For books and commentaries; kindle or accordance

[Shholland]

I am a fairly new user and am preparing to buy a number of commentaries and books and am trying to decide between building the library in accordance or kindle. More and more series are being made available on the kindle so I am guessing that in a year the kindle will have most of the books and commentaries I am looking for. The kindle has a better reading interface on mobile devices and I can actually take notes in the books, they automatically sync, and at first glance amazon is cheaper. I guess there are two big questions

1) will accordance eventually allow me to take notes in books/ commentaries (even if this is a year out)?

2) what are the advantages of buying books and commentaries in accordance?

 

Thanks and I am hoping I can be convinced that accordance is the better way to go.

 

Scott

[Helen Brown]

Scott:

 

You could not have posed a more important and relevant question if we had paid you to do so! I look forward to seeing responses from our users.

 

We have recently put some thought into trying to explain what makes Accordance modules so much more useful than ebooks. In fact, we recently put up a webpage specifically on commentaries that attempts to answer Why Buy Commentaries in Accordance. Do check that out while we wait for our users to reply.

[Tony Lawrence]

I am a fairly new user and am preparing to buy a number of commentaries and books and am trying to decide between building the library in accordance or kindle. More and more series are being made available on the kindle so I am guessing that in a year the kindle will have most of the books and commentaries I am looking for. The kindle has a better reading interface on mobile devices and I can actually take notes in the books, they automatically sync, and at first glance amazon is cheaper. I guess there are two big questions

1) will accordance eventually allow me to take notes in books/ commentaries (even if this is a year out)?

2) what are the advantages of buying books and commentaries in accordance?

 

Thanks and I am hoping I can be convinced that accordance is the better way to go.

 

Scott

Scott,

 

I can only speak for myself, but I greatly favor Accordance. Here is why: I bought the Archaeological Study Bible in Kindle (because it was ridiculously cheap, less that $5 on sale one day). I downloaded Kindle on my Mac, my ipod touch and iPad. Here is what I found out. If one is going to use a book strictly for reading the Kindle format may excel slightly because of the clean polished interface. However, I rarely read reference books from cover to cover. Initially I will read larger sections of information that interest me, but in the long run it becomes a reference tool. Here is where Accordance really shines. One can put the resource in a pane that scrolls with the respective text, or one can use "Search All" and find all the relevant information. Sometimes that information may be located in a section where one would not necessarily expect it. I can't overemphasize the strength of Accordance's searching capability. You specifically mention commentaries. Being able to put several commentaries side by side along with one or more texts is something that Kindle can't do.

 

Accordance is not bad as an e-Reader either. I suggest you play with the font and size settings and you may find it can look as good as the Kindle interface.

 

You also mention making notes. I can understand the value of having notes attached to a location in a book but I would much prefer the User Note linked to the Bible.The more you use Accordance the more you will appreciate the emphasis on the centrality of the Bible. But if you wish to make notes on a section there are several possibilities. Why not create a User Tool that records your notations? Or Print to PDF the section of the module you are reading and make a note there?

 

Finally, you note that Amazon is cheaper. I agree, but in the end you have to consider the added value of the Accordance modules. I recommend creating you a wish list for Accordance module and watch for the periodic sale. April was a great time to pick up bigger purchases with the 25% discount. There is something on sale all the time.

 

Whatever format in which you choose to invest there are always going to be pros and cons. But there is one thing that I think you should consider: Accordance responds to the requests of its users. If there is a useful feature which can be added they generally try to integrate it in a future release. I know of no other software company that is as responsive to the wishes of its users as Accordance. I guess you have surmised I am a happy Accordance user!

 

Tony Lawrence

[Sean R.]

I think there are two clear advantages to having a commentary in Accordance rather than in Kindle or another format. First, in Accordance you can view any commentary in parallel with an original language text or translation. While in Kindle you are limited to viewing one book at a time (you can't view your commentary and Bible at the same time on the same screen), Accordance iOS does not have this limitation. Second, commentaries in Accordance are extensively formatted with various fields which allow for precise and sophisticated searching. You can search only titles, or Scripture references, or the bibliography, etc. Kindle doesn't allow this level of sophistication in your searching.

 

Admittedly, the Accordance iOS app needs to mature a good bit. And at present, Accordance doesn't allow a user to take notes tied to a commentary (although you can utilize the User Notes feature to take notes tied to the Scripture reference the commentary is discussing). But in Accordance, the usability and functionality will continue to increase while, I suspect, in Kindle you're pretty much maxed out at the present with the features important to you as you use a commentary in that format. Additionally, the Mac application of Accordance is hands down the best Bible software program available. A commentary in the Accordance format allows you to utilize its full functionality one the go (iOS devises) or on your computer.

 

All the best as you decide in which format to invest!

