First up a confession. I love books. I love the feel. I love the smell (especially of old books). I love the crack when I  break the spine of a new book in order to read it comfortably. But I'm no technophobe. I also have a kindle and read books on that and Mrs R, for one, is glad that there is now more luggage space on holiday rather than having to lug 20 hardbacks away with us. 

So, I was saddened but not surprised to read last week that the Encylopaedia Britannica will be no more. When stocks of the current run (about six months worth) are depleted that will be it. It's certainly the end of an era. But it's not the end of books. You see the world wide net is brilliant for some kinds of books – chiefly reference and searchable resources. But it is not, and nor will be soon, the medium of choice for reading. The interweb undoubtedly helps my sermon prep – and I'm not talking about sermoncentral.com. Check a fact here. Brush up on a news story for an illustration there. Around the periphery it is immensely useful. 

But at the heart, despite loving technology, my sermon prep is still paper based. And, though I have eBibles, my Bible will always be so. I may use an iPad for notes, but I will stand in the pulpit with a Bible in my hand.

And, as an article in the Times said last week, that's good news on more than one level:

“I am a bit heartbroken,” said AJ Jacobs, who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica for his book The Know-it-all. “I loved the idea that all the world’s knowledge could be contained in those pages.”

The explorer Ernest Shackleton took a volume on his doomed expedition to Antarctica and is said to have burned it page by page to keep warm.

“You can’t do that with the internet,” Mr Jacobs said.

Quite.