Comments on: Mormon Studies on a Budget?

By: DKL

DKL — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:19:55 +0000

Clair, you’re right. Those books are essential, and it was a gross oversight. I still think that the original New Approaches to the Book of Mormon stands among the finest books written about the Book of Mormon by anyone, and it is an exceptional example of Mormon studies.

By: LRC

LRC — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:53:43 +0000

Re: w at #26: “I don’t live anywhere near a library or physical store that would have most of these books, and it’s rare that I encounter anyone else who reads them.”

There’s always the inter-library loan program, worth checking out. You can ask your local librarian how they participate and you can look up books at places like http://www.worldcat.org and http://www.accessmylibrary.com.

Plus online books like the ones at Signature: http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/

By: Clair Barrus

Clair Barrus — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:04:34 +0000

Thanks for this post Kaimi . Quite a while back, Seagull Book had a dozens of back issues of Dialogue for $2 each. I bought a copy of each and proceeded to read two or three articles each day on my lunch hour. I made myself read each article, even if it didn’t sound interesting, footnotes included.

I believe this exercise did more to broaden and enhance my post-college education than any other.

I don’t believe I saw anyone recommend the full set of Signature Book’s series “Essays on Mormonism.” Each contain a series of excellent topical articles — for those who are not sure which Dialogue/ Sunstone/ JoMH/ BYU Studies / … articles to peruse.

- Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine
- The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past
- The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith
- American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon
- Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature
- Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters
- Multiply and Replenish: Mormon Essays on Sex and Family

see http://www.signaturebooks.com/booksins.htm

By: Kaimi Wenger

Kaimi Wenger — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:10:49 +0000

Ebay can be a good resource for finding some of these sources. So can Deseret Books’ auctions.

In addition, there are a number of online used bookstores or used book aggregator services. For instance, I just ran a search for Arrington & Bitton and found dozens of copies, starting at $1 + $4 shipping ($5 total):

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=arrington&tn=the+mormon+experience&x=0&y=0

You can sometimes find better deals at DI, but there’s a needle/haystack element to that.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:39:52 +0000

Jared, I haven’t had that problem. But I copied the NFO file from the CD-ROM to my hard drive (along with the rest I have purchased (Utah history sweet, Some of the old Ancestry ones, etc.)) and then I use the same install of Folio Bound VIEWS 3.11.2 to access them all. Not sure which one that version of VIEWS came with, though. If you can’t get it to work, let me know and I’ll do some digging.

That is good news on the update. Last I had heard, they lost so much money on it that they weren’t going to update it. But having a lot of their new primary source titles text searchable would be tremendous.

By: Jared T.

Jared T. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:28:11 +0000

The New Mormon CD-Rom doesn’t work on my new computer that has Vista. Have you had that problem, J? At any rate, I talked with Tom Kimball and he said they’ve contracted to update the CD-Rom, so at some point, we’ll see that reissued.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:09:01 +0000

Also, the old edition of Words is available digitally on the BYU digital archives as a pdf. Gospelink and LDS Library have the updated 1996 digital second edition.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:07:34 +0000

The New Mormon CD-ROM is excellent for research. I don’t like to read entire books on the screen though, so typically if there is something that I want to read all the way through, I either buy it or get it from the library. Gospelink.com is useful but their search interface is miserable (Gospelink 2001 is great if you still have Windows XP). I used to have LDS Library as well, but it didn’t work with vista and then they went out of business. I understand that they are back in business with a new product, but I haven’t seen it.

The new edition of Words is definitely forthcoming. There will be some tremendous breakthroughs with it, as well. It is not sure when it will be published as the editors are still waiting on a few things. Could be as early as the end of this year; could just as easily be another year.

By: gomez

gomez — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:08:40 +0000

Thanks Stephen. On a somewhat related point I had heard that a new edition of Words of Joseph Smith by Andrew Ehat was due out soon. Does anyone have any more info?

By: Allison

Allison — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:37:01 +0000

I am a budding historian and no expert. I truly appreciate the links given to content as I live in the East and lack access to all the libraries in the West. I’m sure I could find some of the books mentioned in mine or on interlibrary loan.

But being one that likes to keep books, I have resorted to E-bay and saw no mention of it in the article or comments. If you research the retail prices on Amazon, then you know if it’s a good deal on the auctions. I have also picked up great bargains on DeseretBook.com’s auctions. Just this week I picked up the history of my Mormon colony hometown of Star Valley, entitled “A Garden in Wyoming” on DB auctions for $15! This out of print is very rare and hard to find and often goes for 3 to 5 times that price with the regular online booksellers.

I wondered also why CD-roms weren’t mentioned. Gospelink and LDS Library have some great history in them and that might be $50 well spent. Again, I got my LDS Library brand-new, unopened for 10% less on an online auction.

I have not purchased the “Daddy of ‘em all” CD-rom, “New Mormon Studies” with many original sources on it because of its high price (lowest ever seen $125 and more like over $150.) What say you historians about this one?