imon

Members
  • Posts

    22
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by imon

  1. I guess I must be about average because I could only count 7 that I read from cover to cover. I have read parts or started to read at least another half dozen or so from the list, but they were too boring to finish.

    Someone should come up with an essential Mormon Book list. I bet I would do much better on that.

  2. Thanks for the posts. Urbanfool actually inspired me and I just received my createspace proof yesterday. I'm going to check it over and hopefully have it approved in the next couple days. I'll post when it's ready.

    Kindle is in my sights next, but I need to finish up my submission for motleyvision.org's "Monsters and Mormons" anthology first.

    There's definitely a growing market for LDS centered lit, although I found the publishing process tedious (thus posting my book online instead). I thought about looking for an agent, but couldn't find an LDS specific one. Miztrniceguy/imon or anyone else do that sort of thing? I have a few other books in the works.

    Sorry but I don't have anyone that I can recommend. I love Create Space, but hate to format with them. I have published a few books on Create Space but my expertise is with the Kindle. I have worked on more than 2,000 titles.

  3. I've been thinking about it. There has been a few people tell me that they don't like to read online, but since I posted it for free I didn't know if anyone would buy it. I think Amazon is free to setup, so it certainly wouldn't hurt.

    I help people sell their books for the Kindle. I can help you with formatting, a cover and or any other part of the process.

    You can set your book up for free on Amazon but the minimum price you can offer it is $0.99.

    Let me know if you have any questions?

  4. Fanboyisms are coming out anatess... The Kindle and ipad are designed for different purposes. The kindle only needs to use battery power when turning a page, or otherwise changing the e-ink display, not maintaining the display. The ipad needs to use battery power constantly, to maintain the display.

    I also think you are missing the capabilities of modern netbooks, which have no bother with office applications. They may not be up to doing all the gaming or intence spreadsheet calculations, but they are fine for word procesing, plus they have an actual keyboard that is permanently attached, and doesn't take up screen real estate. Different purposes.

    Personally though, without the ability to put in my own annotations, bookmarks, fuzzy search, and ability to open at random, the electronic versions will be inferior to the dead tree edition of the Scriptures.

    I agree.

    Also, the OP asked specifically about the Kindle. Obviously, the OP has done their ereader research and know what they are looking for. I will also try to clarify some of the differences between the other devices mentioned in this thread.

    The iPad is a wonderful device that allows you to check your email, surf the internet, read books etc. It does a lot of things well including reading scriptures. It has average battery life for a tablet, but extremely short for an ereader. It is a lot like a great big version of an iPod, of which I am a major fan.

    The Kindle is for book readers. Period. If you want a device to watch youtube video's and read books don't buy a Kindle. If you want the best device for reading books, buy a Kindle. The battery lasts a month, the screen uses e-ink which makes your reading experience similar to reading a book, and Kindle boasts a much larger library than any other ereader. Most important reason that I own one, NO EYE STRAIN. I make a living online and I stare at a computer screen all day long. The last thing that I want to do at the end of the day is try and read a book off of a computer screen.

    Netbooks are blessing. They weigh next to nothing, and unlike cell phones, PDA's and other smaller devices, they use real software. Netbooks are wonderful if you travel a lot, need access to the internet frequently, and need the functions of a computer.

    As far as answering the OP question. I don't like taking my Kindle to church to look up scriptures. It is easier and faster to look up the scriptures in their physical form. I actually read my scriptures on the Kindle when I am getting my oil changed and other similar situations and love it. However, I am not the biggest fan of using it for scripture reading at church. I do take it quite often and use it for the gospel doctrine manual that I forgot to bring, fast sundays where the lesson is the First Presidency message, and foruth Sunday conference talk lessons.

    As far as the iPad at church, I have noticed that everyone that I know that brings one looks at Facebook, their email, and surfs the web, and plays games. Maybe if you didn't have the internet with your iPad then you wouldn't be tempted. From what I have seen they are not only a distraction to the user, their spouse, and children, usually everyone else within view of it pays more attention to the iPad than the speaker.

