The Book of Mormon

By: Joseph Smith - translator

Narrated by: Alan Munro

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.

Features: The First Book of Nephi His Reign and Ministry; the Second Book of Nephi2; the Book of Jacob; the Book of Enos; the Book of Jarom; the Book of Omni; the Words of Mormon; the Book of Mosiah; the Book of Alma; the Book of Helaman; Third Book of Nephi; Fourth Nephi; the Book of Mormon; the Book of Ether; the Book of Moroni

Public Domain (P)2018 Trout Lake Media

poor narration

narrator had apparently not pre-read the text, as pauses and breaks were not in the right places. Narrator also seems to be someone who is not familiar with scriptures. Wish they would have picked someone who was willing to put in the time or already had the ability to read scriptures smoothly, without awkward pausing. Maybe by the end of the book he'll be good at it??

The narrator is not familiar with this language

He mispronounces and fumbles over words frequently, and he pause in strange places and inflects weirdly.

Absolutely terrible narration.

I am not going to comment or review much about the context of the book; it is what it is. I will, however, comment on the narration and say that it is absolutely horrid. This is perhaps the most monotonous, mundane, dry narrator I have heard and it is exceptionally difficult to listen, to the point where I was only ever able to listen in short bouts and even then I couldn't finish this reading.
Scripture of any kind, whether it be the Bible, Bhagavad Gita, Koran, or the Book of Mormon really needs to be read with some type of emotion or personality or conviction. This narrator has none of that and I am baffled as how this was even released. It is sad, from a scriptural standpoint and even a story standpoint, it's quite a fascinating book, but I suggest you read a paper copy and save yourself from listening to this.

Ok... but there are better versions out there.

This book has a pronunciation guide in the back. The reader clearly did not know or use this. There are pauses and timing that makes it seem like James T Kirk is reading it - and that is NOT a good thing. It gets annoying quickly. I'd recommend listening to the samples out there and find a version you like before purchasing this one.

A new and refreshing narration

Contrary to other reviews, I really enjoyed the narration of the book. I've read this book many times and have heard it narrated many times. I appreciated that his narration was not the familiar cultural fluency, it made words and ideas jump out that were usually camouflaged by sheer familiarity. How many times have I read and heard, "I Nephi, having been born of..." - by hearing it in a different cadence, tempo, and emphasis, it exposed a new angle and perspective to my understanding. I usually increase the speed on my audio books, but I really enjoyed 1.0 with this narrator