The Bible (Penguin Classics)

Nearly three years after buying this paperback Bible, it is still my favorite version to read. Expensive is not always best, especially in this case. I love the readability of the paragraph format; God's word now reads like a normal book instead of a dissected piece of manuscript. I find the formatting especially invaluable for reading many chapters at a time. Inconspicuous verse markings, well-suited divisions into paragraphs, as well as quotation marks around dialogue all help give the reader a much better sense of the context of the passage.The substantial margins on the outside edges of the text are highly useful for annotations, especially since they are not cluttered with other information. I love to underline and make notes in this Bible, firstly due to the available space, and secondly since the Bible costs so little. The incredibly low price makes me not at all afraid to make notes on it, drink tea with it, and take it on the road with me, since, if by some misfortune I would misplace it, another copy would surely be in order!True, some information which is typically supplied in a King James Version will not be found. There are no marginal notes, page headings, or other marginal references. But for me, these all work to its advantage. The absence of these features make it a highly readable Bible, not a study Bible. My study Bible is still handy when I need access to other such information. I have actually enjoyed discovering inter-scriptural references and making my own page headings in the absence of these features.Without a doubt, this well-formatted version of the King James Bible is a job well done by David Norton. Anyone who is preparing to read the Bible through from cover-to-cover will surely appreciate this highly readable version.

This edition of the King James Version (Authorised Version) of the bible is a pleasure to handle. It is printed on white paper that is thick enough to minimise the amount of bleed-through of print from pages sharing the same sheet. It is a well bound paperback, not sewn in signatures but still well bound. The book is surprisingly heavy but in a way that adds to the pleasure of handling it.There are some things missing(1) it does not have chapter summaries at the top of each chapter - these summaries are common in good KJV editions.(2) it doesn't include the marginal notes from the KJV translators.But there are some nice features(1) it has a good introduction(2) it has interesting notes at the end of the volume - these notes are similar to book introductions for each of the books of the KJV(3) it has the text set out in paragraphs on a single column which in my opinion enhances the pleasure of reading the volume.If you like marking passages this edition will suit you well because of the quality of the paper.If you want a bible that includes everything that the KJV translators translated (except for the marginal notes with alternate translations) this is the bible for you.The price is very good; $10.88 (as at 4th-April-2008).This review is for the book with ISBN-10: 0141441518Five stars is well deserved.

The two Kindle Bibles associated with the David Norton edition of the Penguin Classics Bible are not this particular Bible.One (99-cent edition) is a generic KJV Bible without the specific renderings the Norton Bible has.The other is a Catholic translation of the New Testament only.Now the real review of the paperback book--I have this book and I like it with only a couple minor issues.Issue #1 -- It is not 100% exactly a reconstruction of the original translators' manuscript to the printer before all the printer errors crept in over the centuries. This reconstruction has some modernizing of the text to make it more current English in some places, such as changing "mine" to "my" and the like. On the other hand, though, some modernizing might be unavoidable. Some English spellings from that time period are no longer used and may be confusing to us, thus a reason for some modernizing.Issue #2 -- It does not show in italics the supplied words not part of the greek or hebrew text to make the text a little more complete.Otherwise, a great book to enjoy.

This is a review of the physical features of this Bible, not David Norton's freshly prepared edition of the Authorized Version, or the various canonical debates surrounding the Apocrypha.PROS:I love most of what Penguin Classics puts out. I also am an avid believer in single column Bibles, especially over the usual KJV "verse-per-paragraph" setting. This Bible (bulky, yes, but it's a BIBLE) is a great value for the price. It offers a clean, readable text setting on relatively opaque paper, and for a typical (non-textual-scholar) Bible reader, it performs even a bit higher than the price point would lead you to expect. The best part of the Bible, though, is that if it gets lost or damaged, the cost to replace it is relatively negligible.CONS:The binding is nothing special, and will wear out relatively quickly if read with regularity. The page glue will begin to weaken and pages will start falling out. But again, the price point more than makes up for this in my opinion. Also, the inclusion of the Apocrypha does add to the bulk, but any Bible, let's face it, is going to be a bulky book, unless you want microscopic text and/or onion skin paper.