The Crossway Buffalo Leather Large Print Compact Bible Review
If you haven't heard yet, Crossway has a whole new line of Bibles that are wrapped in buffalo leather! They've got a whole buffalo line in various Bible styles and sizes even including journaling Bibles! The Bible I have the privilege of reviewing today is the Large Print Compact Bible in deep brown buffalo leather.
Packaging
This Bible comes in a white, clam shell box with the name of the Bible on the front as well as a small picture of it. On the back of the box is a description of the Bible along with a sample of the text in the actual size and font that you'll find in the Bible. There is also a short paragraph talking about the ESV Bible as well as a section with a few endorsements for the ESV Bible.
Outer Material
I was really curious about buffalo leather as I had never handled it before. The leather is smooth, but has a nice grain to it. The feel almost puts me in mind of Crossway's top grain leather if you've ever handled one of those Bibles. The leather itself is a nice brown. I'm not sure if I'd go so far as to call it deep brown, but it's kind of a chocolate brown.
The page edges have a gold art gilt. There's one brown, single-sided satin ribbon bookmark that pulls nicely to the corner. It also has brown head and tail bands.
I really love the spine of this Bible. Being a smaller edition, you almost wouldn't expect for it to have spine ribs, but it has four raised ribs, which I really like and they seem to really fit the buffalo leather well. On the spine are the words, "HOLY BIBLE", the ESV logo, "ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION", and the Crossway logo all in gold. The spine is honestly kind of busy. I'd love to see them remove the "ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION" and just use the nice ESV logo. Having both is kind of redundant in my opinion.
Inner Material
Inside, this Bible has a brown paste down liner. It has Smyth-sewn binding, which I think is great for a portable Bible like this. A portable Bible typically will take more bumps and bruises than some Bibles you don't tote everywhere you go. Smyth-sewn binding means it is going to be much more durable than other binding styles. Crossway believes in the durability of this Bible so much that they've put a lifetime guarantee on it! That is hard to beat!
Layout, Paper, and Font
To increase portability, the layout of this Bible is double column. A double column format helps make the Bible thinner and helps it attain that compact title. This is the Large Print Compact though so the font is a little larger than Crossway's standard Compact Bible. In this Bible, you'll find a highly readable 8-point type. That is actually one thing I love about this Bible. It feels much more readable than the standard Compact. Believe it or not, this Bible has a type size that is a whole point larger than Crossway's ESV Journaling Bible! That's pretty impressive for such a compact size. I should also mention that words of Christ are in red in this edition and they seem to be a nice, dark red even leaning towards maroon.
The paper in this Bible is thin given it's compact size, but I don't think the ghosting is terrible. I can't read the words on the other side of the page although I can clearly see chapter numbers in poetry sections like Psalms. The text isn't line matched, but I truly have seen worse ghosting in Bibles. However, if ghosting really bothers you then a compact edition probably isn't what you're looking for anyway.
The Bible does have a concordance in the back, but you are either going to need very good light or a magnifying glass to read it.
Conclusion
I think the Large Print Compact Bible in buffalo leather is a very nice edition! The font size is great for a portable Bible, the buffalo leather seems durable as well as nice to hold, and you can't beat the fact that Crossway has put a lifetime guarantee on this little Bible. If you're looking for a good, portable ESV, I highly recommend picking this one up! Check out some comparison pics below.
You can pick up a copy of this Bible right now on Crossway's website and Crossway+ members (free to join) get 30% off. You can also pick up a copy on Amazon (affiliate).
Disclaimer: I was provided a complimentary copy of this Bible from Crossway in exchange for a fair and honest review.
