CSB Single Column Wide Margin Holman Handcrafted Edition
This bible can be purchased from Lifeway, Amazon, and Christianbook.
I did receive this copy free from Holman in exchange for my honest review and they did not receive a copy before publishing (at least my opinion section).
For full transparency I am publishing just my opinion section first as this took me quite a lot longer than I intended my other sections will be up once I finish them, but I didn’t want this to wait any longer. If you wish to see more details and pictures of this bible before I post there are a number of reviews that have been done of this bible, but thank you for your patience!
My opinion
Positives:
The CSB Single Column Wide Margin of the Holman Handcrafted Collection overall is a wonderful bible. I think viewed in its proper setting it really makes sense, namely as a desk reader for light note-taking. For the price, it is also a wonderful value with many excellent touches. The 36 gsm paper is very opaque with minimal ghosting. While I’ve seen some who don’t like the cover as much, I enjoy that it has a different look and feel than most goatskin. Another great touch is the overcast stitching, which will help increase the longevity of this bible.
One of the first things I noticed when taking it out of the box, was the 10mm ribbons. Which is a much needed improvement from the Verse by Verse. The 7mm ribbons I thought were a tad small for the size of the bible and considering this one is much thicker it became a necessity. I’m a big fan of having rounded spines, especially on larger bibles, which can be hard to find unless you get a bible rebound. I find that they tend to lay a bit flatter. So, I also quickly noticed that after unboxing and it’s a big plus for me to see the SCWM with a rounded spine.
The text size I think is just about perfect. While I’m sure some will want it to be larger, it’s large enough for me while helping keep the thickness manageable so I have been able to travel with it the few times I wanted to. In addition to the font size, Holman using their Bible Serif and being in single column format makes it easy to read for long stretches. Not having references also helps keep distractions down. But the inclusions of the (I believe full) translator notes, while I first thought was a downside I actually came to view as an excellent choice. Since I’ve mainly been using this bible for a kind of hybrid reading where I’m doing some study but in larger chunks, the translator notes are very helpful while still keeping distractions to a minimum.
Regarding the note-taking aspect, while there is more show-through when writing notes (I use a blue Pigma micron 005) it does a better job than any other bible I’ve tried to date. It’s also not distracting when trying to write on the opposite page and both notes are still easily readable. The outside margins are only just over 1 inch thick, so this definitely isn’t a journaling bible. This is fine for me, as I generally only want to jot down a few quick thoughts in my bible and if I want to do some journaling I’ll use my notebook. Also, while the inner margin is a bit tight and not the most useful it does help keep the text out of the gutter and I’ve found it perfect for putting my own cross-references here. For underlining I really have to look for those lines on the other page for them to be visible.
Areas I see for improvement:
The biggest improvement for me would be changing to a left-aligned text. Since this bible seems to be designed for (and how I’ve primarily used it) longer reading periods having justified text makes it tough. While sometimes words are broken with a hyphen to help keep the leading more consistent, I find when words are separated between lines very challenging to follow. My edition does have some cockling, which looking at other reviewers does seem to be common. But fortunately, it’s only audible when opening up the bible initially and not when just turning pages.
Lastly, two very minor complaints. While the paper is very good overall it is a tad white for my liking and I would prefer to see it more in the cream-colored range (like in the Reader’s Set, or on Jongbloed printings from Schuyler and Steadfast). And not so much a complaint but something I’d love to see, recently I noticed that in a Premier Collection NKJV from Thomas Nelson had a note at the very back about how, why, and what they were trying to convey in the font. It was only two short paragraphs but was awesome to see they were linking some heritage of bible translating into the font. I know there is a lot of time, thought, and money that goes into a custom font and it would be great to get a little bit of the story and background with the Bible Serif font.