[Fr. Rich]

I too favor Accordance. When you buy a commentary for Accordance and use it on your Mac, you have all of the benefits the others have mentioned plus, as an added bonus, that commentary is available on IOS. On the other hand, if you buy a book on Kindle, it is only available on Kindle. The ability to have resources integrated within Accordance adds great value to each resource. I have several copies of Hermeneia commentaries that I owned before the Accordance versions became available. I almost never use these hard copies because they are not integrated. That is, whatever I find in them, I have to copy it and write down somewhere else. With Accordance, all of my work is in the same place and it is linked.

[Chuck Schneider]

I can't remember a time when I just read through a commentary all by itself. I always seem to go to a commentary with questions that arise while reading or studying the Bible.

 

I'm pretty new to Kindle, but because it doesn't appear to allow collaboration between books, it loses all of it's appeal to me as a Bible study tool regardless of note-taking features. I'd also lose interest in Kindle for commentaries, etc., because it also doesn't have the powerful search capability or the amplification ability that comes with Accordance.

 

So, if I had my Bible text and commentaries only in Kindle, I would have to use it as follows:

 

• Read a Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Close the Bible.
  
• Find and Open one of the commentaries.
  
• Search for the relevant page.
  
• Read the relevant portion of the commentary.
  
• Close the commentary.
  (Probably, Find, Open, Search, Read and Close a couple other commentaries)
  
• Find and Open the Bible.
  
• Search for the previous (or a new) passage in the Bible.
  
• Become curious or confused about this new passage or its word usage.
  
• Close Bible.
  
• Find and Open commentary.
  
• Search.
  
• Read.
  
• Close of commentary.
  (Probably, Find, Open, Search, Read and Close a couple other commentaries)
  
• Find and Open Bible.
  

etc. ...

 

I realize that Kindle's bookmarks might improve this slightly, but still, I think paper books would be more convenient and faster, although not as mobile.

 

Accordance for iOS improves on this significantly:

 

• 
   
  
• Read a Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Open favorite commentary next to Bible text.
  (the commentary opens to the relevant passage and automatically follows along with the text)
  
• Find/Switch commentary.
  (the commentary opens to the relevant passage and automatically follows along with the text)
  
• Find/Switch next commentary.
  (the commentary opens to the relevant passage and automatically follows along with the text)
  
• Read another Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Read opened commentary that has followed your text.
  
• Find/Switch commentaries as desired.
  (the commentary opens to the relevant passage and automatically follows along with the text)
  

etc. ...

 

When you're back home, the Kindle experience won't change on the PC or Mac, but Accordance on a PC (with emulator) or Mac is even better with the same commentaries that you purchased:

 

• Read a Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Open numerous commentaries and translations and leave them all visible at the same time.
  
• Make them all follow the text automatically.
  
• Read a Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Look left, right, above, below to read any of the various commentaries/study Bibles that are already there, following along with your Bible text.
  

 

Save this setup and the next time it's just:

 

• Read a Bible passage.
  
• Become curious or confused about a certain passage or word usage.
  
• Look left, right, above, below to read any of the various commentaries/study Bibles that are already there, following along with your Bible text.
  

[Brent Lawrence]

For me the answer has always been what you can do with Accordance that you can't do on other platforms. Kindle is a great e-reader (as I now have one as an early Father's Day gift). However, when I'm studying a passage in the Bible and want to read commentary on that passage, I literally have access to all the commentaries I own in a parallel pane next to the text and can cycle through each one instantly without having to do additional searching. With the Kindle, you just can't do that. Also, there is the element of search speed. Since I don't own any commentaries for the Kindle I can't answer how fast you could find what you're looking for, but Accordance is amazingly fast in getting to what you need. As one person suggested, making a user tool to create notes on non-text modules is also a great option in Accordance.

 

I am currently using the Kindle to read through the Bible in 90 days and noting my progress by adding a note with the dates. I can say that the keyboard on the Kindle is not for extensive note-taking. I find that any time I've wanted to make notes on the Bible text, I have to actually add the reference that it's connected to since Kindle's connection to your note is merely a location number rather than the Scripture reference itself. I've got to imagine that making notes on a commentary you are reading on the Kindle will likely be connected to a location number as well rather which is sort of a difficult way to find things. When I've really wanted to note something in the Bible on the Kindle, I've accessed the My Clippings.txt file afterward and copied my notes into Accordance User Notes.

 

I think rather than looking at the idea of the "cost" of Kindle resources being cheaper, maybe look at it that the "value" of Accordance is greater. If it's extensive Bible study or even casual Bible Study as opposed to basic Bible reading, Accordance is in a class by itself.

 

I will also say that making notes for non-text modules has been a much requested feature in Accordance, and you can be sure that the Accordance team has looked how to make that possible. When it will happen is anyone's guess, but the responsiveness of the Accordance team is also tops and I've got to believe that some time down the road they will figure out a way to make that happen, but until them, there are excellent ways around that issue with a User Tool.

[Shholland]

So I just bought a number of commentaries on the Gospels in accordance. Thanks for all the feedback and I think that the reasons given are some really good ones. I can't wait to dig into them over the next few months. (and get used to working in accordance as well)