Last month we gave you our thoughts on the new ESV The Literary Study Bible. After a few weeks of delay, customers are finally receiving their personal copies in the mail. Did you get one? What are your initial thoughts on the new study Bible? We’d love to get your feedback in the comments.
But even more broadly, we exist (among other things) to serve you by reviewing the most important Christian books as they are released from publishers. Please use the comments in this post to tell us how we’re doing. How can we better serve you, the reader / book buyer? How can our reviews better explain products? What do we miss?
Any comments or suggestions are valuable to us here at TSS. Thanks for the input!
Tony
Tony Reinke 
hey tony-
first, it was great to see you last week, albeit brief. You remain a constant source of encouragement to me and many others here at OBC.
–my ESV LSB is in the mail. should be here shortly…can’t wait. I did enjoy your review/promotion.
I always enjoy your writing on various books. More than once (Owen, Winslow, Edwards) you have written clearly and struck a nerve with my heart. I also enjoy the thorough nature as well. keep it up.
Hi Tony. Mine is “out for delivery” on the UPS truck today. I am excited!
Erik, thank you my friend for the encouragement. … Erik and Walter, please return and give us your thoughts once the LSB arrives on your doorsteps. Blessings! Tony
i’d be curious to know about the “construction” of the book (i.e. the binding, the paper, durability factors, etc.). though I love the content of my Reformation Study Bible, I’ve found this end of the production to be slightly lacking. i always appreciate that part the reviews on this site. nobody else pays attention to those types of things in their reviews unless they perceive the production to be either highly above or below normal. considering the kind of money that i pour into books, i really want them to last.
Well, I got mine. I am very impressed at the content. It will be my “reading” Bible for the coming year. I am anxious to use the rather unique reading plan in the back. I don’t think there is anything like it. There are background notes in front of most chapters (not just the book intros, but chapter intros as well!). It is also single column which will make for much easier reading in my opinion.
Cameo, the binding seems to be good as far as hardback Bibles go. It doesn’t seem like it would “break” easily as some of my previous hardback Bibles have. As with the single column reference Bible that they brought out earlier this year, I believe the paper is way too thin. It feels like it will tear very easily and I am not sure whether it will hold up to much underlining or note writing. I would gladly give up an extra 1/4-1/2″ in overall thickness of the book to get thicker paper. But then again, it is, in my opinion, primarily a reading Bible, not a note taking Bible. I did, however, feel like I had to be very careful turning pages when looking through it last night so that I didn’t tear them.
I am glad I bought it and am looking forward to using it and the reading plan starting in January.
A nice thing I noticed about the binding was that it will lay flat (I tried Genesis 1 and Revelation 22. I was happy about this (some hardbacks are hard to keep open).
The paper is off white. The inside margin (1/2 an inch) is narrower than the outside margin (9/8ths of an inch). The top and bottom margins are about 1/2 an inch.
No concordance. The text edition is 2007 which you would expect.
The verse numbers are nice and small which is nice when you just want to read.
No ribbon.
I like the single column format with paragraphs. So far I feel a need for a brighter light I think due to the off-white paper but perhaps it is the slightly smaller font (than in my old single column esv).
Yes, you are right Darrel. The paper is off white and added to a smaller text size lighting becomes an important factor in reading it. The paper color reminds me of the ESV journaling Bible (for those of you familiar with that). Good overall build and I like the margins, big enough for my Pigma Micron 005 pens. Me likes it. T