Reading The Book of Mormon

I am reading The Book of Mormon for Lent, the second year in a row. Last year was such a success, even though I went way over the 46 days. I read the BOM in 103 days, which I thought was wonderful. The idea was to use Lent to jump-start me into reading the scriptures daily. Which it did. I've been planning all year to read the BOM again this year for Lent. Didn't realize it could be construed as giving up the Bible for Lent.

So, I'd been feeling kind of … ummm … ambivalent?? Is that the word? But tonight I logged into readthescriptures dot com & this quote by President Hinckley was given with the new reading assignment:

"Read the Book of Mormon itself. Read it again and again. Ponder its beauty. Reflect upon its many magnificent passages. Think of the complexity of the detail of its historical accounts. Pray about it, and the Holy Ghost will bear record to you, as He has to me and to millions of others, that it is the word of God, a voice crying from the dust to this generation in declaration of the divinity and the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ as the living Son of the living God."

 ~ President Gordon B. Hinckley, Sept. 2003

Thank you President Hinckley. Thank You Lord, for giving me this thought to ponder.

I won another book!!!

Wow! It seems like I never win anything & now I have won TWO books from Linda Weaver Clarke's blog. The first one was Hollywood Stories. The new one is an e-book. I love e-books. I need to put it on the network storage device so I can access it from my laptop.

Anyway, this is one of Linda's books, Anasazi Intrigue, the first in a series.

Stolen artifacts, a devastating flood, a snoopy newspaper reporter, and mysterious events begin to unfold in this mystery adventure novel. When a devastating flood takes out several homes in a small town, they are shocked by the news of also a possible poison spill. Quickly Julia realizes the story and investigation are much bigger and more dangerous than she thought! Julia and her husband find themselves on the run trying to save their lives while finishing the story of a lifetime. She never realized that being a reporter could be so dangerous.

Sounds well-named. It is mystery/suspense, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, genres. And, of course, a reporter? I've spent many years in the publishing industry, especially newspaper publishing. I am going to have to put this on my soon to be read list so I can review it for Linda on Amazon. Of course, I'll review it on Goodreads & Its A Must Read as well.

Still overbooked

Here's a recap of my reading in the last month. I am still overbooked.

I finished the Old Testament & have felt such a sense of accomplishment. I immediately began reading The Book of Mormon. It is so cool to be able to understand the chapters of Isaiah better this year than last year. I didn't notice last year that as Nephi or Jacob read chapters of Isaiah to the people, they would then explain them!!

I have one chapter left of The Old Testament Student Manual, book 2. But that will come. I don't have a deadline to finish it. It is online & the last chapter is a recap. I want to take time to study it, savor it.

Let's Talk About It is finished & I didn't read one book all the way through. I returned the bag of books. Today I looked for Who Owns the West by William Kittredge. I couldn't find it. It was on the computer, saying it was checked in, but it wasn't on the shelf. I also looked for Desert Solitaire, the one about Moab, by Edward Abbey. I gave up.

I already had The Forgotten Garden (in large print this time!) and Dewey's Nine Lives checked out. I returned them unread a couple of weeks ago. I had already renewed Dewey once & I couldn't renew him again. This time I can have him out for another month. The Whitney 2nd Ward book club meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month & I had a miserable migraine that day. Besides I never did get The Forgotten Garden back to finish reading.

I am also still reading Treasure Island. However, I'm a big boob. I'm to the point where they are starting to fight. At least it's on Kindle4PC & I don't have a deadline to read it. Mother does the same thing with the Work & the Glory books. She doesn't like fighting & killing, but she wants to hear what happens, so she starts & stops the book.

I am in the last section of my bathroom read, Anna Quindlin's Loud & Clear. I WON a book on Linda Weaver Clarke's blog!! I am so excited!! It seems I never win anything. This book is a nice hardcover called Hollywood Stories: Short, Entertaining Anecdotes About the Stars and Legends of the Movies! by Stephen Schochet. It will make a great bathroom read.

I got Endless Chain, the second book of the Shenandoah Album series by Emilie Richards, from PaperbackSwap dot com. I really enjoyed Touching Stars by Richards, the fourth book in the series. Mother got Endless Chain from Talking Books & returned it. She didn't like the reader.

I read a couple of books just for The 4 Month Reading Challenge, The Red Geranium by Janette Oke & Major Daddy by Eva Swain. I needed to read a book with a color in the title & one with the name of a family member in the title.

For March, I have read 5 books & have a total of 12 for the year.

Old Testament completed

I decided to copy my review from goodreads.com I didn't really want to take the time to do it again. It is, after all, a work night & it's already 12:24 a.m.

• Bookshelves: 2011-reads, dewey-decimal-200s, read, rereads 
• Read from June 01, 2010 to March 06, 2011
• Recommended for: Not the faint in heart

I chose to shelve this book as a Dewey Decimal 200. It is, after all, shelved in the 200 category of the Dewey Decimal system, which is religion.

I read through the shelves people had shelved this in on Goodreads & had to snort & snicker as I read through them. I wondered why LDS or Mormon considered the Bible "their" book when the world doesn't think we even BELIEVE the Bible. Someone else shelved it as a book they don't presume to rate. Well, ya, it's a hard book to rate. I can't see ever reading it as "light or recreational" reading. Someone else shelved it as the "S" word, which made me snicker.

I started reading the Old Testament on June 1, 2010. It was the course of study for 2010 for the auxiliaries of the LDS Church. It has taken me all this time to finish it. There were very few nights when I missed reading. And some nights I could only read a chapter. I set a goal to read it by Dec. 31, 2010. I obviously missed my original deadline. I wanted to be certain to be finished by the beginning of Lent, or Ash Wednesday. And I made it!! I read the Book of Mormon for Lent.

I read the Old Testament in the Old Testament Seminary class I took as a senior in high school, but as I read through it this time, I'm shaking my head in disbelief. I wondered many times where my mind was in seminary. I read the LDS Institute of Religion's Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings–Malachi - Religion 302 along with it. I still have a couple of chapters left in it.