The Waterproof Bible was created by a few cool outdoors-loving people. They wanted to be able to read the Bible anywhere, so they created this Bible with waterproof cover and pages. The best way I can describe the feel of it is that it’s like Tyvek, but thinner and smoother. Amazingly, this doesn’t keep you from being able to write on it, as you can use a pen or dry highlighter on the pages.

It’s clear that this Bible will be very durable. You could actually drop this Bible in a lake and not only would it be unscathed, but it would float to the surface for you to collect. Other than boating, they suggest that these Bibles (available in two sizes and three designs) would be great for camping, hot tubbing, and coffee shop-reading. (This is a good point–how many of us haven’t spilled coffee on a Bible or other book while drinking coffee?)

I tested it out by “accidentally” spilling my morning cup of tea on this Bible. It performed admirably–it easily cleaned off and still looks like new.

As tea drinking, backpacking, and Bible reading are three of my favorite activities, I’m sure I will get a lot of use out of the NLT Waterproof Bible.

(Photos courtesty of the Bardin & Marsee website)

Abba Bibles There is very little information on the Abba Bibles website, but I include them here because I have held some of their gorgeous leather covers and they are softer and look nicer than any leather I have seen before.

Hidden House has a unique range of colors and textures of leather. They also make other leather items, so if you ever wanted your Bible cover to exactly match your belt and coasters (or, more practically, your journal), this is the place.

Leonard’s Book Restoration Station has the most thorough, professional, and helpful website of those listed here, so this could be a good place to start looking in order to educate yourself on what is involved in rebinding. I was also interested to see that they offer cord insertion (pseudo-sewn) rebinding for books that were originally glue-bound.

McSpadden Book Bindery has a nice set of photos of study Bibles that they have rebound, so if you’re looking to have a study Bible rebound, this is the site that might be able to best help you visualize what the finished product may look like. Also, they have a series of videos that allow you to understand their work and quality in-depth.

Mechling Bookbindery has a helpfully up-front pricing chart and a (cheaper) option to re-use an old cover if you just need the binding repaired. I think their stamping looks especially professional (although only available in gold).

Norris Bookbinding looks like they do a good job with ornate covers and pulpit Bibles in addition to standard leather rebinding. They also offer interesting options for family record pages (e.g. inserting new record pages or laminating existing ones).

Preserve the Word offers leather bindings including unique snap and strap closures. Their burnwork (imprinted words and images) looks especially nicely done and is worth a look even if you don’t think you’re going to want an imprint. The photo illustrating this post is from their website (used with permission).

I will attempt to add to and modify this list as I become aware of other rebinders and become more familiar with the rebinders on this list. I’d be interested in hearing from you if you have experience with any of these rebinders.

Today we are announcing the launch of http://NLT.to, a new site that provides what I believe to be a superior and richly rewarding experience with the New Living Translation online. Why do I say that? Here are some interesting aspects of the site:

• Reference lookup: Type a Bible reference. The only requirement is that you include a book name and at least one chapter number. Example: http://NLT.to/Mt.5
• Short URLs: Once you type a reference or search term, you will notice that the URL for the result page includes the search term or reference. We did this so that you can easily share URLs to the NLT on Facebook, Twitter, your website, or your blog.
• Facebook “Share” and Twitter “Tweet” buttons on each page make sharing to those services very easy, or you can copy and paste the URL from the address bar in your web browser.
• Beautiful NLT text display. The NLT text display has been designed to look just as beatiful as a print Bible. We’ve even made the text look like it appears on white paper (with a nice drop-shadow in recent browsers like Firefox and Chrome). Example: http://NLT.to/Ps.23
• The NLT text notes are fully incorporated — click an asterisk (*) in the NLT text and you’ll see the text note in a right-aligned pop-up. Click the asterisk again to hide it. Example: http://NLT.to/Gn.1
• Keyword search with word stemming: Type keywords to lookup, and it will find them and related word forms. (Note: We’re still refining the word stemming dictionary that’s being used.) Examples: http://NLT.to/run, http://NLT.to/run+live
• Exact text search: put “quote marks” around your search term and you can get an exact text search. Example: http://NLT.to/”run”, http://NLT.to/”run+for+your+lives”
• Regular expression search: The exact text search actually recognizes regular expression patterns, so power users can go hog wild (there’s my Iowa background coming out) doing power searches on the NLT text. (The full syntax of our regular expression flavor is documented here.) Example: http://NLT.to/”(^|\s)r[ua]n”
• Search includes the NLT textual notes. Many Bible software tools omit the textual notes from the search function, but we view the NLT text notes as an integral part of the text, so we have included them in the search function. The text notes appear in the search results immediately below each result verse. Example: http://NLT.to/”hebrew+reads”
• The homepage of NLT.to features a beautiful wordle of the entire NLT text (cached; JPG). Okay, that’s a pretty minor feature of the site.

We have plans for many more features and improvements in the coming days, but that’s about it for now. The new site runs off the same codebase that powers http://NLTinterlinear.com, and we will have some exciting announcements about that site in the days to come. Keith told me today that NLTinterlinear.com is the best way he knows of to get into the Greek text of the New Testament quickly and painlessly.

I hope that’s enough to whet your appetite; take a minute to head over to NLT.to and give it a go, and let us know what you think.

The good folks at LifeChurch.tv provide this free service as an application on virtually every mobile platform, and they are lightning fast at getting good, user-friendly apps available on new platforms as they come on the market. You can currently read the Bible on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and even the new Windows 7 phone, launching today.

YouVersion rolled out a new version of their iPhone application this week, and along with it we are pleased to let you know that the NLT is available for download as an offline version from now until 1/31/11. The benefit of downloading the NLT as an offline version on your phone is that it will be available to you even when you don’t have a data connection, and moving from chapter to chapter as you read is much faster.

Give reading the Bible on your mobile device a try. I think you’ll find that it is very rewarding. If you do already use a mobile device to read your Bible, share about your experience in the comments.

If you want to make your Bible last a long time, the first thing you do once you get it home (or before you wrap it up as a gift) is to stretch out the binding.

Here’s how:

Hold the closed Bible in one hand with the spine flat on a table.  Then hold all of the pages together and let the covers slowly fall to the table.  Next, take a section of pages from the front of the Bible and lay them down, running your fingers across the top page, near the crease, pressing gently.  Still holding most of the pages upright in your hand, repeat, taking a section of pages from the back of the Bible.  Continue repeating this process, first on one side and then on the other, until the entire Bible has been opened into two even halves.

This way, the binding will be flexible and less likely to crack, lose pages, etc. I use this trick for all textbooks too–any book could benefit from it, but higher-cost, high-usage books like Bibles will benefit the most.

Ray observes, “I found it interesting how many of these highlights focus on trusting God and not worrying.”  Commenter Thomas points out, “users of NLT and ESV appear to highlight several different passages, while users of all the other translations concentrate exclusively on just a very few verses.”

The top highlighted verses were all highlighted in multiple translations, but one set of verses, Romans 8:38-39, was highlighted (relatively) often in the NLT, but not often in any of the other six. Why do you think these verses might have been so much more popular in the NLT than in the other translations?

Romans 8:38-39, NLT: (I’ve linked to Biblos here because of their useful parallel verses feature)

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons*, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow–not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below–indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* Greek nor rulers.

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