CSB Reader’s Set
This bible can be purchased from Lifeway, Amazon, and Christianbook.
Table of contents
My opinion
Binding, outer design, and sizing
Typography, layout, and design
Extras
My Opinion
Positives:
The CSB Reader’s set is wonderful. It is great for longer and/or distraction free reading. I love almost all of the aesthetics of it. The slipcase is angled so it is easy to pull each volume out, it’s a small touch but it’s wonderful. Most reader’s sets are quite difficult to pull out each volume so quite often I leave one out. But this makes it so much easier to always put it back. The color scheme is wonderful, and I love the cloth-over-board and its colorful liners are beautiful. The paper is amazing, it's so great to read the Bible on something so opaque and wonderful to turn the pages, I believe it is 100gsm.
Quite possibly the thing I love most, is the text is left aligned and not justified which makes the text so much easier to read. I’m a big proponent of left aligned text as it keeps proper spacing between words and letters. There have also been studies done that it’s easier to track your place when moving to the next line since there is a distinction and they aren’t all the same length. With the focus is on the text and distraction free reading there are still the book and chapter numbers at the bottom of the page so it’s still easy to reference where you are in case you want to find the same verse in another bible.
Areas I see for improvement:
Because the paper is so thick, I'd really like to see it split into more volumes. Ideally at least 8 to try and keep each volume to around 300 pages, give or take. Some of the volumes are too thick and it's hard to keep the pages open or hold it in one hand. Also, because it's a reader's set I think there are some formatting things that could be changed. I think changing the order of the books is a good thing like the NIV Sola Scriptura or Immerse: The Reading Bible that would make the flow a lot better. Also, while I do like the look of having the first letter of a new chapter bold, large, and in blue, because some of the chapter breaks are at odd places I'd really love to see where chapters are completely ignored (except for referencing at the bottom of the page) to really make the reading flow even better. Something similar to what Immerse: The Reading Bible does would be great to see as I think they’ve hit the sweet spot in formatting throughout a bible.
Binding, outer design, and sizing
The CSB Reader’s Bible is a wonderful set that has the Bible split into five volumes. The volumes are split into; Pentateuch, Historical, Poetry, Prophets, and New Testament. They are all bound in a grey-ish cloth-over-board and in a slipcase that is angle cut. On the spine each volume has three small hubs and in gold has stamped from top to bottom “Christian Standard Bible”, small squares (almost like a dot system) indicating which volume it is, the name of the volume, and “Holman”. The front cover only has the same squares as the spine also stamped in gold. On the inside it is smyth-sewn with a paper paste down liner. The paste down paper does have a nice chevron-like design. The binding is fairly stiff but does seem to be loosening up over time with use.
The dimensions and weights are:
Cover
Height: 815/16"
Width: 513/16”
Thickness: ranging from 11/4” to 113/16”
Text block
Height: 81/2”
Width: 53/8”
Thickness: ranging from 15/16” to 15/8"
Total weight: 11 lbs 6 oz
Typography, layout, and design
While there’s no mention on the publication page of the typeface as the single volume Reader’s Bible uses Bible Serif designed by 2KDenmark I believe the Reader’s Set uses this as well. The size of the typeface is comfortable to read and there is good leading and line spacing. The text is black letter but, like most CSB’s, does bold the font for Old Testament quotes in the New Testament. Each new chapter starts with a drop cap blue letter. The blue is also used for the book title and the name of the book and chapter on each page located lower right-hand corner. Personally I love the color of this blue and think it pairs well with the cream colored paper.
For layout the biggest thing I want to point out is the text left aligned and not justified. So there is a “ragged” right edge. This creates equal leading between each word, where justified text can create large and inconsistent gaps. Each book of the Bible starts with the title on its own page always on the right-hand page. Then on the following right-hand page is where the text starts. There are no chapter numbers, verse numbers, cross-references, or footnotes. Just the text laid out. Though the is a notation in on the outer edge of the bottom part of the page to indicate what chapters are on the page. There is plenty of margin room on all sides, but not excessive. There’s an average of about 12 words per line. Each page as mentioned before has the chapters that are being read from along with the page numbers. The text is in single-column format with poetry set in stanza, though at times it’s tough to tell since there are plenty of words per line a second line is rarely needed.
Extras
To start there are a couple intro pages stating it is the “CSB Reader’s Bible” and which volume split by the publication page. Which indicates a copyright and printing of 2019 with the 2017 text and that it was printed in China. Followed by a one-page intro to the Christian Standard Bible. Lastly there is a one-page table of contents before getting into the text. Following the last book in the edition there is only one page of blank card stock before the first half of the paste down liner.