people love stories people still love to get lost in a good story when you're
reading a book you're the one pacing the story and giving the characters their
voices and their appearance. A good book will help the reader feel at home with
their own imagination. Book design is something that we don't often think
about. The book is actually doing work to eliminate distractions for a reader. It's
doing its best to present content in a way that is beautiful, inviting, and makes
the story the center of the reader's experience. Why is it that people love
stories so much and yet they view reading the biblical literature as a chore?
When we pick up a Bible we see an incredibly daunting spread in front of
us. We see a ton of text on each page so that it takes us forever to be able to
turn a page. The paper is just so extraordinarily thin you almost tear a
page every time you turn one. We see very large chapter numbers and verse
numbers streamed throughout the text which though practical are not conducive
for a rich reading experience. Could it be that the encyclopedic nature of our
contemporary Bibles is what's driving this idea that the biblical literature is
dry and boring? There should be an alternative. We should be able to
experience these texts in their original form as literary works of art and we
should be able to sit down and lose ourselves in them like we would with
any good book or any classic literature.
I've decided to call this project Bibliotheca and Bibliotheca is the Latin
word for library and obviously it ties into the word Bible. The word Bible we
get from the Latin word Biblia which means books. It's a plural word. It's
not really until the Middle Ages that we start seeing the entire biblical
library contained in one volume and it's not until even much later that we
start seeing it as a common thing. What if we just said this is a lot of text so
we should just separate it into several volumes. Bibliotheca is four volumes. The
first volume is the five books of Moses and the former prophets. The second
volume is the latter prophets. The third volume is the writings. And then the
fourth volume is the New Testament. Each one is about the size of a modern novel
something you can grab and throw in your bag and take with you. Before the
printing press the Bible was made into these beautiful manuscripts. Everything
from the crafting of the paper to the mixing of the ink to the type of hand
writing that they used was wholly was set apart. It's in the spirit of that
wholly approach to the text that I have designed a tight-face exclusively for use
with this project. It seemed fitting to me because the Bible was passed down
through the ages as a handwritten text to incorporate my own hand sort of the
tendencies and the movements of my own hand into my typeface. A lot of books we
see today are just bound with glue. When you open the spine the pages are all
still sticking straight up and you're really just bending the page around in
your hand. What's great about a sewn binding is that it opens flat and kind
of bends back when you open the book so that you can set it down and look at it
without having to push back the pages with your thumbs. The translation I'm
using is the American standard version. I like the American standard version
because it is relatively literal. It's actually closer to the original languages
than the King James version was before it and then many of our modern
translations are after it. I've eliminated these thou's, haths, doths and I've
replaced them with modern equivalents like you and does. The proportions of the
book are based on the measurements for the Ark of the Covenant which are
specified in Exodus. One and a half cubits wide by one and a half cubits
deep by two and a half cubits long and so I've taken that measurement to
create the page and then I've taken that same unit and doubled it to make the
text block. I'm peeling away all the added conventions like chapter numbers
and verse numbers, cross references and study notes. So all you're going to
see on the page is the story and the page number. It's geared towards an
enjoyable reading experience. It should be elegant, it should be simple, it should
be pure. If this is something that you're excited about and you want to see it
made and you want to hold it in your hand or you want to give it to your
friend or your family member then this is something that I'm asking you to
contribute to. In order to make the manufacturing of this book economically
feasible I have to hit a minimum number basically paying for the cost of
materials and production and shipping. Every dollar of the minimum goal will go
back into the production of the books. So we're talking about 500 sets at least
of four books which is 2,000 books and that's a big expense and that's why the
minimum is where it is and that's why I need your help. Now if we don't hit the
minimum the way this works is I don't get any of your contributions. So if this
is something you want to see made, if this is something you want to see become
a reality I'm asking you to tell your friends and your family about it, that
you post it, that you share it. In my opinion a book is to be cherished. A book
is a precious artifact that should last you a long time, that should span
generations in your family. I want to give people the opportunity to read the
biblical library with a fresh set of eyes to sort of experience it anew.
you