    I have yet to see anyone use their netbook in my ward during sacrament, but I would think that it would be more of a distraction than any other device. I can't imagine the look on the older generations face if I was to pull one out and start typing during sacrament.

  5. The Great and the Terrible Series has a terrible ending. The author covers more time in the last couple of pages than he did in the entire series. It did not flow well. I had the feeling that the author originally intended the series to be much longer but gave up after the sixth book. The ending seemed more like an afterthought.

  6. I was just over at the FARMS website and I saw that there is a new Hugh Nibley book out--a collection of his essays on various topics such as the temple, society, Joseph Smith, history, and what not. It appears to consist of stuff that either didn't fit into his other collected works, was overlooked by the editors, or was written after the previous volumes appeared. There's a fairly good write-up on this book (along with a new book on temples by Truman Madsen) here.

    Even though I'm already juggling a good two dozen books and can't afford this one, my mouth is watering already!

    There is actually going to be one more Nibley Book. It is called "One Eternal Round". Apparently it is supposed to be the culmination of his life's work. I email Farm's once or twice a year. The response is always "next year".

  7. Hi, yes please, tell me about LDS fiction and any books that have appealed to you. I've kind of hit this reading slump (and sadly i haven't been back into reading all that long). i loved little women, and My Sister's Keeper. I just started Emma, but it's slow going - i like it, it's just not grabbing me the way the 2 previous books did. Our book club is about to start Shadow Of The Wind, which i haven't started yet. sorry it's taken me so long to reply, i have 2 small children who demand lots and lots of attention :wacko::sparklygrin:

    I don't usually read a whole lot of fiction but I read one a couple years ago that I liked. It was by a BYU professor and it was called Lifted Up. It is a short read with a powerful ending, but it was really good. I have recommended it several times and have had no complaints yet.

  8. Another good set of books is The Messiah series by Bruce R. McConkie.

    I read them years ago but remember them as being an excellent read.

    Ben Raines

    I loved Jesus the Christ but it took several times to actually get into it. I didn't actually get into it until after 100 pages or so.

    I second the Messiah series by Bruce R McConkie. They are easier to read and very deep.

    I like Bruce R McConkie's Doctrinal Commentary on the New Testament. I felt like I learned more about the New Testament reading that series than any other.

  9. Well I think it's more a question of the quality, rather than quantity, of his scholarship. And it isn't just Jackson who has this opinion, it's pretty much the entire current LDS scholar / historian community.

    I'm sure he did. If you want an apologist perspective, I'm sure you'll enjoy Nibley just fine. If you want something a little more objective, you are better served looking elsewhere.

    Well that's the sort of mythology around him, anyway. A lot of scholars have since found that he made up a lot of stuff. Most of his writing is a bunch of fluff.

    Again, that's the mythology he built around himself. He didn't submit his work to peer review, so he's largely unknown outside of the church. Even LDS scholars question the value of his work. Most people don't even read his books. Everyone outside the scholarly community just takes his word for it. Which is fine, if that's what you want. He was an apologist first and foremost.

    Actually, many people have found that his methodology was flawed.

    Again, it's the quality of that scholarship that is in question. Nibley was the church's greatest apologist, it was his life's work, why wouldn't he publish a voluminous amount of writing?

    Well as you can see, some FARMS scholars have since questioned the value of his work.

    This doesn't really mean anything. The church subsidizes FARMS. Obviously the First Presidency will support anything that defends the faith. They like to hear anything that supports what they say.

    I guess you have to ask yourself, why would a prophet (and apostles) need to be lectured by an apologist?

    Like I said, if your approach to LDS history and doctrine is of the "faith first" variety, I'm sure Nibley will suit you just fine. If you want something a little more objective, there are better places to look.

    Well it wouldn't be the first time Hinckley was duped. Have a look into the Mark Hofman affair:

    Mark William Hofmann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    I am not going to argue. Obviously your opinion differs from mine. However there is one thing that I think everyone has to agree on about Nibley. He had the intellect to go into any field that he wanted. After finishing graduate school his work was being published on a regular basis. However within a short time he took a job at BYU working for peanuts at the request of an Apostle. He continued in the capacity until he retired shortly before his death. Unlike many members who become scholars his testimony cannot be questioned.

