Timothy,
I have been reading your blog for a few years now and always find so much helpful information and advice. I really am in need of your help; I'm looking into buying a Bible for my boyfriend on his birthday, but finding an edition he can use will be difficult.
He has macular degeneration, so his eyesight is very poor, and he will need large print or giant print to avoiding reading it without strain, or needing a light. He also wants a Bible translation that is easy to read—I have not shown him the RSV2CE yet, but he was pleased with the NABRE and NRSV for readability. He grew up in an orphanage run by Baptists who only used the KJV, so he has never read the Bible due to archaic language barriers; any "thees" and "thous" will be off-putting. He is Catholic however, and we are looking for a Catholic Bible.
His only other request is that the Bible paper be "not too flimsy." He likes thicker paper, and even though the larger print in the NRSV from Harper worked very well for him, he didn't want it because of the pages. I have yet to find a Bible whose pages are not "Bible paper," and that may be something he will have to deal with.
Do you have any suggestions?
7 comments:
Cambridge has an edition of the NRSV with 18 point type in a single column format. It's spread across four volumes. The paper might still be too thin because despite the large size of each volume there's only 23 lines of large text on each page. Also, it does not seem to be available in a Catholic-specific edition.
Or, you might consider Cambridge's lectern edition of the NRSV, and there is an edition with the Apocrypha but not one specifically Catholic. 11 point type, and it's a fairly large hard cover book, either wrapped in imitation leather or in goatskin. Sadly, the cost is likely prohibitive.
Perhaps then your best all-around option in the NRSV line might be the NRSV XL Catholic Edition from HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062061706, hard cover, retails for $30 but can be found online for $20, approximately 12 point type, and the paper is not especially thick (frankly, almost no one publishes Bibles on thick paper these days).
All 3 of these options use the Anglicized text, so there are various spelling differences and occasionally different words.
Catholic Book Publishing Company has some large print bibles in the New American Bible-Revised Edition translation. They are carried at just about all Catholic bookstores, as well as usually at Barnes & Noble. Their larger ones are large type, but not sure if it will be large enough.
If his eyesight continues to decline you might think about a $79 Kindle with type that expans extremely. Or an audio version.
I have the giant print NABRE from Catholic Book Publishing, it has size 14 font and the paper has minimal bleed through. Every large or giant print Bible that I have owned has pretty thin paper, to make a giant print Bible that isn't so gigantic that you can't hand hold it takes thin paper. Another choice is the Oxford large print Bible (which my main Bible), the font size is 12.
I have a lady that was in my Bible study class, and even with the giant print Bible she had to put her face almost on the page to read it. I showed her my kindle and enlarged the print size, she was very excited because she could read it without strain, she bought one.
I have these two on Kindle. The first is the NABRE and the other is the NRSV Catholic Edition:
http://www.amazon.com/Catholic-New-American-Bible-Revised-ebook/dp/B0054SLCOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415757753&sr=1-1&keywords=nabre+various+authors
http://www.amazon.com/NRSV-Catholic-Bible-Harper-Bibles-ebook/dp/B003YUCEGQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415757834&sr=1-1&keywords=nrsv+catholic+bible
This NRSV Catholic Edition is non-Anglicized. You can turn the font size way up on these devices. Hope this helps.
http://www.ignatius.com/IProducts/23890/ignatius-bible--large-print-edition.aspx
Hi,
I just bought the Ignatious Catholic Study Bible, New Testament, Second Catholic Edition RSV, and it is 10 x 7 inches in size. It is only the New Testament, but it seems like a Bible because the paper is kind of thick. It is not a very large print, but I think is bigger than the ordinary size. I bought it in Barnes and Noble. I am very pleased with the quality of the book.
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