What do you think of the Book of Mormon —Tyler S

The other day these two guys dressed in white gave me this book called the Book of Mormon, does anyone know anything about it? Is it worth reading?

If you're asking about its literary quality, there's not a lot of middle ground on this one. Based on the amazon.com reviews it's a 3 ½ star book, but that's just the average. I just looked at the last 100 customer reviews, and here's how it breaks down:

: 25

: 7

: 6

: 2

: 60

Skimming through these, I don't think I saw a single believing member give the book less than 5 stars. Nor did I notice any nonbelievers giving it more than 4. So apparently it's great literature to the already convinced.

I think you should read it, if you have the time. Especially if you have some connection to Mormonism or know people who are Mormons. If you're familiar with the KJV Bible lots of this book will sound familiar. It uses King James English throughout; works in Old and New Testament phrases, verses, and names on almost every page; and even includes whole sections from the book of Isaiah. In fact you may also notice that many of the stories sound like reworkings of familiar Bible tales, from the Exodus to Jonah to parallel miracles and sermons.

Yes, it can be tiresome, with its drawn out battle scenes and overuse of terms like "exceedingly" and "it came to pass," but you'll at least have some idea what your Mormon friends base their faith on. Personally I'd have preferred to keep the gold plates it was translated from, but I guess that's why I wasn't chosen as prophet, huh?