Friday Five -- Books

From RevGalBlogPals, let's talk about the books in your life...

1. STUDYING: What is your favorite book or series for sermon prep or study? Or have you moved from books to on-line tools for your personal study? Years ago, when I took my first class on sermon prep, the teacher recommended a couple of commentary series.  One of them was the Daily Bible Study series by William Barclay.  I started collecting those, and now, years later, have the series in my office.  At my latest sermon prep class, the teacher recommended the Feasting on the Word commentaries, which I've started using.  I also really like my New Interpreter's Study Bible for the notes.
2. IN THE QUEUE: Do you have a queue of books you are longing to read or do you read in bits and pieces over several books at a time? What's in the queue? I do usually have more than one book going at a time, and keep a list in a queue.  In my head.  I don't get to read nearly as much as I used to, though.
3. FAVORITE OF ALL TIME: What's one book that you have to have in your study? Is it professional, personal, fun or artistic? (For instance, I have a copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It just helps sometimes.) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon remains one of my favorites.  Recently, I read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.  It is now my favorite photography book.   
4. KINDLE OR PRINT? or both? Is there a trend in your recent purchases?  My answer is a little complicated.  For books I read for pleasure, I buy Kindle books and read them mainly on my Kindle Touch.  For books I want to annotate, I used to always buy the print version.  Lately, I've been buying the Kindle version, and reading them on my iPad, which has some great highlighting capabilities.  For books that have images, I buy Kindle and read on my iPad.  I still buy a few print books, but not many.  I just have too much trouble finding a place to store them.  I also have a membership at Audible -- I like to listen to books as well. 
5. DISCARDS: I regularly cruise the "FREE BOOKS" rack at our local library. (I know, I know. It's a bad habit!) When's the last time you went through your books and gave some away (or threw some away?) Do you remember what made the discard pile?  The last time I did this, I got rid of lots of college textbooks.  I need to do it again.

BONUS: Post a picture of the present state of your study!  One of my joys is that I now (with the job I currently have) have a real live office.  I'll try to remember to post a picture of it later this week.  I will not be posting a picture of our bookshelves at home.  :-O