  10. I think BYU professor / FARMS contributor Kent P. Jackson best summed up Nibley's work in his BYU Studies review of Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. He points out that:

    1. "In most of the articles Nibley shows a tendency to gather sources from a variety of cultures all over the ancient world, lump them all together, and then pick and choose the bits and pieces he wants. By selectively including what suits his presuppositions and ignoring what does not, he is able to manufacture an ancient system of religion that is remarkably similar in many ways to our own--precisely what he sets out to demonstrate in the first place."

    2. "Nibley often uses his secondary sources the same way he uses his primary sources--taking phrases out of context to establish points with which those whom he quotes would likely not agree."

    3. "Several of the articles lack sufficient documentation and some lack it altogether".

    4. "Nibley's wit has made him one of the most sought-after speakers in the Church. But I am dismayed to find in this collection several passages in which his satire tends toward sarcasm and name-calling, which have no place in serious scholarship".

    Nothing against Jackson but I would like to point out 2 things.

    First I have not followed him that much but it I am sure he has not done as much research as Nibley. All of his contemporaries that knew him talk of the massive amount of books that he read in his lifetime. Most of these were not in English but were from cultures all over the ancient world. That is why we like to read what he wrote. He was fluent in at least 16 languages, and some were root languages which meant that he could understand several. Nibley read more in one of those 16 languages than most of us will ever read in the English language in our entire lifetime. On top of this Nibley had the intellect to understand more of what he read than very few others.

    Also the amount of scholarly work Nibley has had published is far greater than Jackson. Obviously this leaves him open to more criticism than Jackson. That is why Farms was created in the first place. To publish Nibley's work.

    My second point is this. I have never heard of the First Presidency requesting Jackson to prepare a talk on any subject, and then deliver it to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on the fourth floor of the SLC Temple. When this happens let me know and I will reconsider his criticism of Nibley. Until then I will continue to believe that Gordon B Hinckley was and is a true prophet of God and was not duped in one of the holiest places on Earth.

  11. Imon, I've never heard of anyone having that problem. Can you identify what books are missing? I don't use gospel link so I'm not sure how it works, but do they advertise the missing books as being in the program? Just a guess, but a possible explanation for books not being available anymore might be copyright issues.

    OK I went and reinstalled it on my computer. The same thing happened. I installed it and opened the program and there are no good books in there. All it is a bunch of free books that you can download from the internet. About 90% of the LDS books are missing.

  12. Imon, I've never heard of anyone having that problem. Can you identify what books are missing? I don't use gospel link so I'm not sure how it works, but do they advertise the missing books as being in the program? Just a guess, but a possible explanation for books not being available anymore might be copyright issues.

    I would have to reinstall it on my computer to see what books are missing. I was researching a certain topic and the books that I no that are supposed to be on there are missing. The only one that I remember for sure was the Journal of Discourses.

    Gospel link now is available online only. Now they charge you a monthly fee to use it. When I purchased my version it was a one time fee.

    They only explanation that I can see for doing this would be to try to get people to pay the monthly fee and access it online.

    I'm still curious to know if anyone else has had similar issues.

  13. Not really. I've never been a big fan of Deseret Book, so I really don't care how they choose to conduct business. I'm guessing they felt the subject matter was not in keeping with the kind of image they want to embrace in days going forward. Maybe they want to convey that feeling that they are primarily a source for LDS-centric themes and church-related products. While it's nice that the Twilight series seems to embrace wholesome values, I understand that at its core the main theme has to do with vampires, albeit vampires who are trying to overcome their base instincts of biting necks and sucking blood directly from humans. Maybe the store, and by extension the LDS Church, feels that their shelf space would be better spent on more gospel-oriented subjects, like the next version of 'The Miracle of Forgiveness'. Whatever their reasoning, I imagine that they feel that this change reflects a shift in what they feel the focus or purpose of their business model should be.

