Wednesday, November 30, 2005

From the beehive state. After reading about my NaNoReMo attempt (successful, thanks to cheap sci-fi), a friend sent me this article:
A Salt Lake City attorney reads it in Japanese and reads nothing else. A BYU student downloaded it onto his MP3 player and listens to it wherever he goes. A Provo couple took their book, blanket and picnic basket to the park and read for 15 hours.

Call them the "Book of Mormon-challenged."

All over Utah, many Latter-day Saints are desperately - some despairingly - racing to meet church President Gordon B. Hinckley's challenge, issued July 25, to read the Book of Mormon by year's end.
Their reading would be more inspiring if it did not so perfectly fit Cabell's quip about it being better for people to read anything rather than not at all. "By similar logic it would be more wholesome to breakfast off laudanum than to omit the meal entirely."

5 comments:

Chas S. Clifton said...

You mentioned "cheap sci-fi" and then the Book of Mormon. That's what I call staying on topic.

Voracious Reader said...

Bill wouldn't let me take the Book of Mormon from a hotel room. I just wanted to read the source--don't think it''ll change my mind.

Odious said...

VR: Even if you could read it without falling asleep, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't convince you.

Chas: Heh. Could be worse; could be Scientology. Reading through the complete works of L. Ron Hubbard could kill somebody.

Voracious Reader said...

Odious, I was told that Mormons believe that they can become gods when they die, not that they can be like gods, but that they can become gods. Is that true?

PS Do you know that "midge" means "midget"?

Odious said...

I have only the vaguest idea what the Mormons believe in beyond the evils of beer more potent than 3.2 and caffeine. They're an interesting bunch, historically, and they can build a damfine city (Salt Lake) when they put their minds to it, but they've never drawn my interest. Much like the Jehovah's Witnesses, although that sect has its own issues. 6.5 million members, but only 144,000 get saved? Pascal wouldn't take that wager.

My mother has seen the video they used to show of what Heaven would be like. A really nice suburb, as she recalls. Oh, and everybody does get wings, you'll be happy to hear.

P.S. I thought it was a gnat.