Note Takers Bible-NASB-Large Print

excellent value

I did a great deal of research before purchasing this Bible. I was looking for a note taking Bible preferably an NASB. I wanted it to be my last Bible purchase.

I almost did not consider this one until reading a lot of user reviews. I was under the assumption that this was one of those study Bibles with a lot of commentary by the person who lent their name to the edition. That is not at all the case. In fact quite the opposite. There are hardly even any reference notes in this edition, which leaves more room for note taking.

THE GOOD:
-Calfskin navy blue cover is outstanding. Very soft. Reasonably pliable. Dark blue is really unique.
-Silver page edging is high quality. My last Foundation Publishing Bible started losing its edging almost immediately.
-Pages are a whole lot thicker than my last Foundation Bible. No comparison in quality. It is even a more attractive slightly cream white color compared to the other Bible. No bleed through when using a .005 micron pen. I would recommend that you use colored pencils to highlight or a similar type highlighter. Ink based ones may bleed.
-Binding is excellent. It will lay flat right out of the box if you open it a quarter of the way or more. I started transferring notes from the other Bible beginning in Genesis and it did not lay open without a little coaxing. It?s fine now after a few weeks of use.
-No reference notes to get in the way of note taking. Reference notes are nice, but I prefer to not have them. The other wide margin Bible I have has notes and they get in the way of the notes I want to take. They also render the wide margins useless sometimes because there are so many translation notations.
-I have seen other reviewers who say their Bible was printed overseas. This one very clearly says that it is printed in the USA.
-Lifetime Warranty. I contacted the publisher about this. They said it is a warranty for any production defects over the lifetime of the Bible, if it is used reasonably. My previous Foundation Bible lost most of the gold page edging almost as soon as I got it. It also had significant bleed through when note taking. These would be covered items with this Bible. The wrinkled pages others talked about should be covered items.

THE BAD:
These are really minor issues that I will mention although they don?t particularly bother me. Others might care.
-Some people might not like the one page endorsement by Charles Stanley in the front of the book. I do not belong to Stanley?s denomination or church body. In fact, he has preached things I respectfully disagree with. But the endorsement is extremely benign and unobtrusive.
-The two flyleaf pages in front and back appear to be glued too far inside the page. Over a quarter inch from the binding they are glued to the next page. I don?t particularly mind this as I don?t use these pages anyway.
-The leather page inside the front and back covers is a bit on the stiff side. This may wear more flexible in time at least I hope so.
-There is the slightest bit of crinkling of pages at the binding. Others have reviewed that this was very pronounced in their Bibles. With my copy it is not so. I see it but it is really not noticeable and not very pronounced. I am assuming that I got fortunate and received a copy that addressed the issue.

I looked at all kinds of Bibles for note taking and even considered having my other Bible repaired at the cost of well over $100. Sure the Cambridge top of the line margin Bible is probably superior. At over twice what I paid for this one (over $200), it should be. Cambridge has a not-quite-top-of-the-line wide margin Bible at around $40 to $60 more than this one, but I was concerned with issues raised by the user reviews and felt that it may not be worth the extra money over this one.

In all, if you want to spend around $100 for a high quality Bible, then this is one to consider.