    As a side note, this is not the first time Deseret Book has made moves which have been puzzling to the outside observer. Their little spat with and then purchase of Seagull Books comes to mind. Why do they do the things they do? I don't know, and unless you find a member of their board who will go on the record about their decision-making process, I think it will remain unanswered. In the meantime, there are plenty of other bookstores who will sell the books you want to read and nobody will think any less of you for doing so.

    I agree fully. I've never been a fan of Deseret Book. I used to love Seagull books before they took them over.

    Although I rarely shop there these days I have a bigger gripe. I own the gospel link program. My computer crashed a couple of months ago, after I bought a new one I loaded gospel link. Upon startup gospel link wanted to be connected to the web. I gave it the ok and it downloaded a file on my computer. I then opened gospel link and all of the good books were missing. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it three times but no matter what I did all of the good books are gone. I finally had a suspicion that Deseret book had done something when they loaded a file onto my comp. I then got my old, old computer out and set it up making sure that it wasn't connected to the internet. It loaded just fine and all of the books are there. So now every time that I want to use gospel link I have to boot up the antique.

    Has anyone else had a similar problem?

    I've asked around and no one listens to me. They just defend the church.

  14. I try to avoid anything written by Hugh Nibley, his methodology was questionable at best. I find his work as a whole to be unreliable and unhelpful. Waste of time IMO.

    I find his works to be very difficult to read but he is one of the greatest scholars of our time.

    He is also the only person that I know that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have asked to give them a lecture. Let alone a church topic. This was done on the fourth floor of the SLC Temple. Parts of his lecture has been repeated by General authorities in Conference.

    Also when President Hinckley started building all of those temples the Church went to Nibley to find out what exactly needed to be in a temple.

    He still has a strong following of scholars, like Truman G Madsen. And I would take Madsen's opinion of a Gospel Scholar in our church over most people's.

    I have read everything that I could of Nibley's and am always impressed.

    Be forewarned though. Alot of people don't like him. As President Hinckley said, He is probably the greatest critic of the Church. However he does this in a non accusing fashion which helps.

  15. I read this several years ago. I agree that the book has teachings in it that go along with the church, however the entire book does not. After I finished I began to read her follow up book. It did not have the same spirit to it and it seemed as if the writing was forced to make a buck. Needless to say I didn't get very far in the second book. It also changed my view of her. Even though I liked the first book at the time that I read it I decided not to recommend it to anyone else.

    Has anyone here read her second book?

  16. The titles are limited but seem to be getting better all the time. I have found several classic LDS books for $1.00. The more notice the Kindle gets by the LDS community the more LDS publishers will publish in this format. Also there are loads of classic literature for free at amazon.

  17. These are the books that I have found that are priced reasonably.

    Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, $1.00

    Three degrees of Glory by Melvin J Ballard, $1.00

    My First Mission by George Q. Cannon, $2.39

    Life of Heber C. Kimball by Orson F Whitney, $2.39

    The Strength of the Mormon Position by Orson F Whitney, $1.00

    These books are priced good. Most books are in the $10.00 range. I would rather have a hard copy for $10.00, but a dollar for a book on the kindle is a great deal. Also alot of the classics are available for free.

  18. I am thinking of purchasing a Kindle. If anyone has one, what LDS titles do you own? A lot of the titles seem to be cheaper than a hard copy. Most books I only read once but, I will still purchase a hard copy of some books.

  19. I am pretty sure I read in official LDS literature( I believe the Ensign) that the church does not teach that we chose our family in the preexistence. And that more than likely we accepted the "call" to the family in which we were sent. I have searched for it and can not find it. Does anyone know where it is? I have found questions and answers on the topic but nothing official and want something official to show a friend of mine.

    I believe that Spencer W Kimball addressed this issue a couple of times in the 70's and early 80's. The talks were centered more on finding your "eternal companion" and that there were many people which you could marry for eternity. It has been a while since I read any of these talks.

    On the flip side the early saints and more specifically The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that some of these decisions were made in the preexistence, however we still have a choice on earth. I don't believe that he ever said this in a public sermon, rather I have read statements and journals from several people who attest that he said this to them in private.