Category: Freebies

Reformation Week Book Giveaway & More

~ Bob Hayton ~ 7 Comments

This is the week before we celebrate Reformation Day. 493 years ago, on the night before All Saints’ Day, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses on the Wittenburg Church door. Everyone entering the church for the next day’s festivities, would be sure to see his theses, and the door often served as a community bulletin board. Today, we look back to that event, on October 31, 1517 as perhaps the single event most responsible for the start of the Protestant Reformation.

In honor of Reformation Day, I plan on posting several related posts. On the Wednesday after Reformation Day, I’ll be giving away a copy of A Reformation Reader by Denis Janz (Fortress Press). Between now and then, I’ll have a series of posts highlighting selections from the Reformer’s works, and possibly a few Reformation-themed book reviews interspersed in there.

A Reformation Reader gives you multiple excerpts from Reformation era documents, and some historical analysis. It sheds light on the era of the Reformation and while one may not always agree with the author’s conclusions, the selections make for excellent reading. This copy is furnished courtesy of the kind folks at Augsburg Fortress Press. Feel free to read my review of the book, too.

To enter the contest, fill out the form below. If you subscribe to this blog or follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you get additional chances to win. You can subscribe or follow me now, in time to get the additional entry, too. UPDATE: You can post an update to your blog, Twitter or Facebook page publicizing this giveaway for an additional entry, too.

I’ll be updating the tally on which Reformer is the most popular too, in the comments below. Early on it’s John Calvin in the lead ahead of Luther and Huss.

 

This contest is now closed. The winner was announced in this post.

 

Book Swapping: Recycling Old Books, Saving Money

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Most of my readers are probably like me. They love books. Bloggers tend to read more books than others, and Christian bloggers tend to have an insatiable craving for theology books new and old. My problem has always been how to afford books. Charles Spurgeon said something like “sell your shirt and buy books”, in his book to ministerial students. No one wants to buy my old shirts, however!

Well, as you can tell, I’ve taken to doing book reviews as a way to get books. But that can be a lot of work. I’ve posted 20 book reviews this year so far, and not everyone is as fanatical about books to do that! A while back I stumbled onto another way to get books inexpensively. It’s called book swapping.

The basic idea is I make my old books available to others. They select a book I’ve listed as available, and then I get notified. I mail the book to them and they let the book swapping website know when they get it. For every book sent and received, I get a credit for a free book.   The postage is paid by the sender of the book, so I only pay for the postage going out on books I send, not the ones I receive. It boils down to getting decent used books for 2-4 dollars each.

Having explained the basic idea, let me recommend a few options for you when it comes to book swapping.

PaperbackSwap.com is my first choice for book swapping. It has by far the widest selection of books with almost 5 million books listed. It also has the best design and is the easiest site to use. You can scroll through available books and easily search by genre or title or author. When you list your first ten books, you get 2 free credits to use for receiving books. Books cost 1 credit each and for every book you send to someone, you get a credit in exchange. Plus if you sign up others to the site, you get additional credits.

BookMooch.com works similarly but you get tenths of a credit for additional things like posting books and sending feedback within the time limit given. The navigation is not as user-friendly but the site works pretty much the same.

I have traded books with both PaperbackSwap and Bookmooch and have received a variety of different conditions on the book. I don’t think it matters which site you use as far as what condition books you’ll receive. I’ve had stellar books and some in poor condition. It can vary but they do recommend books listed to describe their condition. The other big difference between these sites is that PaperbackSwap offers a printable label that works well for sending a book that is not much bigger than a paperback. You can even wrap the book in the paper label and send just like that. Otherwise if the book is larger you can send it in a package and cut out the label and affix it to the packabe. BookMooch doesn’t offer that.

Goodreads.com, is another site whose primary purpose is to post your virtual library. I use it for posting book reviews and books on my “to read” list. It now has recently started bookswapping with a slightly different approach. The person wanting one of your books will pay the postage for it. You just ship them the book on their dime. Once you ship 10 books you get a free credit for any book available for swapping that you’d like. You can of course pay for the shipping on any book you’d like that is available prior to getting that free credit. One catch is GoodReads adds a hanling fee on all books shipped to help them keep up the site. Books will average between $3.50 and $4.50 per Goodreads, which is still a good deal. I haven’t used this feature yet with Goodreads, but it would also be a site to check for good books that may not be listed on the other sites.

I’ve used book swapping to get hard to find books and also to hunt for inexpensive commentaries or other such books. If you are on these sites, let me know as our books may be of mutual interest. I list several Christian books at these sites. My available books at PaperbackSwap are listed here, and at BookMooch are here. On both of these sites you can follow me so you’re aware of new books I post as available for swapping.

If you’d like to check out a bookswapping site, I’d recommend signing up with PaperbackSwap.com. You can use the link below (click on the button) so I’ll get a credit for pointing you their way.

PaperBackSwap.com - Book Club to Swap, Trade & Exchange Books for Free.

The Push for 5,000

~ Bob Hayton ~ 18 Comments

I have a special mark approaching for my blog. In October, it will be 5 years of blogging. But sooner than that, I will hit the 5,000 approved comments mark.

