ESV Daily Reading Bible from Crossway – Review

Daily reading Bibles are a great resource for keeping you on track for reading the Bible through in a year. Crossway’s ESV Daily Reading Bible does just that and it follows the M’Cheyne reading plan.

Pros

• Separated into daily readings
• 9.5 font
• Nice paper

Cons

• Not sewn
• Edges not gilted

Features

• 2011 ESV text
• 9.5 font
• Black letter
• Brown imitation leather
• Double column, paragraph format
• Text set to M’Cheyne reading plan
• Footnotes
• Reading plan in back
• Table of Weights and Measures
• One ribbon marker
• 1405 pages
• 9 3/8 x 6 3/8 x 1 1/4
• ISBN: 9781433511354
• MSR $49.99

Cover and Binding

I’ve been very impressed with Crossway’s TruTone covers. This cover is my favorite so far. I love the brown with the darker stamped highlights. It looks like real leather from a leather workshop. It feels durable. The perimeter is stitched. The liner is tan cardstock. The tan looks good against the dark brown. Opening it feels stiff (not the cover, the binding). It doesn’t want to lay flat like most Crossway’s do. The binding is glued in sections. It feels a little awkward in the hand at first because it the inner pages stay flat against the spine. It sounds weird to say that is lays flat somewhere in January.

Paper and Print

The paper is thick and fairly opaque. This edition doesn’t use line-matching. It’s usually not a distraction because the paper is opaque, but line-matching would have improved readability somewhat. The edges are not gilted. The font is 9.5-point and is black-letter. It’s about a medium boldness. The print quality is consistent throughout.

Layout

The text is not presented in regular Biblical order. Instead, it is presented according to date and what is to be read for that date. There is a list in the front that shows the starting date for each book of the Bible. There are two columns per page in paragraph format. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page and are keyed to the text with numbers. Poetry is set to verse and OT quotes are offset. The page header contains the date that page is to be read. Since the primary purpose of this Bible is daily reading I could make the argument that it doesn’t need verse numbers. But that’s a minor point. Months always begin on the right side. This leaves a few blank sheets here and there that would serve for writing a few notes.

Reading Plan

The reading plan is that of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. It takes you through the entire Bible once and Psalms and the New Testament twice. There are four reading portions per day. January 1^st gives you Genesis 1, Matthew 1, Ezra 1, and Acts 1. The reading plan also appears in the back.

Ribbon

There is only one ribbon, but I honestly can’t think of why you would need more than one in this Bible. The ribbon is thin but long enough to be functional. It is a darker shade of brown that looks great against the brown cover.

Conclusion

Crossway’s ESV Daily Reading Bible is a good choice for a no-nonsense daily reader. With the glued binding and the non-gilted edges it feels like it’s missing a few things, but the font and paper are excellent, the cover is beautiful, and you only have to know today’s date in order to read the Bible through in a year and the NT and Psalms twice. It’s especially a good choice for those interested in the M’Cheyne reading plan. This will probably be my reading Bible for next year’s read-through.

Crossway provided this Bible free for review. I was not required to give a positive review – only an honest review.