What I'm reading meme
Ages ago, The Kid Sister of Blessed Imelda tagged me with a "What I'm reading" meme. This has to be something of a confession since I have a bad habit of starting other books before I have finished the ones I am reading.
Books for meals
I have a pile in the kitchen on the breakfast shelf type thingy where I take my meals.
The one that I am focussing on finishing is "After Asceticism" - I have to review that this week. In the pile down there is also Trochu's life of the Curé of Ars which is nearly finished. I want to read the whole lot because there are so many excellent nuggets about the Curé that I don't want to miss any.
Lower down is "Londonistan" by Melanie Philipps, a journalist's take on the rise of militant Islam in Britain - not such a priority read. Underneath is Colin Harte's "Changing Unjust Laws Justly" which I must return to and finish. This makes a thoroughly argued case for preferential treatment for the weakest and smallest human people. Thus he is arguing strongly against such things as time-limit bills and any bill that would allow abortion more easily for disabled babies.
If I am travelling on the train, I try to remember to take one of the kitchen books with me.
Spiritual Reading
There is another pile of books on the table in my study upstairs. These are books for morning meditation and for spiritual reading. At the moment, I am using Fr Bowden's "Miniature Lives of the Saints" although I have the edition that was corrected and updated by Attwater in the 50s which makes me want to get hold of the first edition and compare them. Bit of a distraction, really! Then there is St Alphonsus' Treatise on Prayer. Dom Guillerand is still lurking as is a book compiled by the Franciscans of the Immaculate about St Therese of Lisieux.
Most recently read
"Saint Philomena. Powerful with God" by Sister Marie Helene Mohr SC. All the basic stuff - now I need to get hold of the proceedings of the 2005 conference in Rome on the "Philomena controversy".
Waiting on the shelves
Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist", recommended by Edmund Nash; Meagher's "How Christ Said the First Mass", an interesting Edersheim-style book about the Mass and the fulfilment of the Jewish roots of the Liturgy; Stacpoole-Kenny's "Life of St Francis de Sales", because the Counter-Reformation is great and you can't get enough of those saints; Claire Asquith's "Shadowplay", a book about Shakespeare's Catholicism that has been waiting since Christmas to be read.
Jumping the queue
Fr Germanus' "Life of Gemma Galgani" should be on the shelves waiting its turn. But some books just seem to get priority treatment. This is a lovely blue cloth hardback edition of the book that TAN have reprinted. I'm going to scan in the photographic plate because it is such a fine reproduction of one of the famous photos of St Gemma. The pages on this book have never been cut so I have my page-cutting knife to hand and enjoy the thought that this book published 94 years ago in 1913 has been waiting all this time to be read. As I say, St Gemma should have remained on the shelves but she got past the queue.
I have a couple of train journeys coming up - Birmingham for the feast of St Philip and Edinburgh for the ordination of Rev Kevin Douglas. I look forward to some good long reading sessions.
Books for meals
I have a pile in the kitchen on the breakfast shelf type thingy where I take my meals.
The one that I am focussing on finishing is "After Asceticism" - I have to review that this week. In the pile down there is also Trochu's life of the Curé of Ars which is nearly finished. I want to read the whole lot because there are so many excellent nuggets about the Curé that I don't want to miss any.
Lower down is "Londonistan" by Melanie Philipps, a journalist's take on the rise of militant Islam in Britain - not such a priority read. Underneath is Colin Harte's "Changing Unjust Laws Justly" which I must return to and finish. This makes a thoroughly argued case for preferential treatment for the weakest and smallest human people. Thus he is arguing strongly against such things as time-limit bills and any bill that would allow abortion more easily for disabled babies.
If I am travelling on the train, I try to remember to take one of the kitchen books with me.
Spiritual Reading
There is another pile of books on the table in my study upstairs. These are books for morning meditation and for spiritual reading. At the moment, I am using Fr Bowden's "Miniature Lives of the Saints" although I have the edition that was corrected and updated by Attwater in the 50s which makes me want to get hold of the first edition and compare them. Bit of a distraction, really! Then there is St Alphonsus' Treatise on Prayer. Dom Guillerand is still lurking as is a book compiled by the Franciscans of the Immaculate about St Therese of Lisieux.
Most recently read
"Saint Philomena. Powerful with God" by Sister Marie Helene Mohr SC. All the basic stuff - now I need to get hold of the proceedings of the 2005 conference in Rome on the "Philomena controversy".
Waiting on the shelves
Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist", recommended by Edmund Nash; Meagher's "How Christ Said the First Mass", an interesting Edersheim-style book about the Mass and the fulfilment of the Jewish roots of the Liturgy; Stacpoole-Kenny's "Life of St Francis de Sales", because the Counter-Reformation is great and you can't get enough of those saints; Claire Asquith's "Shadowplay", a book about Shakespeare's Catholicism that has been waiting since Christmas to be read.
Jumping the queue
Fr Germanus' "Life of Gemma Galgani" should be on the shelves waiting its turn. But some books just seem to get priority treatment. This is a lovely blue cloth hardback edition of the book that TAN have reprinted. I'm going to scan in the photographic plate because it is such a fine reproduction of one of the famous photos of St Gemma. The pages on this book have never been cut so I have my page-cutting knife to hand and enjoy the thought that this book published 94 years ago in 1913 has been waiting all this time to be read. As I say, St Gemma should have remained on the shelves but she got past the queue.
I have a couple of train journeys coming up - Birmingham for the feast of St Philip and Edinburgh for the ordination of Rev Kevin Douglas. I look forward to some good long reading sessions.
