Lending Books

During the Middle Ages, books were so precious that books started to be inscribed with excommunications, much like those of the Ecumenical Councils, against those who either stole or failed to return to their owner. Here’s an example I recently found:

This book belongs to St. Mary of Robert’s Bridge; whosoever shall steal it or sell it, or alienate it from this house, or mutilate it, let him be anathema maranatha, Amen.

I should definitely start doing this when I lend out books…

Reading List Update

It’s time for a quick reading list update. So far this year, I’ve finished the following books

The Screwtape Letters The Great Divorce , Mere ChristianityProblem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks – Penguin Classics
Every Man’s Journey – James P. Campbell
Hold Me Tight – Dr. Sue Johnson
After Jesus – Reader’s Digest
St. Francis of Assisi – G.K. Chesterton
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Weaving The Web – Tim Berners-Lee*
Roots of the Reformation – Karl Adam*
The Confessions of St. Augustine – St. Augustine
Imitation of Christ – Thomas à Kempis

This month I finished:

Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

I am currently reading:

Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias

…which leaves the following books still unread:

The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
Introduction to the Devout Life – St. Francis de Sales
Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Everlasting Man – G.K. Chesterton

The article Reading List Update first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

Reading List Update

It’s time for a quick reading list update. So far this year, I’ve finished the following books

The Screwtape Letters The Great Divorce , Mere ChristianityProblem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks – Penguin Classics
Every Man’s Journey – James P. Campbell
Hold Me Tight – Dr. Sue Johnson
After Jesus – Reader’s Digest
St. Francis of Assisi – G.K. Chesterton
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Weaving The Web – Tim Berners-Lee*
Roots of the Reformation – Karl Adam*

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Tea, reading and other important topics…

Here are some statistics from 2003 conducted by The Jenkins Group:

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

Shocking, right? I mention these statistics because I am currently picking out the books I’m going to read in 2013, drawing heavily from the Best Catholic Books of All-Time list posted by Brandon Vogt:

Best Catholic Books

I’ll be posting my 2013 Reading List in a week or two. So what books do you plan to read next year?

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