Does no one read books any more?
Perhaps someone could explain the great benefit of having a systematic theology in electronic format?
I mean, I do understand if a work is out of print, but other than that is there a reason?
It would be wonderful to have my entire library searchable at my fingertips, but is that reasonable?
~Feeling old fashioned today it seems....
It's probably not reasonable to have an entire library searchable at your fingertips, but however unreasonable it seems today, it seems more and more like a possibility in the future. Just think of things like Google Book Search and Electronic, Searchable books on Amazon. Now for many books you can get an online searchable version that you can annotate for just a few dollars more. I can see that becoming more and more common as we become more technology-driven. Whether it's a good thing or not is up for debate. I think it could be a good thing (like the printing press) but with potential for very negative consequences (as the printing press has been used to spread all kinds of terrible and wicked magazines and other types of material).
For me, the reason I would want a systematic theology or other works like that (Edwards' Works for example) is for ease of access. If I'm reading through the systematic theology, I'd usually prefer the physical book. If I'm doing research on a topic, it's much quicker for me to look it up on the computer, especially with Scripture hyperlinks, dictionaries, and other reference materials readily available to cross reference. So for me, it boils down to what I'm doing with a particular work. For reading I'd rather have the book, but for research most of the time the electronic format is preferable. Good, thought-provoking question!
