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Summary: Mass e-mail sent to LDS members
Review: Below is an excert of an e-mail sent from an unknonw source to members of the Church. I submit this so others may know that this effort is going on.
...You are encouraged to take 5 minutes and post a short and simple positive review on The Book of Mormon on Amazon. It is suggested comments first be composed in a word document, and then cut and pasted to the webpage for Amazon. Registering is free and your name need not be used in the review.
We also encourage you to forward this email to any others that you feel may be willing to contribute a positive review. This seems an opportunity to reach many people and counteract the numerous negative reviews being posted.
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Summary: Give me a Break!
Review: Is this the proper forum for mormon bashing? This is supposed to be for book reviews! Quite a few LDS book reviews here on amazon have insults from "disgrunts" vs. actual book reviews. Anti Mormons go somewhere else! Amazon-where are you?
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Summary: a review of the book (not religious pros and cons!)
Review: Many religious or sacred books tend to be cumbersome to get through. Committed readers stick it out, hoping to glean personal meaning and spiritual insight. This edition of the Book of Mormon, while not changing the words at all, lays out the text itself in a more manageable fashion. Stories are presented in story form, poetry reads as poetry. It has been a refreshing change for our family's devotional readings to have this in addition to our standard BOM. Thanks to editor Hardy for this undertaking.
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Summary: Brainwashing material, historically inacurate, BIG FRAUD
Review: Read it if you must, but question it and do your homework. This is really not even an elaborite fraud - that would give the author too much credit. This book is simply a way to bring people in to get new tithe payers. This is not a family church like it promotes. BEWARE!
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Summary: A Reader's Quest
Review: The introduction is the shortest section of this Reader's Edition of The Book of Mormon, but it is the most intriguing. Here, Grant Hardy gives one of the most succinct explanations of the Book of Mormon, its history, and its importance as a religious text that this reviewer has read. It presents reliable and positive information for the new reader and is of value to the believer as well. I like Hardy's format of the Book of Mormon, but know that some readers who are familiar with the official LDS edition of these scriptures find the Reader's Edition disconcerting when they first begin reading it. I admonish them to continue reading! They will find a greater appreciation of the story as this format guides them through the complexities of the text. I am particularly pleased with the way Hardy has organized quotations from the Bible, psalms and poetry. They are more meaningful to me than in the old format. The Isaiah chapters are easier to read, and other poetic passages break away from the narrative and are immediately recognizable as an intense expression of feeling. Ammon's "boast" in chapter 26 is phrased as a psalm. This gives more meaning to the lines spoken. The contrast between the poetry and other conversation heightens the action. Also, compare Nephi's psalm (1 Nephi 10:18-22) with the same scripture in the standard edition.
The appendices present a variety of interesting material: a history of the translation; the preface to the original edition; forms of poetry in the Book of Mormon, and charts and maps. These are a treasure trove for the scholar and for the person who approaches the book for the first time. They are also a rich source of information for the student of the Book of Mormon who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the text itself. Both this new Reader's Edition, and the official LDS edition of the Book of Mormon, with its many cross-references and footnotes, should be part of the believer's library. Anyone who opens the book for the first time will do well to begin with Hardy's Reader's Edition.
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Summary: Which edition?? Doubleday or U of Ill. Reader's Edition?
Review: The main decision you must make is between the Doubleday and the University of Illinois Press editions. Do I spend $16.47 for the Doubleday edition or plunk out $34.76 for UoIll Press "Reader's Edition"?
Each is formatted in a fashion that is probably more "reader-friendly" than the editions published by the Mormon Church. So each has that benefit. For an introduction to the basic text, without explanatory notes or commentary, the Doubleday edition is for you.
However, just as critical studies have been important in elucidating the Biblical text, so too for the Book of Mormon. For an introduction to some of the issues (form criticism, source criticism, etc.), you may want to pay the extra money for Grant Hardy's "Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition." It contains useful annotations and comments.
The Book of Mormon is a classic of religious literature. The Doubleday edition is a good introduction while "The Reader's Edition" will present some of the fascinating aspects of the text that lurk below the surface.
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Summary: A SECOND SACRED WITNESS OF JESUS CHRIST
Review: The only way one would know the authenticity of this book of scripture is to read it personally and make your own honest sincere judgment. The Mormon people have many critics who make their voices of dissent loud and clear. You may choose to listen to their criticisms. Their claim is that Mormons are not Christians, therefore, they do not believe in Christ. Once you read even a few chapters of the Book of Mormon you will know that their claim is false, as are so many of their other assertions. This book is a modern wonder! Read it and find out for yourself. Whether you believe in it's sacred origin or not, you will know for sure that The Book of Mormon teaches that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God. Mormons are Christians as much or more so than all other organized religions.
