Downloaded the Book of Mormon and have been reading it---not for long though!!---There I no way I can get through this. I already have questions---such as the language itself. This is supposed to be written by ancient peoples, translated by JS. This doesn't read like any other ancient translations I've seen. I am no expert, just for fun reads excerpts from Egyptian translations--this is what those read like.
EGYPTIAN POETRY AND PROVERBS"In the Beginning, Egyptian legends attested, floodwaters englufed the world. Nothing stirred amid that dark and dismal expanse. Then, miraculously, a lotus blossom surfaced and opened its petals to give birth to the Sun. Rising from the blossom like a golden bird, the Sun subdued the waters and coaxed life from the emerging land. Ever after, when the Nile receded and the growing season began, its people gave thanks to the Sun god Re and to his Earthly counterpart, the Pharaoh, who claimed divine powers and kept the country fruitful"
"MAN FEARS TIME BUT TIME FEARS THE PYRAMIDS" "I wish I were your mirror, so that you always looked at me. I wish I were your garment so that you would always wear me. I wish I were the water that washes your body. I wish I were the unguent, O woman, that I could annoint you. And the band around your breasts, and the beads around your neck. I wish I were your sandal that embraces your foot and that you would step on me!" "LITTLE IS BETTER THAN NOTHING." "The Sight of her makes me well! When she opens her eyes, my body is young; her speaking makes me strong; embracing her expels my malady." "THE TEETH ARE SMILING, BUT IS THE HEART" "Pour water on thyself: thus shalt thou be a Fountain to the Universe. Find thou thyself in every Star. Achieve thou every possibility." "If I embrace her and her arms are open, I am like a man in the land of perfumes. If I kiss her and her lips are open, I am drunk even without beer." "THERE IS NO DARKNESS LIKE IGNORANCE" Hymn To The Aten"Splendid you rise in heaven's lightland, O living Aten, creator of life! When you have dawned in eastern lightland, you fill every land with your beauty, You are beautious, great, radiant, High over every land: Your rays embrace the lands To the limits of all that you made... All eyes are on your beauty until you set, All labor ceases when you rest in the west: When you rise you stir everyone for the King, Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth. You rouse them for your son who came from your body, The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands"
BOM just doesn't "read" right. I'm not sure how to state that, but it reads like the King James version of the bible, not like a translation of a middle eastern hieroglyphics. I tried to not prejudge it--just read it for what it is, but I really don't know if I can hack getting through this thing. There is this from Wiki that also bothers me.
Early life of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith had little formal schooling, but may have attended school briefly in Palmyra and received instruction in his home.
[13] Young Joseph worked on his family farm and perhaps took an occasional odd job or worked for nearby farmers.
[14] His mother described him as "much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the rest of the children, but far more given to
meditation and deep study
." Lucy Smith also noted that though he never read through the Bible until he was at least eighteen, he was imaginative and could regale the family with "the most amusing recitals" of the life and religion of ancient Native Americans "with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them."[15] Smith was variously described as "remarkably quiet,"
[16] "taciturn," "proverbially good-natured," and "never known to laugh."
[17] One acquaintance said Smith had "a jovial, easy, don't-care way about him," and he had an aptitude for debating moral and political issues in a local junior debating club.
[18] Biographer
Fawn Brodie wrote, "He was a gregarious, cheerful, imaginative youth, born to leadership, but hampered by meager education and grinding poverty."
[19]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_Joseph_Smith#Childhood