Single Column Journaling Bible: English Standard Version, Black, Original Hardcover – Large Print, July 29, 2016

If you write in your Bible, I don't know if it gets any better than this. Know that it is strictly a journaling Bible. There are no cross references, etc. But there is plenty of room to put your own. This is an excellent Bible for preacher and Bible class teachers. To have your notes on the same page as the text is amazing. I am a full-time preacher and after using many Bibles this has been my favorite to preach and teach from. The extra large text makes it so easy to read from. The elastic band is also an underestimated feature. I have been hard on some of my Bibles and books in the past, unmeaningly so. When you carry your Bible with you as much as I do, it seems to inevitably get beat up and opened, etc. With this band to keep your hardbound book closed, it eliminates the necessity for some case/covering. This is very convenient for me as a preacher who has used Bible book coverings in the past but is no fun to deal with when trying to preach from a pulpit. It also looks a little bit tacky. This limits that problem drastically.I have lots of software and books and may make a transition when I can afford to buy a tablet or Ipad that I can type notes in. Until I can afford that and until the software is better, this will be my go to.

I think I’ve finally found the perfect Bible for me. I lost my worn, tattered, beloved thinline Bible a couple years ago, and I’ve been trying to find a good replacement ever since. I’ve been journaling for most of my life, and love the idea of a Bible with wide margins. However, I’ve been frustrated with the very tiny fonts for journaling Bibles currently available in stores and online. As soon as this came up on my Amazon feed, I pre-ordered it and received it in July. After a month of testing it out, here are my thoughts:The larger font and cream-colored paper are very easy on the eyes for late night reading.I love the generous margins for notes (hooray!), and the light grey lines don't distract from the text.Note-taking areas are just that – open areas with lines – with no other decoration, ornamentation, etc. (Artsy people might prefer something different but I love this set-up.)Hard cardboard cover really helps with note-taking (giving a more stable surface to write on), and it lays fairly flat.The paper is rather thin. Printed text “ghosts” somewhat through the page. ZeeBrite highlighters and Pentel (ballpoint) pens also show through.The cover easily shows fingerprints, etc. and seems to be easily scratched (showing white cardboard beneath).Even with the few minor issues I noted, I absolutely love this bible, and so glad I purchased it. Looking forward to having it with me for years to come.

This is a WONDERFUL bible! It is absolutely beautiful and everything I wanted my journaling bible to be. Many hours of reading, reflecting, and journaling are going to be done in this bible for years to come.

I really love this bible. Great quality, good space to write your comments or drawing. Pages hold my tracing nicely. So far no problems with them breaking when I use my eraser (and I use it a lot! lol). I thought the yellowish color on the pages would throw me off, but it doesnt. It's that bad. I would buy again.

Let me preface this review by saying that I love the ESV. I like it for its literalness, its elegance, and its reliability. I preach from a two-column Trutone ESV every Sunday. I made sure that our church bought an ESV pulpit Bible to replace the previous pulpit Bible (an NRSV) when that began falling apart. My battle-worn ESV Study Bible (with a taped-on front cover and taped-in pages) is my go-to Bible. So I love the ESV! In fact, I've bought copies of the Study Bible for all three of my children. But I've only recently discovered the joy of Bible journaling, and the Study Bible and my preaching Bible don't have adequate margins for it. (Plus the pages are too thin.)And here's where those of us who prefer the ESV are at a disadvantage: Crossway doesn't seem to understand what people like me want in a journaling Bible! If only I preferred the NIV, for example, I would have many more options!First, I ordered the standard journaling Bible, and the 7.5 point print was uncomfortably small. At that size, why not make it a sans serif font for better readability (as in the margin comments of the ESV Study Bible)? It wouldn't be as "pretty," but at least it would be more comfortable for reading. So I returned it and got this large print edition, whose type size (at 9 or 9.5 point) is O.K., but hardly "large" by any stretch. And it's not like the margins for note-taking are any larger! Why does Crossway assume that we journaling Bible customers want a _small_ Bible, even for note-taking or journaling. Personally speaking, I would prefer its width and length be a few inches larger (and thicker) if it meant more space for writing.And this brings me to my larger complaint: I HATE the ruled lines. Hate, hate, hate! First, they constrain me to write smaller than I prefer to write. Can anyone write comfortably inside those narrow lines? Second, they're DARK lines—not even faint or dashed lines—so writing diagonally across the lines or drawing arrows or circles is out of the question. Third, in poetic sections of scripture, there's often a lot of empty space between the end of a line of text and the beginning of the ruled line. I would love to write in that empty space, but, no... because my writing needs to align with those dark ruled lines on the edge of the margin!Do you see what I mean? What would be wrong with large BLANK margins—on all sides? In fact, I would prefer double-columned text with large margins on both the left and the right of the page to a single column. But again, Crossway doesn't give us that option. I can't be the only customer out there who wants this, can I?Finally, the pages are still too thin to avoid ink bleed-through, even when you use fine-tipped pens.I should have returned this Bible, too, but I didn't know how much of a deal-breaker those ruled lines would be until I started writing in it.Does anyone else share my concerns? Have you found an edition of the ESV that solves this problem? Please let me know. I'm holding out hope for an upcoming "Preaching Bible" that's on Crossway's website. But it isn't due until 2019. 🙁