The first Bible I ever owned was The Living Bible. And for whatever reason, restructuring the Bible into 20th-century English really blunts its impact. My current Bible (which, I have to admit, I don’t read nearly as often as I should) is a New American Standard translation, which I think captures much of the feel of the KJV without the archaic language.
The NASB is very good. I am sure you are aware that it uses the critical text instead of the received text. Always good to keep a KJV handy.