Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours

Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours (Tickle, Phyllis)Takeaway: One of the few books where I am more disappointed by the publisher than the book

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I like fixed hour prayer.  I think more Christians should participate in it.  But I am far from a regular user of it.  I am a nanny for my two nieces and having a 3 and 2 year old running around the house 8 to 12 hours a day makes fixed hour prayer difficult.

So I viewed Lent as a time to try to get back on track again.  It did not really happen during Lent either.  I was definitely an occasional rather than regular user of this book.

But I do love the prayers and choices that Tickle uses.  No prayer book is perfect and there are always some things that I would not choose.  But I think the variety and choices of prayers and scriptures I would not choose is on of the benefits.

But there are real issues that I have and mostly they are with the publisher.  I have three books in this series now.  And they have very different production values.  Here is what I think a prayer book on Kindle, which is what I prefer, should look like.  There should be all the prayers completely written out.  There is no reason to just say “Lord’s Prayer” or “Gloria” and expect people to know them or flip to them.  I understand this is a common method in paper, but in ebook format there is no reason for it.  Second, there needs to be a good table of contents with links to each day (they are undated so that it can be used any year, but the format of week closest to XXX Date and then the list of each day works fine or “Third week of Lent” format would be fine as well.)  Third, in the text, there needs to be the actual name of the day to help you find you place.  Fourth, the Compline (night office) should be in line with the day, not in a separate section.  In a paper book, this may make sense because you can flip, since Complines are often repeated and not separate for every day.  But in ebooks digital in has no additional cost.  In this edition, none of those things were done or were done in some sections, but not others.

My final issue is the Kindle availability.  I first bought the Prayers for Summertime because it was the only one available.  Then I bought the Christmastide and Eastertide when they became available.  But what I did not realize is that the Christmastide and Eastertide books are excerpts of the Springtime and Autum/Winter books.  But the Springtime and Autum/Winter are not available except in paper.  The price of the paperback version is basically the same as the excerpted kindle versions.  But the point of getting the kindle versions is at least in part to not have to carry around the 700 page hardback versions.

What I would prefer, is a good Kindle version (that includes my four requirements) that puts all three volumes together.  Who knows, maybe it will happen eventually.  But until then I might try buying a used hardback since there are several that are available for less than $5 including shipping.

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