Reddit mentions of In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture

It just strikes me as so watered down. It seems to lose so much of the original beauty and some of the harsh language found in other copies. Like thephotoman said, it is trying to straddle the middle ground between the original and the figurative.

That said, I don't think it's terrible. It's not good for critical study or for any deep theological work but if you're somewhat new to the faith or you simply don't have much of an interest in theology then I think it's okay. You can be a great Christian without much interest in theology. If you're following the teachings of Christ, believe Him to be God and pretty much everything else in the Apostle's Creed then you're in good shape. If a complex understanding of the Bible serves as a stumbling block but something presented a bit more simply helps you then more power to you. That's probably the reason why it has such popularity. I just would sincerely discourage anyone from using the NIV as a tool of apologetics or theology.

Also John, since you enjoy Bible history you should check out this book by Alister McGrath. It's kind of a dry read at times but it's really fantastic.

It's not really an overview of different versions, but this is a fun read about the KJV:

In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture

In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. I read this when I was new. It's an absolutely fascinating look at the story of the "official" English Bible. It won't help you understand the KJV-only people (if anything, it only made that whole movement more inscrutable to me), but it's a really thorough examination of how the translation came to be and tangentially a great look at the very-early Anglican church, which I'm obviously predisposed to be interested in.