NIV Popular Bible

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Poor quality printing. - Rated
The NIV study bible as a literary work is certainly of value .
The problem is with this particular version bound in leather and printed by Hodder and Stoughton. The price being forty four pounds , and with Hodder and Stoughton having a good reputation ,the quality of printing should be at least equal to other printers products. It is not . The printing is unequal and very faint in some places , even sometimes on the same page. I returned my product - not getting a refund - thinking that it was an error with the individual copy . Later I purchased one from Wesley Owen and found the same problem, showing that it was a uniform problem , not just one copy misprinted.

Not the binding that is claimed - Rated
The NIV needs no commendation here, the difficulty buyers face is to choose the right page size, binding, etc. Their problem is made worse by amazon's jumble of reviews, placing reviews for audio book bibles as if they were reviews of print bibles, and so on. It's also made worse by completely false descriptions of bindings. This is the "NIV Popular Bible: New International Version (Leather Bound)", for just over £18. It isn't. It isn't even 'bonded leather', the part-synthetic leather substitute made out of leather fibres that have been compressed together with adhesives and synthetic compounds to create a 'sort of' leather. For the price, I assumed that 'bonded leather' would be what I'd get; bonded leather isn't real leather, but in this day and age, nobody really expects complete honesty, and bonded leather would have been ok. If you enlarge the product image, sometimes, as here, you'll see the binding described, but not always. This bible's product image shows that Hodder describe the binding as 'Leather Style', that is to say, completely synthetic. I made the mistake of not zooming the product image to check this. I simply didn't believe that amazon would so brazenly and completely misrepresent the binding right in the primary product title. You live and learn, I guess. Amazon's only defence is that the marketing of bibles is now almost entirely about added value in the binding, etc, and that the entire market has adopted deliberately misleading terminology. Booksellers neither know nor care what they're actually selling. Buyer beware

Don't want to bash the bible. - Rated
I think this edition of the Holy Bible's very good; nice and clear (unlike my old NIV by the same publisher). I still think it smells of social control, however, perhaps I shouldn’t read too much Leviticus, and maybe I should start focussing on the New Testament.

Let the Word of God Dwell in you RIchly - Rated
If you spend a lot of time driving then it's great to be able to listen to God's word and allow it to minister to you. For this reason I am hesitant to discourage anyone from buying this product.

However, you should know what you are buying before you buy it. On the front cover it says "Full Bible". In smaller print on the back it says that the Old Testament is abridged. Well, I was disappointed to discover just how abridged it is.For example: only 39 out of the 150 Psalms are included. Most of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Ezekiel is omitted as are the really interesting parts of Daniel. I reckon less than a third, perhaps only a quarter is here.

The recording quality is variable and often below normal CD standards. The reading quality is also variable, but most of it is good. Juliet Stevenson who reads some of the Psalms is wonderful.

This product could be so much better. Despite my reservations, God can really use it in your life.

Leading us into the people of the bible - Rated
This Bible CDs are recorded as like as people had natural communication. It may be from the narrator's charactor. They are not announcers, but actresses and actors. So their voices shows bible contents more naturally, less tensed than announcers.
This gives those who have British accents clear voice, so it is recognised better.