Half Price Books Rules!

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Frosty

Puritan Board Sophomore
My eyes just about jumped out of my head when I spotted According to Plan by Goldsworthy at Half Price Books on Saturday! Nice to get a book that would have cost me about $20 online (including shipping) for $6!

About a minute later discovered Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by Packer! Made my day and can't wait to give them a read.

Two things:
1) Have you read either of those books? What did you think?

2) Any good "steals" lately?
 
I read Goldsworthy's According to Plan, and thought it was very good. Goldsworthy is Anglican, so I was on guard against anything that was too Anglican, but everything I read fit in quite well within Baptist theology.

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is very good too. I thought his beginning chapters, about how you must already be a Calvinist because of the way you pray and thank God for your salvation, to be kind of condescending, and I'm not sure how convincing that would be to an Arminian. That said, he puts evangelism in its proper place within God's sovereignty, and that's a good thing.
 
I have never found anything of value at Half Priced Books. Lucky You!

The only time I went to Half Price Books was 2008 in the Houston area. I think they have about 6 stores in the area, and during my 2 week stay there I probably visited almost all of them! I found a lot of good books and had my budget allowed, probably would have bought 3x what I actually did. From what I recall the best ones were in Rice Village and in the Humble area. I'm sure they get different things in all the time.
 
I have never found anything of value at Half Priced Books. Lucky You!

Regrettably, this was my experience too. We don't have a Half Priced Books in Abilene, so when I spotted one on vacation in San Antonio, I told the wife we had to make a stop. I looked through the entire theology/Christian section and the only book I found worth reading was "Don't Waste Your Life" by Piper. I already own it, so I walked out the store with nothing. :(
 
The ones in Dallas are, of course, loaded with Dispensational material. Occasionally a nugget can be found.
 
I have never found anything of value at Half Priced Books. Lucky You!

The only time I went to Half Price Books was 2008 in the Houston area. I think they have about 6 stores in the area, and during my 2 week stay there I probably visited almost all of them! I found a lot of good books and had my budget allowed, probably would have bought 3x what I actually did. From what I recall the best ones were in Rice Village and in the Humble area. I'm sure they get different things in all the time.

I have bought quite a bit of classical music from the Rice Village store. That they do well with. In terms of theological books, I have not found anything. You must have visited at just the right time.

The stores are real good for classic books. You can usually find paperback versions for a dollar.
 
My experience with the "theology" section of used book stores is that they have about 300 copies of the Purpose Driven Life and maybe one book worth reading in the whole section.
 
My experience with the "theology" section of used book stores is that they have about 300 copies of the Purpose Driven Life and maybe one book worth reading in the whole section.

I have found good things from used book stores. I have picked up close to 20 books during my stay in Chaplain school for example. My friend picked up a good set of Hendrickson commentaries for 20 bucks just minutes before I arrived. He had no clue what he had.
 
Yes, the Christianity/Religion sections at the two I go to are usually pretty weak as well. Lots of Max Lucado, Joel Osteen, Stormie Omartian, and John Maxwell-type books.
That's why I was so surprised to find what I did.
 
Tonight while killing time shopping in a thrift store I found an Eyre & Spottiswoode Royal Ruby Bible for .99 cents. This Bible looks brand new. It was wrapped in a plastic protective cover and published in 1975. The leather is a little stiff but worth every cent.

I'll post pics on my blog in a few days.

j
 
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is very good too. I thought his beginning chapters, about how you must already be a Calvinist because of the way you pray and thank God for your salvation, to be kind of condescending, and I'm not sure how convincing that would be to an Arminian. That said, he puts evangelism in its proper place within God's sovereignty, and that's a good thing.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you about the Packer book. It is an excellent book, but that is a rather weak argument for Calvinism. Using that same logic, I could prove that we are all open theists because we pray and ask God for things.
 
I read Goldsworthy's According to Plan, and thought it was very good. Goldsworthy is Anglican, so I was on guard against anything that was too Anglican, but everything I read fit in quite well within Baptist theology.

Goldsworthy is an Australian Anglican (like John Woodhouse), and in my experience they tend to be very evangelical and Calvinistic, at least those associated with Moore Theological College.

Also, I'm pretty sure that some of Goldworthy's books (perhaps even this one) are used in homiletics classes at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
 
I agree with you about the Packer book. It is an excellent book, but that is a rather weak argument for Calvinism. Using that same logic, I could prove that we are all open theists because we pray and ask God for things.

Only if you bought the ridiculous open theist notion that prayer implies God's mutability. Prayer shows reliance upon God; reliance upon God for conversion of a sinner is incompatible with a view that God cannot convert. Hence when people pray for conversion their practice confesses a truth they may verbally deny: before Packer, both Warfield and Machen had made a similar point. An open theist might use an argument that is rhetorically similar, but logic would not undergird it at all; if anything, it is logically impossible to have any confidence in the weak and evolving 'god' of open theism.
 
Randy,
I recommend anything by Goldsworthy. I have not read Packer's book.

Which store did you find these in?
 
I found a 2004 Petit Robert Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise in the Tacoma Half Price Books store a couple of years ago. It was still in the original wrapper and I paid $5.00 for it.

That volume is offered online for over $100 new--although I've seen used copies asking in the $60 range.
 
Used bookstores are hit and miss. There is, apparently, a huge one in Portland that is a city block size and has a good theology section. Also, I would love to walk around a Half Priced Books in Louisville.
 
I found some great books pretty cheap a while back at HPB's....

Calvin's Institutes for $10
On Prayer and Spiritual Warfare by Spurgeon for $6
Seven Sayings of the Cross by Pink for $4
Putting the Amazing Back into Grace by Michael Horton for $8
Standing on Grace by Edwards for $4

They had Charnock's Attributes of God for $20, but I already spent more than I had planned on.

Even though I found this good stuff, about 75% of the time I find nothing readable there except a few Piper books I already have and a few copies of Augustine's Confessions...which I have as well.
 
I found some great books pretty cheap a while back at HPB's....

Calvin's Institutes for $10
On Prayer and Spiritual Warfare by Spurgeon for $6
Seven Sayings of the Cross by Pink for $4
Putting the Amazing Back into Grace by Michael Horton for $8
Standing on Grace by Edwards for $4

They had Charnock's Attributes of God for $20, but I already spent more than I had planned on.

Even though I found this good stuff, about 75% of the time I find nothing readable there except a few Piper books I already have and a few copies of Augustine's Confessions...which I have as well.

I wish I had been there 5 minutes before.
 
Enrique,

This was at a Half Price Books in Robinson, PA- near the Pittsburgh Airport.

Wow! extolHIM, you made a killing that day!
 
My experience with the "theology" section of used book stores is that they have about 300 copies of the Purpose Driven Life and maybe one book worth reading in the whole section.

My experience also, except saying they have one book worth reading may even be generous. And frankly this applies to pretty much all book stores, not just used.
 
My general experience will the less quality stores is a bunch of pleather "gift Bibles", a ton of crappy theology (Jentzen Franklin, Joel Osteen, etc), Purpose Driven Life, and a ton of heresy disguising itself as Christian Theology (Depak Chopra, JS Spong, etc)
 
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