I’ve run the full gamut of comments over the years. I’ve seen many helped, and several ticked off. I have had hundreds of people share that my story has blessed them and that they find my blog helpful. I’m grateful that sharing my thoughts like this has been a blessing for so many. I’ve also had my share of critics and debates. In the early days of my blogs, we’d run up 50 comments plus and dozens of pages of interaction on some of my posts. Occasionally I’ve had to delete some over-the-top comments, as well, and I won’t even mention all the spam (none of the deleted comments count toward the 5,000, by the way).

I appreciate those who’ve read my blog over the years, and am thankful for all this interaction. I’ve even been blessed to be able to consider many of you as my blogging friends — and meet some of you in person.

In honor of the 5,000 mark soon approaching, I thought I’d do a push for some comments and give out a prize to the person with comment #5,000. I won’t tell you how far away from the 5,000 mark I am, but it is easily attainable by comments to this post, or some of the other recent posts. I would imagine we could hit it today or tomorrow.

The prize will be your choice of one of three books I have available to give away. To enter, just leave a comment on this or any post. If your comment is #5,000 you win. Please until this contest is over, limit yourself to one comment per post with a max of 3 comments per person — to be fair to everyone. To save the expense to me, I’m going to limit the contest to residents of the U.S.A., although I must say I’ve been blessed to have faithful readers beyond the borders of America.

Here are the three books which the winner can choose from. Click on the picture for more details. Thanks again for making this blog successful, and for taking the time to drop comments. I always appreciate the interaction.

Great New Membership @ Challies.Com

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Influential Christian blogger and web-designer, Tim Challies has come up with a fantastic membership deal for his readers. I’ve followed his blog off and on for several years now, and his content is always worth reading. He has hosted advertising on his blog for a while and now is hoping this new membership program will help him bless his readers and allow him to limit the advertising on his site.

The deal is quite amazing, actually. Here is what you get for a $39 yearly membership to Friends of Challies (which can be canceled at any time).

  • $10 gift certificate for Westminster Bookstore
  • $10 gift certificate for Reformed Heritage Books (for the next 250 people sign up– his may run out soon)
  • 4 newly released books or DVDs from Zondervan (free shipping)
  • 1 newly released book from Reformed Heritage Books (free shipping)
  • free subscription to Tabletalk magazine from R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Ministries
  • E-book access to new and forthcoming books from various publishers
  • free music download of Sons & Daughters CD from Sovereign Grace Music
  • free music download of Seeds of Courage CD from Seeds Family Worship
  • free music download of Frame the Clouds CD by Christa Wells
  • free music download of a best-of album from Sojourn
  • More deals, coupons, and freebies throughout the year
  • an affiliate program to earn gift certificates from Westminster Bookstore
  • & if you join by April 30th, you will have a chance to win an Amazon Kindle

All of that for only $39 is a good deal in my book. Plus it will help you stay in touch with Challies’ blog which will help your spiritual growth. I say you should consider it. If you don’t mind, use this link when you sign up so I can get credit for recommending this great program to you.

United by the Gospel & Together for the Gospel

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Over at Christian Book Notes, there is a contest currently running to win copies of the 2 book-compilations of messages from the previous 2 Together for the Gospel conferences (2006 & 2008). Both books are published by Crossway.

To enter the contest, you are to leave a comment, “regarding how the essential truths of the gospel unifies all (true) believers”. That got me thinking and I thought I’d share my thoughts here for my readers’ benefit. I also encourage you to go enter the contest yourself, it runs through Monday.

One more thing before I share my thoughts. You can download most of the 2010 T4G messages now, and the rest will be up shortly I assume.

The cross humbles us. It lays bare all our evil hearts. No one can raise his head when faced with how wicked his own sin is. Sin’s extent is displayed in the gravity of Calvary. There, the Creator God manifested in human flesh, died a tortured and bloody death to pay sin’s terrible price.

The cross then gives us all the same hope. The hope that our sins are dealt with and grace and mercy can come to us from Christ our crucified and risen Savior. The same hope of eternal glory and joy that never ends in Christ’s presence, acceptance with God, forgiveness of sins– this same hope is extended to all who believe in Christ as the sufficient sacrifice for their sins.

The cross, then, should also unify us around an appreciation of gospel truth and the spreading of it’s gospel glories. Smaller points of disagreement find their perspective when weighed in the light of the cross. If we share a joyous faith in a gospel of grace that flows to us from the cross of Jesus, then that is a big thing indeed. It is so big and so important, that differences over baptism, eschatology, church government, preferences of music or dress styles, and the like should pale in comparison.

When we magnify every relatively minor position on any given question, the gospel loses its status and becomes just one more point to agree or disagree on. This is the tragedy of sectarianism run wild. It makes mountains out of mole hills, and minimizes the importance of the truly central and cardinal truths related to the gospel.

Sorry I got a little carried away, but this is why I love the concept of T4G and The Gospel Coalition so much. There is great potential for unity when we see how glorious the Gospel really is.