Hello everyone!
A few months back, I found a thrift store bible that has quickly become one of my most used. It's a leather-bound KJV 'pocket bible' with a snap closure, published by Zondervan. Here's what I love about it:
That brings me to the root of my questions for this thread: I would love to give a bible like this to my teen children as a high quality 'every day carry' bible that will last. However, the closest two options I've seen are the ESV personal size (no flap) or the NKJV 'Chequebook' bible. I've handled the NKJV chequebook, and it is pretty tall to stick in a pocket, plus the magnet didn't handle going in and out of pocket as well - it wouldn't always hold securely as the bible moved in-and-out of a pocket, so doesn't bode as well for longevity as a snap closure.
Is anyone aware of any small, flap-closed, leather bindings on the market currently? My preference for a new bible would be ESV or potentially NKJV, but would consider other options.
The best option might be to rebind an ESV personal size, but I don't love the thickness of that text block - I'd prefer to shrink the font size and margins to reduce the text block thickness to 1" max.
I'm also open to exploring manufacturing / publishing a Bible like this... but that would be a significant endeavour. I enjoy this little bible so much that I have to imagine others would as well, and so this path would bear at least some due diligence to see if it's feasible.
A few months back, I found a thrift store bible that has quickly become one of my most used. It's a leather-bound KJV 'pocket bible' with a snap closure, published by Zondervan. Here's what I love about it:
- Leather-bound - I expect this bible is almost 50 years old (published ~1976?), and has stood up incredibly well.
- Verse-by-verse (my preference, but not a deal breaker)
- Black-letter (strong preference)
- The snap closure does so much to protect the text block. It's a must-have feature for a pocket bible to me.
- It's super portable - the size makes it fit into pants or jacket pockets easily. The smooth leather binding does a great job of protecting the pages, and doesn't 'catch' on any fabric.
- It's smaller (3.75"W * 5.5"H * 7/8"T) than the pictured ESV compact bible (4.5"W * 6.75"H * 7/8"T). The ESV pocket bible is similarly sized to mine (though I believe significantly thicker), but misses the snap closure.
- Text is small, but very readable.
- The binding lays flat at almost any page. Some other small bibles I've used require a hand to hold them open - you can't just put them down on a surface in front of you and expect them to stay open.
That brings me to the root of my questions for this thread: I would love to give a bible like this to my teen children as a high quality 'every day carry' bible that will last. However, the closest two options I've seen are the ESV personal size (no flap) or the NKJV 'Chequebook' bible. I've handled the NKJV chequebook, and it is pretty tall to stick in a pocket, plus the magnet didn't handle going in and out of pocket as well - it wouldn't always hold securely as the bible moved in-and-out of a pocket, so doesn't bode as well for longevity as a snap closure.
Is anyone aware of any small, flap-closed, leather bindings on the market currently? My preference for a new bible would be ESV or potentially NKJV, but would consider other options.
The best option might be to rebind an ESV personal size, but I don't love the thickness of that text block - I'd prefer to shrink the font size and margins to reduce the text block thickness to 1" max.
I'm also open to exploring manufacturing / publishing a Bible like this... but that would be a significant endeavour. I enjoy this little bible so much that I have to imagine others would as well, and so this path would bear at least some due diligence to see if it's feasible.
