Well, Christine over at Good Company inspired me - I'm not really making a resolution in the traditional sense (clearly there are many improvements I could work on) but instead, I am excited about my "resolution." She is endeavoring to read 52 books from the Washington Posts top books of 2011. That got me thinking about reading some of the many, many, many books that are sitting around my house unread. Honestly, I find it hard to read something intellectual after homeschooling all week long, so many of my Catholic books are just waiting for me to get to them. So, I am challenging myself to read at least 12 books from the Lifetime Catholic Reading Plan by Father JohnMcCloskey and/or from the EPIC reading lists (available in the free downloads).
I printed out the McCloskey list to take to my bookshelves and see what I had there. These are the books from the list that I have read (not necessarily the edition):
Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Here are the books I have on hand (again, not necessarily the edition I have):
Catechism of the Catholic Church (I use it, but have never read it)
St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by GK Chesterton
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien (I made it part way through the first book, once. I enjoyed the movies.)
Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux
Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre De Caussade
True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of the Rosary by Louis-Marie Grignion De Monfort (the reading list has listed a compilation of his works, with four more included that I do not have)
Finally, the books on the list that I found free for my Kindle:
Essay on Development of Christian Doctrine by Cardinal Newman
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Idea of a University by John Newman
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
My Way of Life/Summa Theologica Parts I-II and Part III by St. Thomas Aquinas
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
I've finished my first book so far (I started early) and will write some about it soon. I think that I have plenty of choices now, and that's before I spend a penny on a book, or even put any titles on paperback swap!
I think this is an awesome idea, and you will love some of these books. I really like your idea of 12 books, many of these are better in smaller bite size pieces so you can reflect on them. I'm looking forward to your reflections. This is much better than my secular reading list!
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine - but to be fair, I wouldn't be trying 12 books total if I had a newborn - unless they were all Fancy Nancy length! We'll see how well I reflect on them - it's hard to wrap my head around my thoughts most days.
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