First Bible Purchased
At around this time, I purchased a New American Standard Bible. It has a black leather-looking cover with gold letters, and the page edges are gold and shiny as well. It claimed to be a large print bible. But the print doesn’t look any bigger than about 10 point to me. I suppose that for a bible though, that is pretty big because other bibles I’ve looked at had much smaller print, in the 6 point range. It has a great, new smell though; no doubt a combination of the binding materials, the leather, the ink, the paper, and the fact that it probably sat in the south Dayton bookstore where I bought it for some months, absorbing the smells of the other books near it. I often enjoyed reading it just for that unique aroma. 
I bought this bible because at work, I often found myself having some rather heated debates with my coworkers, who themselves were staunch republicans with strong bible-based backgrounds. So, being the staunch democrat that I was and still am, I set to reading this book to better understand their faith-based arguments and develop effective counter arguments. I think I read the first ten books or so; some of them two or three times.
But I grew bored with this exercise after a while because some of their positions were just so ridiculous that rational methodology could not refute them. Even when I sited examples from my bible that proved them wrong, they kept arguing, telling me that I hadn’t read it the right way. I think at times they intentionally made up ludicrous view points just so they could get me fired up and then laugh at me behind my back later. Further, it soon became clear that they hadn’t read the bible themselves and had formed their opinions based solely on what they’d heard other people saying. Though they espoused their religions more than I ever did, they turned out to be no more knowledgeable about the bible than was I with my brand new copy of the New American Standard in hand.
But hey, I must say that I did enjoy reading the book. I’ll keep it around because perhaps I’ll get interested in it again sometime down the road. It’s printed on acid-free paper which is guaranteed not to turn yellow or otherwise deteriorate for at least seventy years. So I may get around to it again sometime in that period.