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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best Ultrathin NIV Bible I've Seen, March 8, 1999
Only a four-star rating for Our Bible? I'm trembling! Actually, this review is mostly about the technical quality of the binding and printing. There's not enough stars in the sky to rate The Word of our Lord.Some saints - and others - prefer a less imposing size for our everyday Bible. There's a point where you need to just read your Bible without distracting footnotes, sidenotes, center cross-notes, and tiny study notes scribbled in wide-margins so that one can impress others. No matter how hard I try, I can barely read one paragraph in one of those bicep-builders before I start delving through the richness, with all of that cross-referencing. A compact Bible for those of us with ADD? It helps build your dependance on the abilities that God blessed you with. Enhances your memory, and returns you to the basis of all inspiration; you, The Word and The Holy Spirit. But finding a good compact Bible can try your patience. This is where the book publisher's art meets it's real test. Binding, paper, typeface and printing quality are all pushed to the max. I don't know how many compact Bibles I've seen where the paper was so translucent that you didn't need to turn the page to read both sides. I really miss my KJV Compact Version - Cambridge - Bible that served me well. It was smaller than this fine version and fit in my jacket pocket nicely. The typeface was large enough to be readable and the quality of paper and printing added to the reading experience. In short, It's size and quality made it easy to always have a Bible handy in my pocket. Twenty years later... Many churches are migrating to the NIV and TEV versions. I've almost given up on finding an acceptable leatherbound and compact TEV. But - IMHO - Holman is publishing the finest NIV Bibles that I've seen. However, it appears that with the recent Holman/Broadman alliance good-taste and quality have slipped a bit. They have a similar size and printing, but there's this kitchy gold border added to the leather binding, that drives me to distraction. Make sure you're getting the Holman version. The primary reason that this "ultrathin" Bible is outstanding from others, is the printing quality and that special typeface that is used. I don't know if this is a proprietary typeface, but I've been searching high and low for it. It's really a milestone in the typographers' art. I first came in contact with it on Holman's Disciple's Study Bible, which any Bible Student should also consider for a reference Bible. A larger x-higth combined with a slightly condensed width make this font a fine balance of readability and compactness (iz that a word). On top of that, it's a gorgeous font. The counterpoise of aesthetics and technical merit here tempts one to forget those tired "form follows function" diatribes. Why four stars? Like I said, I miss my old Cambridge Compact, which had the perfect size. I'm hoping that Holman will produce an even more compact than 9.41 x 6.26 dimensions. It could even be thicker. My hope is that this will happen very soon. Preferably, sometime before He returns. That, little Bible, you will find in my coat pocket, at ALL times.
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