I can read my books on my iPad like an e-reader (if I don’t want to read them on my laptop). And as long as I have my phone on me, no matter where I am (e.g., in the waiting room at the doctor’s office) I can pull up my phone, pick up where I left off on my other devices, and get some reading done in those spare moments.
4. Easily Searchable Content
5. Copy & Paste for Easy Note-Taking
Try Out Logos for Free or Take Advantage of My Special Discounts
This series is brought to you by Logos Bible Software, with special discounts available to listeners of this podcast.
The post is part 1 in a 3-part series on Why I Choose to Build My Library in Logos (The Benefits of Logos Over Physical Books) — follow this link to see the other posts from this series.
Kirk E. Miller 
Are you ever concerned that something would happen to your online library (thinking of government crackdowns or things of the such, at least with physical books they would have to come to my house to take my books)? I don’t know…maybe I think about things too much.
LikeLike
Hey Joel, I mean, it’s always in the back of my mind that I could lose my library by any number of means. I’m less concerned about the government, following the example you gave. I more think in terms of if in the future Logos, for some reason, was to go out of business and what that would mean for my library. I don’t worry about this too much though, because they’re a pretty large and stable company it seems. But there’s always a chance I suppose.
But I don’t think this concern is unique to an electronic library. In fact, I’d be more concerned if I had a physical library probably, e.g., my books could burn in a house fire, physical books deteriorate and wear down with use, I have small kids who sometimes damage or destroy things, etc.
But anyway, no, I’m not losing sleep over this sort of thing.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
LikeLike