"Guys Slimline Bible (NLT)" by Tyndale House Publishers (book review)

The “Guys Slimline Bible, New Living Translation” is a nice, sleek Bible that would make for a great gift…especially with graduations approaching.  Here’s what it’s like:

General Description – overall, this Bible’s appearance is very classy!

Cover: two-tone (black and blue) leather – very nice, very manly.

Dimensions: approximately 7/8” thick (x)  5-5/8” wide (x) 8” tall

Weight: approximately 1 pound

Binding: The exterior binding has black, subdued imprint of “HOLY BIBLE”.

Text Font: Lucerna, according to the copyright information page.

Font size: approximately 10 point (I couldn’t figure it out exactly, but it’s a tad small.  It’s not

TOO small that it strains my eyes, but it’s not children’s book font size, either.

Column widths: There are two columns per page, and each column measures approximately 2-3/16” wide.

Red Letter edition: meaning that all of Jesus’s spoken words are in easy-to-find red letters.

There is a single, blue, nylon page marker attached to the binding.

The Bible I received arrived in a slip-in cardboard cover, which would make for easy gift-wrapping.

The exterior of the pages are all glossy silver tipped.

General Contents

Aside from all the legal pages and book index is an introduction to how the New Living Translation was derived.  It provides a nice, concise history that may prove interesting/beneficial to some.  Others will probably skip right past it.

This Bible does not contain any lengthy footer commentaries.  That can be good OR bad, depending how you look at it.  However, it does contain some brief cross references in the page footers.

The back of the Bible contains a “Dictionary/Concordance” and a couple neat features that I like: “Great Chapters of the Bible” and “Great Verses of the Bible to Memorize”.  This gives someone who might be a new or young believer a place to start in their studies or memorization.

For those who are interested in reading through the Bible in a year, this one contains a 365-Day Reading Plan in the back as well.

Finally, the color maps are last in this Bible.  The coolest map of all (in my opinion) is the one titled, “Ministry of Jesus”.  In that map, key interactions (and locations) of Jesus that we find in the pages of scripture are plotted on the map by a single letter, which are then crossed referenced back to the chapter/verse account narrative in the sidebar.  So, if you were to look at just the map and put your finger on Bethsaida, you’d find the letter “H”.  In the sidebar, the “H” then reads, “Bethsaida: (1) possible location of feeding of multitudes (Mt 14:13-21…); (2) blind man healed (Mk 8:22-26).  I thought this was a REALLY great idea!

Price: The book sleeve/cover lists this Bible at $24.99

Rating: I give this one 4 stars.  I really like it, but didn’t fall in LOVE with it.  I like the NLT (It’s not my preferred version, but that’s a debatable issue), it’s sharp for a young man (it’s not a girly-looking Bible), and its contents are very simple.

Disclaimer: I received this Bible free of charge from the Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for my unbiased review of it.  All opinions are mine.