Interesting Links to Explore
- Matt Blair has launched a new blog called Life with a Bible, featuring "a collection of photographs highlighting how believers and unbelievers alike relate to and live with God's word, the Holy Bible." Definitely worth checking out.
- Brandon at brandonandkatie.com has posted a beautifully illustrated review of the ESV Personal Size Reference, along with a great hack on how to convert a Bible box into duct tape Bible carrier. They both make for excellent reading.
- Vincent Ramirez uploaded photos to Flickr of a Scofield Bible he had rebound by Abba Bibles. It's bound in chocolate calfskin with black leather liners, and has raised bands and stitching around the edge. All told, it took about six months.
- A reader who wants to remain anonymous reported great deals on Nelson calfskin Bibles at his local Sam's Club in Florida. If you have one in the area, you might want to drop by and check.
- Tony Cantale called my attention to The Bible: Narrative and Illustrated, which has to be one of the most interesting projects, design-wise, I've seen. It's an edition of the NIrV aimed at young readers or people for whom English is a second language -- but it looks like it would be a pleasure to read for anyone. The site is especially impressive, since it allows you to do something no other Bible site I know of does -- flip through the pages! Check it out for yourself. This edition combines single and double-column layout, illustrations, marginal notes, and maps. Very impressive.
- Remember the Oxford ad from the 50s I posted awhile back? Ron Parish discovered a Cambridge ad from 1969, featuring a Cameo bound in soft morocco.
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.