As a reader, I get to decide what
I’m going to do with Joseph Smith’s journals. I can curl up in
my easy chair with a copy of the journals and just read
through the journal and gain quite a lot.
I can look down at footnotes to
help me as a reader with things I might not understand.
And then there's something that's
less intrusive called the reference material.
I get to be kind of an armchair
explorer with the reference material. I can figure out what's going
on with obscure things, with important things.
I can figure out what
happened with
a little place where Joseph
Smith stayed at a tavern.
I can see the very impressive
decision of Judge Daniel Pope,
and I can find out the
the workings of the Nauvoo organizations, the
Church organization,
the city organization,
the Nauvoo Legion.
I can putter around figuring
out what made things tick.
I enjoyed this.