I was browsing through Borders Books the other day and came across a new book called The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together by Ty Burr. Old movies are an interest of mine, and I have struggled with trying to get my kids to watch them, so I picked this book up hoping to get some help. Burr, the film critic for The Boston Globe, does a great job listing movies from the golden age of cinema that kids of different ages will appreciate....
Do you know someone who is joining the Catholic Church this Easter? Maybe you’re enrolled in RCIA classes yourself. The following books are what I consider to be the best books for newcomers to the Catholic Church, and would be especially appropriate to read during Lent, as preparation for Easter Vigil (assuming one already has a Bible). With exception of the first two titles, they are not listed in any particular order: The Catechism of the Catholic Church: next to the Bible, probably the most indispensable book for...
Today is the anniversary of the death of John Keats, one of the major poets of the Romantic era. He died of tuberculosis on this day in 1821 at the age of 25. In his brief life he wrote several poems that are considered major works in English literature such as “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to Psyche,” and “Endymion.” Here is one of my favorites: On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer Much have I travel’d in the realms of gold, And...
If you’re giving up something for Lent that frees up some time (i.e. TV, video games, surfing the web), one great way to use that extra time is by reading spiritually enriching books. Here are a few suggestions: The Bible (of course) especially the gospels, or the books of Jeremiah and Exodus: you could buy a book that contains the daily Mass readings and read along with the Church The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri: use this great book to begin your meditations on the afterlife The Confessions...
The best thing I read today was “The Lady of Shalott” with my eighth grade literature class. One of my favorite stanzas: She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces through the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She look’d down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack’d from side to side; “The curse is come upon me,” cried The Lady of Shalott.
My favorite romantic movie combines great literature with great cinema: it’s Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. My wife and I love watching this movie together, but the first time we watched it on DVD we got a bit of a surprise we weren’t counting on. We had watched it several times on a videotape I had recorded from PBS, so when it came out on DVD I was looking forward to watching it in its original widescreen format so we could see every bit...
Does your special someone love to read? This gift will put a little spark into your relationship on Valentine’s Day, and it’ll only cost you a little time and some printer paper: customized classic literature. Find a piece of romantic literature that’s in the public domain using Project Gutenberg. Let’s use Pride and Prejudice as our example. Download the text to your computer and prepare it for eReading using these instructions. Now for the fun part: using the Find and Replace feature of your word processor, replace the...
On my second reading of Crito, I think I see Socrates’ arguments, but I am not sure about their universal application. He argues that since he has been lawfully tried and found guilty, he would be wrong to try and escape. This would do harm to the laws, validate the jury’s opinion of him as a bad influence on the youth, and make him a fugitive. Would it really harm the laws? Or would it simply be an indictment against the jury? On the other hand, Socrates’ escape...
It has been about two and a half years since I last read The Apology of Socrates, and I have taken a more methodical approach to reading it this time. It seems to me that the real essence of the Apology is the question, “What is wisdom?” Is it wise to continue to defy the authorities and be put to death? I think Socrates would say yes, as long as you are doing the good. Several times he said he would rather be poor or even die rather...
Some books take no extra skills to read–all of their benefits are on the surface waiting for you. Others hide their treasures below the surface and you have to go after them like a deep sea diver, returning and returning again to appreciate their beauty and discover their meaning. Books like The Brothers Karamazov and City of God require extra literary skills to understand, but the effort is worth it. If you’ve never had a good literature class, or if it’s been a while since your last one,...
If you are a computer troubleshooter, you need to know about St. Vidicon of Cathode. He was martyred in the year 2020 when he was electrocuted in order to keep the Vatican broadcast equipment working so that Pope Clement could send his message to the world. Since his death, people throughout the world have prayed for his intercession to combat those terrors of technology, Murphy’s Law, the Imp of Perversity, and Finagle. His story is recounted in St. Vidicon to the Rescue, a novel by Christopher Stasheff. St....
I hate making decisions. Well, that’s not exactly true. I hate making bad decisions. Why can’t God just reach down from heaven, place a huge index finger on the newspaper and say, “THAT ONE…PICK THE ONE WITH CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING”? He told Mother Teresa to found an order of nuns to serve the poorest of the poor, why can’t he tell us what he wants us to do with our lives? Well, it turns out he does tell us. It’s just that he uses God-speak, that mysterious language...
Classics Club #32: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevesky
January 20, 2020
Classics Club #21: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
December 28, 2018
Classics Club #20: She by H. Rider Haggard
May 17, 2018
Notes from the Upside Down by Guy Adams
April 4, 2018
Cries from the Earth by Terry C. Johnston
March 20, 2018
Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along
Announcing the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-Along
December 26, 2018
