22nd March, 2013
I've never been the most disciplined of bible-readers. Yes, I've read the whole thing a time or two, and I sort of know my way around it. I try to read something from it most days. But it's a monster. It's complicated, in all sorts of ways - even ways I haven't thought of, I'm sure. Even the bits which are an 'easy read', like some of the New Testament letters, have hidden depths which can drag you off in all sorts of directions.
I took a long time to be persuaded that I would like an iPad. To begin with, when the idea was suggested, my attitude was 'what would I want one of those for - I've got a desktop and a laptop (both Macs, by the way) already? I couldn't see what sort of 'niche' it would fill. But, eventually, and at least partly because no-one, least of all me, could think of anything to give me for birthday/Christmas/etc presents, I allowed the family to buy me one.
16th April, 2013
How did this entry get published in its unfinished state? No, on second thoughts, don't answer that - it might not be flattering!
The iPad has proved to be very, very, useful. For one thing, as far as my 'church work' is concerned, I have almost achieved a sort of 'nirvana' - I am almost totally paperless - most 'meeting papers' come as PDF, which I can load onto the iPad and take with me. It's easy, using GoodReader, to annotate them, etc.
I use it for lots of other stuff - 'Facebooking' whilst slobbing out on the sofa, for instance, is far more convenient than using a laptop - the iPad form-factor is much more 'couch potato' friendly! But the biggest advance has turned out to be in bible reading. I have a copy of the Tecarta Bible, which includes cross-referencing, a history function (it records which passages you've looked at and when, and gives you a quick means to get back there), means to make notes, annotate and/or highlight text, and other handy things. The best thing though is the search engine - I can find anything I want, really, really, quickly.
Since having the iPad I read my bible more and, amazingly, after third-odd years, I am actually beginning to improve at knowing my way around it, at remembering where passages are, and even at memorising passages!! I would have thought that the search function, 'automatic' cross-referencing, etc, would have simply made me more lazy, and less likely to learn anything… But, actually, completely the opposite has happened!!! No-one is more surprised than me, believe me!