Category: Books and Reading
This week’s cover artist is Geoff Hunt, the master painter behind Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin nautical series. Take a look at the following two covers for a good example of how much impact a cover can make. The image on the left is from the first edition of Master and Commander, and the second image is Geoff Hunt’s painting for the same book: To me there is no comparison. I’m no art critic, but I know what I like. And I love Geoff Hunt’s covers. Hunt painted the covers...
I never buy new hardcovers because they’re too expensive, but I made an exception yesterday and bought two: The Intellectual Devotional and Made to Stick. At first I was a bit worried when I saw the title for The Intellectual Devotional, thinking it was going to be a kind of anti-prayer book for atheists, pitting faith against reason or science against religion. As I thumbed through the pages, though, it doesn’t appear to be any such thing. Like a devotional, it consists of daily readings, but rather than...
I just finished reading Shusaku Endo’s The Samurai, and it was eye-opening in so many ways. It is the story of two men: Father Velasco, the flawed but well-meaning missionary to Japan, and Hasekura Rokuemon, the quiet Samurai who only wants to do his duty. Both men have a mission, both of them are forced to compromise their integrity for the sake of that mission, and neither of them get what they want. In the end, however, The Samurai is a gentle reminder that God “writes straight with...
“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
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