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Summary: Another testament
Review: This book is one of the best books ever written to hit the market. I challenge everyone to read it first, before they give a review.
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Summary: happy owner
Review: This edition has become a family treasure. Anyone who wants to gain an understanding of the fundamental aspects of the LDS Church is likely to prefer this presentation. I could not resist marking a number of passages as I enjoyed racing through passages that are familiar, but have taken new meaning with the easily-read format. Best of all are scholar Hardy's precise appendixes and explanatory notes. The typeface, paper and binding quality are superb. As they reach high school age, each of our grandchildren will receive a copy of this and Grant Hardy's other fine writings.
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Summary: Easy Reading
Review: This is the easiest to read edition of this book. However, you need to use appendix seven, and I did not get this drift until my fifth or sixth rewrite. I did read both editions of the book on sale here at Amazon.
I wept at times, finding the stories close to my heart. I am not a member of the Mormon church, but I am certain in my own mind that this book is everything it says it is. You've just got to read it to believe it. This is especially of interest to those of us who are Jewish.
The book is about Jews from the city of Jerusalem who found their way to the Americas at about the time Jerusalem was being obliterated. The exception: the people of Ether (Jaredites) who had arrived much earlier by boat, after the languages were confounded in Babel.
The Jaredites had destroyed themselves in a civil war but left some of their history written on a "big stone" which was found by the family and friends of Mulek (Mulekites), son of the last king of Judah and who had escaped by boat with his family and friends about a decade after Lehi had left Jerusalem. The Mulekites apparently came upon a desolate Jaredite city while journeying. One Jaredite man, by the name of Coriantumr, was discovered alive at the time. The story says G-d promised Coriantumr that he would not die until after he witnessed the arrival of another people whom G-d had decided to give the lands belonging to the Jaredites. Coriantumr was welcomed into the Mulekite city of Zarahemla.
The Mulekites had lost their ability to read, but the Nephites found this city and made them literate. Since the Nephites had also brought a copy of the Torah with them from Jerusalem written on brass plates, the Mulekites were then able to read the laws and covenants of their fathers' and return to a life of obedience under the law of Moses.
The Mulekites made the Nephite Mosiah king over them. Mosiah was a prophet. He was asked by the Mulekites to translate a Jaredite stone with markings that was discovered at the time Coriantimur was found. Mosiah's grandson, Mosiah, also translated a record written by the Jaredite people, but these writing were etched on 24 gold plates. These plates had been found by a group of Nephites under the leadership of King Limhi. These two Jaredite records were all that were mentioned in the book of Mormon.
This book by Professor Hardy includes helpful footnotes and informative appendices. The book is printed on acid-free paper. The width of the pages are a half inch greater, one inch taller, and one pound more in weight than Doubleday's edition. The binding of this book is sewn rather than glued. Doubleday sells an edition here at Amazon too. It uses the 1981 text and not the 1980 text as this edition uses.
One of the appendices disclose fifty of the most significant words that were changed since 1830. Another appendix also talks about the American translator who was entrusted with the original record losing a large portion of the first pages of his original translation when he lent it out before it was first published. The reader is informed that the loss of these first pages were significant enough to make G-d angry with the translator. According to the story, G-d did eventually forgive the man and allow him to resume his translation after a brief hiatus. The repair came later when the American translator neared the end of the book; he came to a journal kept by Nephi, the father of the Nephite nation, which Mormon had the serendipity to find among the records he had custody of and was thoughtful enough to included it in it's entirety, even though the information was then available at the beginning of his book.
Additional appendices provide the reader with interesting facts such as a map of many of the cities and lands which were mentioned in the early wars and journeys, the original preface of the first 1830 edition, and evidence that an angel from G-d showed the original golden plates also to a woman as well as three men is mentioned.
Mormon's son Moroni was asked to take over the writing in the records, after his father became fatally wounded in a battle. Moroni goes into hiding and finishes his father's book. He sadly witnesses the genocide of his own people. The message of Moroni was mostly with those of us living in the future. He believed the Book of Mormon would be found and translated later. The message was that the Messiah was Jesus Christ. He wasn't just a prophet, but the actual son of G-d. This of course conflicts with basic ideas about G-d held today by Jewish peoples.
If it wasn't for the loss of the first part of the narrative, I would have given it five stars. It was interesting to read the book of Nephi, a Jew who was born and raised in Jerusalem, tell us about his family problems. However, the Book of Mormon, today, is missing all of the Book of Lehi (Nephi's father) and two chapters of the Book of Mosiah.
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