Author: Deacon Nick

Herodotus

Books and Reading

Feeling Stressed Today? Take Some Advice from Herodotus

“People with bows string them when they need to use them and unstring them when they’ve finished with them. If they kept them strung all the time, the bows would break, and then they wouldn’t be able to use them when they needed them. It is no different with people’s temperments. Anyone who is serious all the time and never allows himself a fair measure of relaxation will imperceptibly slide into madness or have a stroke.” –Amasis, king of Egypt, in Herodotus’ The Histories

Don Quixote translated by Edith Grossman

Books and Reading

Sancho Panza on Death

I’ve been listening to George Guidall reading Don Quixote, and the other day I was struck by this description of death by Sancho Panza: “By my faith, Señor,” responded Sancho, “you mustn’t trust in the fleshless woman, I mean Death, who devours lamb as well as mutton; I’ve heard our priest say that she tramples the high towers of kings as well as the humble huts of the poor. This lady is more powerful than finicky; nothing disgusts her, she eats everything, and she does everything, and she...

Art / Books and Reading

Cover Artist Feature – Michael Whelan

Yesterday I wrote about how important book covers are to me, and this week’s featured artist is Michael Whelan. If you’ve read with any depth in the science fiction/fantasy genre then you probably already know his work. From Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series to Michael Moorcock’s Elric series, Michael Whelan has been illustrating fantasy novels for over twenty-four years. He has won the Hugo award an amazing fourteen times. The biography on his official website includes Whelan’s artistic statement which, interestingly enough, is a quote by renowned Catholic author...

Foundation Trilogy Cover

Art / Books and Reading

Book Covers and the Imagination

While you can’t judge a book by its cover, a beautiful cover makes a book all the more enjoyable. During the next few weeks I am going to be featuring some great book cover artists. I don’t know about you, but when I try to picture what I’m reading, I find that the cover of a book often provides the color palette that my imagination uses to form the pictures. For instance, I have a very hard time reading science fiction paperbacks from the 1960s with those washed-out,...

Liturgy of the Hours

Books and Reading / Prayer / Spirituality

10 Catholic Devotionals

With the Easter season rapidly approaching, this is a great time to re-commit to daily prayer. Here is my top ten list of the best Catholic daily devotional books. Each of these books is designed to be used every day, and most of them are interwoven with the liturgical year. The Liturgy of the Hours: Also known as the Divine Office, this is more than simply a daily devotional; the Liturgy of the Hours is the public prayer of the Church, the official set of prayers for each...

LibraryThing

Books and Reading

My LibraryThing Anniversary

One year ago today I opened up a free LibraryThing account, and I loved it so much that a few days later I converted it to a lifetime account. What is LibraryThing? Here’s the official answer: LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere–even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth. I love everything about LibraryThing–how...

Book on the Bookshelf Petroski

Book Review / Books and Reading

Book Review: The Book on the Bookshelf

The ordinary is always more fascinating than we think. Chesterton knew this, and Henry Petroski knows it. Petroski’s The Book on the Bookshelf traces the development of the bookshelf as a reflection of the changing nature of books, and in the process he reminds us that nothing is too ordinary to be written about. The book is part history, part personal reflection and part social science. From descriptions of medieval libraries to debates about where to place bookshelves in a library, Petroski writes in an engaging and warm...

Ezra Pound

Books and Reading / Poetry

The Lazy Person’s Guide to Memorizing Poetry

You can memorize a poem in five minutes. Really. You just have to have the right poem. Don’t believe me? Try these: On His Seventy-fifth Birthday by Walter Savage Landor I strove with none; for none was worth my strife, Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art; I warmed both hands before the fire of life, It sinks, and I am ready to depart. Too long? Try this one: In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals...

Books and Reading / Poetry

April Is National Poetry Month

In 1996, The Academy of American Poets established April as National Poetry Month. They’ve suggested thirty ways to celebrate, one for each day of the month. Today’s suggestion is to read a book of poetry. Here are some great places to start: Anthologies: Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize edited by John Hollander – One of the greatest selections of poetry ever. Divided into Sonnets, Songs, Counsels, Tales, and Meditations. Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor – A diverse collection of almost 300 poems read by...

Book on the Bookshelf Petroski

Books and Reading

The Book on the Bookshelf Reading Update

I’ve had very little time to read lately, but I have been able to snatch a few pages here and there of Henry Petroski’s The Book on the Bookshelf. Here are a few interesting things I’ve learned so far: Early writers did not put spaces in between their words. Word separation became common only after printing was invented. I knew that the word Bible came from the Greek word for book, biblion, but I did not know that biblion came from byblos, from the Phoenician city that was...

Tristram Shandy

Books and Reading

Tristram Shandy the First Blogger?

Today in 1760 the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy were published. I read it three years ago and remember smiling through much of it. Here are the notes I wrote to myself at the time I finished it: What a pleasant book. Tristram Shandy takes its own sweet time to be told, really goes nowhere, but manages to be engaging in spite of itself. I love the narrator’s personality and the wonderful depictions of Uncle Toby and Trim. Sterne reminds me somewhat...

The Penguin Complete Father Brown

Books and Reading

Last Rites: Mysteries Featuring Catholic Detectives

For some reason there are a lot of Catholic detectives on the mystery shelves. I’m sure there are amateur detectives from other faiths (Rabbi Small, for instance), but Catholic priests and nuns seem to form their own sub-genre. Here are a few examples: Father Brown – The greatest of all ecclesial sleuths, G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown belongs in the ranks of the great detectives with Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple. Chesterton’s stories are witty and clever, and very satisfying. All of his stories are collected in...