A lot of thrift store bookshelves are downright depressing: rows of cracked spines and garish mass-market paperbacks from yesteryear. But I came across this little volume in one, and my spirits were buoyed. It's the NIV New Testament in a format obviously designed for outreach (you can tell because of all the clip-art people, who send the subliminal message that "this book is for everyone").
Yesterday's attempts at relevance often fail to stand the test of time, but when I opened this paperback, a wave of nostalgia overwhelmed me. It's a single column setting, as you can see:
What's more, it's illustrated:
Now why do you suppose the text in this edition is made to look like the inside of any other book? That's easy. The designers wanted it to look accessible ... readable. Who wouldn't want that, right? And yet, most editions of the Bible get this wrong. They aren't designed for reading; they're designed for looking up verses. In the church, we're so accustomed to this arrangement -- it's been like this for five hundred years or so, after all -- that it seems natural to us. But if they put out a new edition of The Shack with super-small, double-column type, dividing the text up into numbered phrases and starting a new paragraph for each one, that quick read might not be so quick anymore. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Yeah, and I especially love the old NEB NT's for the perfectly designed single-column no-numbers-in-the-text format. So nice. And likewise, I also enjoy watching living animals far more than the dissected ones with the numbered diagrams in science class. I don't want to read a dissected Bible as much as an in-tact one. Animal dissection reminds me of another annoyance: some people might like the fact that no matter what page they are on in their Bibles they can look right down and read, "Calfskin Leather" shining forth in the glory of gold foil and searing their retinas, but it is the equivalent of those stupid notification windows that pop up in windows which say obvious things like, "You have plugged a device in to the headphone jack," with the implied, "You're such a big boy now." Except for I can't click the stupid notification about genuine leather and make it turn off. That reminds me: one last rant. I just purchased one of those Moleskine-like little tNIV's which is really nice, but what's with the luxuriously imprinted-in-metallic-foil ISBN number on the back cover? It doesn't even have anything on the front cover, but a metallic ISBN number on the back... this thing takes class to a whole new level. Why not an imprinted barcode too? Oh, and one of those little tabs that extends off the top of other products that has the Kermit-the-frog-retina-shaped hole so that the product can be hung on the racks. With the other things Bible manufacturers add, I'm surprised every Bible doesn't have one of those sewn permanently to the top of the leather. But all ranting aside, if you haven't checked out one of the "Noteworthy" tNIV's they are great. Much more Moleskine-like than the ESVs and they have just the right amount of text per line in the single column-format.
Posted by: Casey gorsuch | August 19, 2008 at 01:58 AM
"The Great News"? Wonder if this was meant as a competitor to the Good News Bible? The illustrations would certainly suggest so.
Posted by: Andrew | August 19, 2008 at 05:42 AM
Glad to see a fellow thrifter! You can find all kinds of things.
Posted by: Alan | August 19, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Casey--I have an Oxford RSV with the gold foil ISBN. While we might expect such enhancements on an NIV Bible, Oxford stamping it on the venerable RSV takes things to a whole new level. That said, I discovered years ago that foil stamping can normally be removed with rubbing alcohol. Handy if you don't want that really nice imitation leather Bible advertising to the world that you're a cheapskate (particularly if you're like me and only bought the imitation leather edition because you know that Oxford's genuine leather sucks).
Posted by: Heather | August 19, 2008 at 03:18 PM
These were hot in the late 1970s. We used to buy cases of them to hand out at college because they were inexpensive and the translation was considered great, both in terms of fidelity and in terms of readability. The NIV was then a really hot translation in evangelical circles - all of the "issues" came later. It's fun to see this, but the bindings weren't great even when new and I bet few have survived. Thanks for bringing this back to us!
Posted by: J. Newell | August 19, 2008 at 04:35 PM
Rubbing alcohol? I just might try that on this. I don't think it'll hurt the bonded "leather" any more than washing off a car tire.
Posted by: Casey gorsuch | August 19, 2008 at 05:09 PM
Speaking of finding Bibles by serendipity: I recently found a nifty edition of the NKJV. It's hardback, red, two columns per page, words of Christ in red (unfortunately) and measures approximately 6" x 4". Although there are two columns per page, the font size is large enough for comfortable reading. It's published by Thomas Nelson, and was in its 3rd printing by 2007. I couldn't find an ISBN number but these two numbers appear on the back: 9780718015596 and 1652BG.
As I said, the font size is large enough for my 55-year-old eyes to read it comfortably; yet the entire Bible is small enough to be portable. Now, if only the ESV came like this!
Posted by: Richard Zuelch | August 19, 2008 at 09:06 PM
Richard- the longer of those 2 numbers you found is an ISBN. I have an NLT in the Compact Large Print. Best size font for a small Bible that I have seen. I actually did some analysis of taking that particular size font and applying it to the personal ESV single-column. I concluded it would have thickened the PS ESV about 50% as I recall. Some like the thinness but A thicker version with better font would have been better for me.
Posted by: Rod Summers | August 20, 2008 at 02:57 AM
Casey | I've written about the single-column NEB here before, and I have to agree. It's probably my favorite overall layout of all time. I have the Noteworthy TNIV on my shelf now, waiting for a moment to try it out. From what I can tell it seems great, though I haven't written in it yet to be sure the paper's up to the challenge. Still, the fact that this TNIV abandons the shiver-inducing font of so many other US editions is a thrill. When I originally pitched what became the Journaling ESV, I took an NT in one hand and a Moleskine in the other and squeezed them together -- basically, "put this (NT insides) into that (Moleskine outside)." In the end, they decided to do the entire text, to add wide margins, etc., so it was no longer a pocket-sized proposition. The Noteworthy is pocket-sized and leaving every other page blank gives it a note-taking capability I originally hadn't envisioned (I imagined carrying my Moleskine NT side-by-side with a Moleskine notebook instead). More on all this anon.
Posted by: J. Mark Bertrand | August 22, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Mark - thanks for the reply. I've been using the TNIV Noteworthy now for a while and it is great. And it even tops Moleskines in one very important way (for me at least): the elastic band on the spine to hold a pencil/pen. I wish all my Moleskines had this feature! Although it would be better if the two bands were closer together. I like the off-white paper on the ESV better but these TNIVs top them in quality in every other way. My ESV (and I love the ESV) had a cover material that became unglued within a week. But this TNIV just feels totally different, much more solid.
I'm going to credit you with this Moleskine-like Bible trend. Now get someone to make a small red one. :)
Posted by: Casey | August 24, 2008 at 02:10 AM