Watchtower Book Shelf CD-ROM
Fully searchable PDF archive
Status Update: Suspension of Distribution
In light of recent claims made by Watch Tower Society concerning the copyright of "many" of the volumes on the Bookshelf CD we have suspended our distribution efforts indefinitely. We have removed the "Buy Now" button from this page, but preserved the other details for posterity.
The Watchtower Bookshelf CD contains over 6,000 pages from books the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society — every book from 1942 to 1959. These works are not on the Watch Tower Society's official "Watch Tower Library" CD.
No more will you have to search for hard-to-find titles and pay a small fortune for them, only to find that some 4 year old colored the pages with his crayons!
Just $19.75 + $5.25 Shipping!**
Fully searchable with pictures
First, we carefully scanned each of these books. We then used state-of-the-art Optical Character Recognition so that the text could be extracted. Finally, we combined the high-quality scan and the OCR together into Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The result: the most accurate electronic reproduction, with all of the color of the original books complete with pictures, and with a fully searchable text.
This is better than the official Watch Tower Library. How? Firstly, the Watch Tower Library CD-ROM does not contain any of these books from the 1940s and 1950s. Secondly, the Watch Tower Library is text-only (i.e. no pictures). Thirdly, some have found the search engine on the Watch Tower Library is somewhat crippled, and seems to not find many interesting things. But the search abilities on our Watchtower Book Shelf CD-ROM is practically unstoppable: just open the book with Adobe Acrobat and enter your keyword into the search engine. If that word exists anywhere it will be found. At last, decent keyword searching for Watch Tower literature!
Why start with 1942?
"Why not begin with the releases of 1940, and include the entire decade?" The reason that the decision was made to start with 1942 was primarily that 1942 was the beginning of the "Knorr/Franz" era of Watch Tower leadership.
A secondary reason was to avoid duplication of effort: earlier Watch Tower publications are available on the "Rutherford's Rainbow" CD and other CDs published commercially by Research Applications International, P.O. Box 710022, San Diego, CA 92171. Most of Charles Taze Russell's works are also available from the Bible Students.
This CD is in no way related to either Research Applications International or the Bible Students.
The purpose of the Book Shelf CD-ROM
This distribution is being made for purposes of research, scholarship, teaching, news reporting, commentary or criticism.
*NOT* the Watch Tower Library CD-ROM
Please note that this is not the official Watch Tower Library CD-ROM which is covered by copyright and available only directly from the Watch Tower Society.
Contents
Volume One: Books of the 1940's
- THE NEW WORLD, 1942
- THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE, 1943
- THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND, 1944
- THEOCRATIC AID TO KINGDOM PUBLISHERS, 1945
- EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK, 1946
- LET GOD BE TRUE, 1946
Volume Two: Books of the 1950's
- THIS MEANS EVERLASTING LIFE, 1950
- WHAT HAS RELIGION DONE FOR MANKIND?, 1951
- LET GOD BE TRUE, 1952
- MAKE SURE OF ALL THINGS, 1953
- NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH, 1953
- YOU MAY SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON INTO GOD'S NEW WORLD, 1955
- QUALIFIED TO BE MINISTERS, 1955
- MAKE SURE OF ALL THINGS, REVISED, 1957
- YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, 1958
- FROM PARADISE LOST TO PARADISE REGAINED, 1958
- JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES & THE DIVINE PURPOSE, 1959
SEVENTEEN BOOKS on ONE CD for $19.75 + $5.25 Shipping!**
That is less than you'd pay for just one original hardcopy of some of these rare out of print titles.
**US funds. Shipping charge is “per order”, and includes international shipping worldwide. Orders shipped via First Class Mail.