NASB Wide Margin Reference Bible, Black, Genuine Leather, 2020 text

I am a happy camper with this Bible. I have been looking for a decent wide margin Bible for some time and came across this. For twenty something dollars this is quite the bargain.I recently bought a HCSB journaling Bible with nice 2" wide margins for notes. A very decent Bible but the problem with it was it was essentially unreadable with a teeny-tiny 6-7 point font size. What's the use of a note taking study Bible if you can't read the text? Needless to say I sent it right back.There are other journaling/note taking Bibles out there but pretty much most of them use similar itsy bitsy text. (BTW, Amazon isn't very good at showing print samples of Bible pages so I recommend going to ChristianBook_dot_com which does a great job of offering excerpt samples.) Fortunately, I ran across this little gem.My thoughts about this Bible:1) Excellent readable text at a perfect 10 point font size. Also, the text is not compressed or condensed so appears larger to the eye. Makes for a great reading Bible.2) Helpful margins with 1" of blank space for notes. Decent enough but would have preferred 1.5".3) Imitation leather is adequate and supple enough. Keeps the price down.4) Some people have complained about the thinness of the paper. Thin paper causes bleed through/ghosting so you see the text on the other side of the page or sometimes even the next page(s). It does definitely muddy the clarity of the text on the page. I was expecting something really bad but looking at it, it seems tolerable. I've seen worse. Also, almost all of today's Bibles have some amount of "bleed through" (even much more expensive ones) since thin Bibles are the rage. I'd personally always choose thicker paper if I had the option but I can live with this.5) I am not really an NASB man. I would prefer the NSRV, NET or HCSB in that order. But that said, the NASB is a decent form equivalent (literal) translation. It got the knock for being excessively wooden when it first came out but the subsequent revision in 1995 definitely helped its readability. The NASB, I would say, is a very suitable translation for study.6) No red letter thankfully. I could get into the philosophy of that but just let me say in practical terms, the red lettering rarely matches up fully with the black in many Bibles. Also, red sometimes turns into a dark pink in patches of red letter Bibles and hard to read. The NASB's black text looks very consistent and provides very good contrast.If you are in the market for a note taking Bible I would say this is great for the money. Unless you have the gift of being able to read teensy small print, there really aren't that many choices currently. Hopefully Bible publishers will see the need to make versions of their Bibles more suitable for study and note taking for older readers and in time, we will have more to choose from.

I did a lot of research and consideration before buying this, and I'm very happy I did buy this.I wanted a NASB 2020 with a good leather cover, a large print with nice typesetting, printed on a nice paper, and I couldn't afford a premium Bible at the time.The Lockman NASB 2020 Wide Margin Reference in Genuine Leather fulfills those requirements VERY well.The cover is a nice flexible piece of cowhide leather.The lining and construction is a nice, quality paste-down synthetic.The typesetting is the beautiful, large, 10pt single-column reference typesetting produced by Schuyler Bibles as the Stridon.I prefer the Lockman version though, which is a single tone without the red accents.One of the reasons I chose this over the Side Column Reference is that the verse numbers are printed in the same font as the Scripture text. The modern, non-serif font used in Lockman's other editions just seems discordant to me.As for the paper, the Wide Margin Reference is printed on a wider page of 32gsm Korean paper. It seems a bit more opaque than the 28gsm in the Stridon, and also provides a wider margin.Other than that, the spine has a nice convex curve which results in a concave curve on the fore-edge of the pages. The ribbons are very nice for a less expensive Bible, two broad ribbons with a satin-like finish. The maps are nice too.I happily recommend this Bible.

First, I was a bit apprehensive about buying after reading reviews stating that the pages are thin and see through... and it's true! They are thin- BUT it's really not that bad at all.. maybe if your used to reading a 200$ Bible it would probably bother you... but if your just looking for a nice Bible for a good price, this is it! I attached a picture comparing this Bible to another in the same price range. If anything, the pages feel more delicate and I'm not too delicate...This was one of the only cheaper single column Bibles I could find. Plus it's bigger print and easier to me to read, as I'm not an advanced reader. So the layout really helps me, specially early morning reading. I have really been struggling with reading my other (pictured) Bible, smaller print and small columns... and esv was a bit harder to read, specially early in the morning when just waking up. So this Bible has really brought a lot of joy back to reading, since it's easier and helps me read better!If your apprehensive due to the thin pages- and you normally read $50 (or less) Bibles- you'll probably not really notice much difference! At 40$ for a sewn binding and real leather - it's a deal! It feels nice to hold, carry and read! And it lays flat!!

I have been looking for a bible to accompany my NIV, ESV, and KJV. This is well-written and easy to understand I like the single collum and layout. The only thing I would add is Jesus' words in red. All the text is black letter. Other than that, I enjoy reading this version. The test is large enough for these old eyes to see easily.