Qur'an translations.
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I have about 20 different translations in English. I really, really, really like the S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali one - it uses formal English (The Queen's English?) very well. Where Yusuf Ali's feels a bit stilted and forced, the Ahmed Ali translation flows quite beautifully. Sadly, the most common version of this translation that is available is "edited" to be in modern North American English, and isn't as nice.
The Study Qur'an also has a very nice translation, and I do hope they release it as a standalone volume without the notes so that it's cheaper/more portable (like hell I'm carrying around an expensive leatherbound book!). My go-to translation that I carry around, however, is MAS Abdel Haleem's version. It's quite good. If I were to ever give someone a copy of the Qur'an, it would be that one.
I just finished the Sam Gerrans translation. I like it, but I have to see how I feel about it over time. It is my first "Qur'an Only" version, and I appreciate a lot of the things it does.
I just got the Monotheist Group translation in the mail and am reading it right now. I also just got a copy of the Laleh Bakhtiar (whose name I cannot spell at all, apparently) translation that I have heard good things about, but it's next on my list to read.
I don't think I've come across any straight up bad translations (well.....NJ Dawood is pretty weird, but to be fair I did just thumb through it in the book store. I'm just baffled by his re-ordering of the Surahs)......the "Orthodox" Saudi one by Muhsin-Khan is no good (mostly because of all the added bits, the translation alone is fine. It's just hard to read it.), and there is a super obscure one written by an Egyptian couple that just seems lazy. I forget the name of the translator, but it just felt like a copy-paste job of other random translations. I don't even think you can buy that one anywhere, I found it at the bottom of a box in a Muslim book store and the owner had no idea why it was in there, perhaps just something that fell into a shipping container by accident.
tl;dr - Study Qur'an, Abdel Haleem, and S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali when I feel like a little Shi'a action.
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All translations are imperfect but I like Muhsammad Asad's the best, and I usually use this online tool http//quranix.org/1
And www.studyquran.org tools to research a translation.
