Ended up buying a new Bible tonight, the ones I had just weren't cutting it. I came to find out there are a lot of things to consider when buying a Bible.

What translation did I want? KJV? NRSV? NIV? The Message?

I've got a couple NRSV Bibles so I was really looking for something a little more up-to-date and readable. My choice was pretty much between NIV and The Message.

What type did I want? Reference Bible? Study Bible? Student Bible? How big and thick did I want it to be?

The Bibles I have (I should point out that my 2 NRSVs are both the exact same edition, presented to me on the day of my baptism, one by my parents, the other by my church.) are really just pretty standard Bibles, no extensive footnotes or other explanations which I wanted out of the new Bible. The "The Message" Bibles were really all pretty standard, it's very readable, but it's not what I was looking for in the added features department. That left me with the NIV, and either a Study Bible or a Student Bible.

I also wanted one that wasn't very thick. I wasn't looking for a miniscule one, but I didn't want a big, honkin' one. It had to be portable. The NIV Student Bible came in at 1 1/4" while all the Study Bibles were 3-4 times that and I came to find that I just liked the notes in the Student Bible better.

And with that my search was over, I went with the NIV Student Bible.

(And as an added bonus, it is, as it was dubbed upon returning home, "styligious".)