My newly bound NABRE
For my latest rebinding project, I took
the HarperOne New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) hardcover and had it
transformed it into a genuine leather softcover. While Oxford University Press has produced
some acceptable genuine leather NABREs, there honestly isn’t a NABRE currently
on the market that beats the text presentation of the HarperOne – I mean,
you’ve gotta love the classy red-and-black text, not to mention the fresh
organization of the footnotes and references! – and I think that such a superb layout
deserves a fancy set of “clothes.” Some
of you may remember the article entitled Healing
Catholic “Bible Envy” written this past May by Mickey Maudlin, Senior Vice
President, Executive Editor and Director of Bible Publishing at
HarperCollins. In that piece, while
discussing the merits of the NABRE translation, Mr. Maudlin lauded that the
(then) to-be-released NABRE in black imitation leather was “stunning and should
assuage any Catholic still suffering from Bible envy.” To our misfortune, he was wrong. What we received was a poorly packaged NABRE thinly
disguised as a NRSV Catholic Gift Bible.
Obviously there is plenty of room for improvement when it comes to
HarperOne’s binding and design! While
this rebinding project was clearly meant for my own edification, maybe this
post will further signal to the many Directors of Bible Publishing that there
is a significant and growing segment of Catholics who desire a higher-quality
standard in our Bibles.
On the inside, there was some minor
surgery required. Those of you who own
the Harper NABRE already know about the glossy Presentation and other
Sacramental pages at the front end of the Bible. There is even a photograph of Pope Benedict
XVI. Even as a practicing Catholic, I
find these pages to be largely a waste of space in my Bibles – not to mention
unappealing – so I had them excised. In
their stead, I added four blank note pages to the back of the text block for
general note-taking – which is more than sufficient for my needs. Three 3/8” red ribbon markers were added. I had originally opted for silver ribbon
markers to (again) complement the blue, but then I realized that the white
pages would make the silver seem sort of bland.
I was reluctant to go with the red ribbons since the red, white and blue
might make this seem too much like a patriot’s Bible – especially considering
that this is the New AMERICAN Bible (oy vey!) – but then I realized that the
red(, white) and blue really do complement each other exceptionally well.