For all of you doing the BoM challenge...
 

If you want to make it A LOT easier on yourself, check this out...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...507846&s=books

The BoM readers edition edited by Grant Hardy - who happens to be my brother in law... I can read the BoM 3 or 4 times faster in this format. And my retention is better as well. I read 1st and 2 Nephi in one sitting!

Read the reviews below on the link. They are very positive.

Yes, he is my BiL, and yes, this is a plug, but all royalties he gets from the book (he makes about a dollar per copy sold) go to the perpetual education fund...

your brother a mason?
 

im digging the masonic symbol on that moroni....

What are the advantages/disadvantages/differences of this version compared to the doubleday verion that was put out?

doubleday has two columns. This one doesn't. Both have verse notations (I was hoping they didn't). You can look at the inside of these books through the amazon feature.

cool, for some reason I never even noticed that feature. I agree that Statman's BiL's edition appears to be much easier to sit and read. Mike, could you put this book up in your books section?

done.

The Doubleday version was a slap in the face at my BiL from
 

someone inside the Church Office Building. They didn't like the fact that he had written it at all. He was in a Bishopric and was IMMEDIATELY released when they found out. He was literally almost excommunicated over it. Flown out to SLC for interviews, etc. Thank God that my Uncle was a well-connected General Authority at the time who assured The Brethren (one Brother in particular) that there was nothing ill-intentioned in my BiL's book. My BiL also offered to drop the project altogether when excommunication was put on the table. That (plus my Uncles intervention) saved him.

Anyway, The Brethren knew this book was coming out months before it hit the presses. And when they saw it's initial popularity, someone in the COB decided that the Church needed its own 'easy-reading' version. Instead of endorsing my BiL's, they made their own. But his is, quite frankly, much much better. His commentary is better, his appendices are better, his introduction is better, etc. The "official" readers version was thrown together by a variety of editors (BYU religion profs) in a matter of a couple months. My BiL spent 3 or 4 years working on his, and the BYU guys, quite frankly aren't smart enough to hold his jock academically (He is a brilliant, brilliant guy)...

What's funny is that when one of The Brethren read the final versions of both books, he went to another of The Brethren - the one who championed the DoubleDay book & the same one who thought my BiL ought to be excommunicated - and asked him how he felt wasting the Lord's money in developing an alternative reader to Hardy's book that wasn't as good or as enlightening as Hardy's. It's fun having an Uncle who's privy to much of the inner-workings of the church...

since many of us are reading or have finished reading the David O. McKay biography, we particularly like juicy gossip about the general authorities.

Now you are making me want to buy a copy just to piss that knucklehead off.

Seriously, if you're reading the book of mormon by EoY...
 

this version makes it MUCH easier...

My wife bought a copy for each of her Seminary students - at a discount! She gave the book to the kids the first day of class, without our Bishop's prior knowledge (the Bishop's son is in her class). Afterwards she was a little worried what the Bishop might think/say. He was very cool with it. In fact, he commented on how easy it was to read!

...
 

wow....

and your brother in law is still active?