3. New American Standard Giant Print Reference Bible

New American Standard Bible: Giant Print Reference Bible. God. 2004/1995. Foundation Publications. 2000 pages. [Best guess on page numbers] Source: Gift. 

First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I first read the NASB Giant Print Reference Bible in 2016. I can't find proof on my blog or GoodReads. But I *know* I finished it cover to cover. 

The NASB is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite translations.

I decided to use the Giant Print edition of the NASB to experiment with the Professor Horner Bible Reading plan in 2021. Today, April 6, 2021, I finished reading this Bible cover to cover. Now, some books of the Bible I've read three times. Some twice. Some once. I'll include photos below to share my madness.

• I love the size of the giant print. It is 14 point font. 
• It is double column. I am neither single column only or double column only. I think their are pros and cons to both. I think a giant print single column Bible would be bulkier, for sure!
• It is red letter. I wish I could live in a world that was black letter only. But since that isn't possible, I'm glad that the font size was large enough and the red dark enough that it wasn't too bothersome.
• I honestly don't know why this is advertised as a reference Bible. There are a few references (a couple) at the end of some paragraphs. There are no references in the center column, the side, or the bottom. For a so-called "reference" Bible there are very few references. (I personally don't care about the references, I am here ONLY for the giant print.)
• The book introductions are in the back of the Bible. I would NEVER EVER EVER have thought of looking for them there! It wasn't until I read the product description on Christianbook.com that I realized this one even had book introductions.
• There is a concordance--a little over a hundred pages of a concordance.
• There are maps. (I don't care about maps personally).
• There are a few family pages. (Again, not what I personally look for in a Bible, but they're there all the same.)
• There is ONE lone ribbon marker.

My biggest complaint with this one is the GHOSTING of the pages. Ideally the only ghost in the Bible is the HOLY GHOST. Unfortunately, the paper is so thin that one could read two perhaps three pages of text at a time. I really wish that bleed through wasn't an issue for any Bible. It seems that it's impossible almost to escape. Publishers can try to line match. Publishers can use thicker paper. Readers can get creative with black construction paper. But it's never really an issue of IF a Bible is going to have ghosting, but HOW BAD the ghosting is. 

These first four pictures show the record-keeping process. Each chapter of the Bible. Circle means finished once. I then used slashes (right and left) to indicate second and third readings. A few have a straight up-and-down slash that indicate a fourth reading. But there are no books of the Bible that I completely read through four times. 

These three pictures show whole completed readings. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible