An old solution to a new problem

Electronic books are getting more and more of the market thanks to electronic book readers like the Kindle, the Nook and the iPad (not that the iPad is just an electronic book reader).  I don't have one so I can't offer any recommendations. I want to talk about a problem all of the e-readers have. And it's not just these stand-alone electronic book readers. There is a problem if you want to read a book on your computer screen, too. It turns out that not all electronic screens are the same size. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. We all know that. The problem is page numbers. If you're reading a book on your Nook and you find a really interesting passage on page 23, you can't call your friend (who has an iPad, for instance) and point them to page 23 because the same amount of text doesn't fit on the two screens. What shows as page 23 on your Nook may be page 18 on your friend's iPad.

The manufacturers have known about this problem for a while and each of them has come up with their own solution but none of them are compatible. So far, all the solutions are in the e-readers themselves. What's needed is a solution in the material itself. There needs to be a way to have marks in the text that are common to all of the e-readers. But there is one book that doesn't have this problem. If you're reading your Bible on an e-reader or your computer or even on paper, you can say to anyone reading it on any of those devices, "I hear this week's sermon in on Mark 10:32-44. We should read ahead to be prepared." And anyone you tell this to will be able to find that exact section with little trouble.

Yes, this problem has been with us for centuries and it was solved centuries ago. The Bible, of course, can be printed in books of many different sizes, in type of many different sizes and in different languages. There needed to be a way to reference specific passages across all of these different formats. Maybe more modern publishers will look to the Bible for even more wisdom. It couldn't hurt.