The Compact Survey of the Bible

If you are looking for a survey-type reference, this is very good and very helpful, especially if you are a beginning Bible student. It gives a brief, yet comprehensive outline of each book as well as the main messages and themes for each. Thus, this is what you need if you'd like to get the gist of a book before diving deeper into the expository/commentary study material. Also, it's interdenominational.

This is a brief and engaging outline of the content and messages of each book of the bible. It is compact, light, and easy to carry--slightly larger than a pocket novel. It is an invaluable aid to summarizing the important points. On the other hand, the book itself resists comfortable opening and the sloppy binding causes the pages to wrinkle and stiffen awkwardly while the book is being read. Hence my four-star rating. Identical content with a new binding would be welcome.

I have recently started attending a bible study. As I was reading the various books of the bible I had a lot of questions. I needed something in plain english that summarized the individual books. This book does just that. It gives you a summary of what you are reading and what you should be getting out of the chapter. You also get the handy outlines that help in a bible study group. I would recommend this for anyone (young or old) who is reading the bible. It will make everything a lot clearer to you.