Nancy at the Catholic Post Book Group starts each month by asking her readers what they're reading. I thought I'd share my answers here:
What are you reading? The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and I'm still slowly working my way through Letters to a Young Catholic by George Wiegel and The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn.
What do you like best about them? I like that The Lamb's Supper is easy to read and that it's reiterating a lot of things I've heard or read before. It's good to be reminded of these things or else I'll lose them, like the ability to do algebra equations.
I like the depth and perspective that Wiegel offers in Letters. I also like that he takes us around the world in the book.
The Hobbit is my favorite that I'm reading now. I've never read it before though I grew up watching the trippy 70's cartoon movie and I'm really, really excited about Peter Jackson's version that's coming out in December. Tolkien's storytelling is so engaging and endearing and it's very easy for me to be drawn in to the story. I feel like I'm leaving this life and entering Middle Earth each time I pick it up and sometimes that's exactly what I need - to not feel overwhelmed but to be swept away with adventure. When James came home from the hospital I read through the Narnia books and I felt the same way about them. I think there's something about a good book that lets you process emotions and thoughts in ways that academic books or even movies don't. Even though I'm not able to sit and read it for long periods of time (it's usually 15 mintues here or there while I nurse) I'm going through it pretty quickly because I'm loving it so much.
What do you like least about them? Letters and Lamb's Supper engage my head and a little my heart but they're not stories. I've actually been reading Letters for over a year and Lamb's Supper has been at least seven months. They don't engage my heart the way The Hobbit does and because it was taking me so long to read them I began to wonder if I even like reading any more. That really troubled me since I used to devour books but once I thought back to reading the Narnia books I realized that I needed a story.
The only thing I don't like about The Hobbit is that the edition I'm reading is old and a little brittle. I have to hold it in one hand while I nurse so it's hard to read the top of the pages because they're not spread enough and the bottom of the book's binding is starting to split a little. I know, first world problem...
What's next on your list to read? Ummm... definitely not Fifty Shades of Grey. Does it gross anyone else out how women are not at all embarrassed to talk about how they read that erotica novel? I don't want to read on Facebook, watch on tv, listen to on the radio, or see on Pinterest how you're engaging in something that's basically porn, people. You can call me a prude but I feel bad for your husband every time you talk about Christian Grey.
9 comments:
Bonnie, thanks for doing your own "what are you reading?"
I had a link some time back (I'm going to add it in again), because it wasn't used at all, because I so love to hear what others are reading.
You will LOVE the Hobbit and I hope you will continue on with Lord of the Rings. The dog-eared copies are the best. :-)
50 Shades five word review: Just.say.no.to.porn.
We have all read those books in this house ...except 50 Shades...why would every one of my Catholic friends be mesmerized by a book where the lead character was abused as a 4 yr old by his prostitute mothers patrons and so spends the rest of his life punishing women? i juts don't get it!! the same people have zero interest in The Lambs Supper..
I got to your blog because my husband sent me the link about Archbishop Sheen...I will pray his intercession for your son...blessings all around you!!
I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you like.
How about Lord of the Rings? :D The audio recording by Rob Inglis is spectacular!
The Perfect Joy of St. Francis is a great book.
I found your blog through Catholic.org and their article about James' miracle. What a beautiful blessing! I have loved Ven. Fulton Sheen since my childhood. God bless you and your beautiful family.
I'm reading Searching for and Maintaining Peace; A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart my Father Jacques Philippe. I wish they had a 'Look Inside' for this on Amazon so you could see how good it is. It is just a small book; 4"x7", 110 pages, with 2 to 4 page chapters, so you can read just a bit at a time and not feel like you are stopping in the middle of something (one of the things I love about this book).
Here are a few excerpts: "How many occasions that I dreaded, when they arrived, in the final analysis proved to be supportable, and finally beneficial, after the first impact of pain. That which I believed to be working against me revealed itself to be to my benefit." And, "The real life is elsewhere, I tell myself, and I simple forget to live. Oftentimes it would take so little for everything to be different and for me to progress with giant steps: a different outlook, a view of my situation which is one of confidence and hope (based on the certitude that I will lack nothing." And, "It is not the exterior circumstance that must change; it is above all our hearts that must change."
I thought about Anon40, who commented on your 'The Wait was Well Worth It' post, when I read these passages.
There is nothing I don't like about this book.
Just Ugh on the 50 Shades of Grey.
One of my coworkers came up to me out of the blue the other day and started raving about that book, how it was great, and I really needed to read it. I'm wondering when it became socially acceptable to say, "I read porn and you should too." YUCK!
I just have to say, two of my favorite books of all time are Letters to a Young Catholic and Searching for and Maintaining Peace.
I'm actually not reading anything at the moment (well, I'm plugging away at Pope Benedict's Holy Women). But I just read Father Elijah and I really enjoyed it. It's a fiction book about the apocalypse, from a Catholic perspective.
You feel bad for other husbands? I feel bad for Travis every time I think about him marrying you.
R
Lisa, I LOVED Father Elijah! I would read it again, but loaned it out and it hasn't been returned. Same for Kristen Lavrensdatter.
Jenny, SO with you on the Shades of Grey series. Hearing about it just makes me want to spit repeatedly, like the time I realized I had just brushed my teeth with the brush I use to scrub the base of the toilet.
Ummm, doesn't the catechism explicitly say not to read porn?
*groan*
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