Feast of The Sacred Heart
Taking Stock
This little project has been going a few months now, long enough for me to take stock. This is a hobby, not a money-making operation. It will keep going for a while (until I run out of books, I guess). I can’t justify charging anything for all this, even in the line of tips—plus, I don’t want to deal with taxes, etc. So I don’t plan to ever transition to paid content. That said, if anyone reading this ever sees a book s/he’d like, let me know. I’m out of the book business, but maybe we could do a swap or loan or something. Breaking even is fine with me. I’d like to grow readership, so spread the word if you can.
Pictured: Books I/we are currently reading. My Daily Bread is a Confraternity of the Precious Blood book, and it is both challenging and consoling. This one was originally published in 1954. These Confraternity books and those by Fr. Frey are almost enough in themselves to refute the “no good Catholic material in mid-20th century” argument. In the same vein is My Catholic Faith: A Manual of Religion, a Catechism in Pictures by Bishop Morrow, originally 1954 and republished by Sarto House. It uses material from the Baltimore catechism. Somewhere on my shelves I have an original copy of this, which I will feature in another post. I keep this by my bedside for quickly dipping into at night. My philosophical education is almost non-existent. I found three massive volumes of Copleston’s classic A History of Philosophy at an estate sale last year. I am slowly working my way through volume 1 (just starting St. Bonaventure) which spans Greece and Rome to Ockham and Suarez. Recently started The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Osuna. I am enjoying the diptych of Sigrid Undset’s The Faithful Wife and a literary biography of her, Sigrid Undset: A Study in Christian Realism by A.H. Wisnes. (Both reprints and published by Cluny.) Undset’s books are remarkably relevant to modern concerns of individualism, family, sex, and religion. For mostly non-religious reading I am loving Patrick Madden Keefe’s non-fiction page-turner, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and memory in Northern Ireland, purchased at the very good Crow Bookshop in downtown Burlington, VT. My wife and I are reading two books together—I read out loud while she is cooking, working on a project, or doing a jigsaw puzzle: Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith by Bishop Athanasius Schneider (highly recommended for its concision and clarity); the other is Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War by Peachy Keenan (a pseudonym for a traditional Catholic wife and mother). It is funny, raw, and full of gut-punches and clear-sighted takedowns of our perverted culture.
Not pictured: Bishop Sheen’s Go To Heaven (1960) about keeping our focus where it needs to be. So far this one has less of his trademark corny humor but lots of piercing insights into human nature.
Happy Feast Day!