Mulier Fortis tagged me for a meme:
1) Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
War and Peace, can't remember those Russian names and diminutives.
2) If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Tea with Frs Brown, Camillo and Percy Franklin (from Benson’s Lord of the World)
3) (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for a while, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Any Geoffrey Archer
4) Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
I often think I have read books which when I reread them I find I have misread them or haven’t actually read the whole thing.
5) You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP).
No idea
6) A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Russian: I want to understand those nineteenth century Russian theologians.
7) A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Like Fr Z, Brevarium Romanum, it is part of the job
8) I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I love reading Way of the Fathers, I don't have enough time to read the Patrtistic stuff I would like to, so I allow Mike to filter and prece it. He also introduces me to patristic archaeology which I read little about.
9) That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
1) Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
War and Peace, can't remember those Russian names and diminutives.
2) If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Tea with Frs Brown, Camillo and Percy Franklin (from Benson’s Lord of the World)
3) (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for a while, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
Any Geoffrey Archer
4) Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
I often think I have read books which when I reread them I find I have misread them or haven’t actually read the whole thing.
5) You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP).
No idea
6) A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Russian: I want to understand those nineteenth century Russian theologians.
7) A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Like Fr Z, Brevarium Romanum, it is part of the job
8) I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I love reading Way of the Fathers, I don't have enough time to read the Patrtistic stuff I would like to, so I allow Mike to filter and prece it. He also introduces me to patristic archaeology which I read little about.
9) That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
Joseph Ratzinger’s library, I would love to read all those careful annotations, even the piano scores.
6 comments:
I can't say that I would follow entirely in your footsteps Father, but on balance, I think you're right. I too would welcome Fr. Brown and Don Camillo as ones I would like to meet. I'm sure that your link to The Way of the Fathers is indeed a good one. One book which I bought maybe a couple of years ago (I don't rush into buying books), is by a convert called Rod Bennett. He wrote a very readable book called "Four Witnesses - The Early Church in her own words". This details what brought about his conversion and that was the purchase of a set of the Early Church Fathers which he read daily for about a year or so. He came to realise that the Early Church is the same Church as the Catholic Church Church. Then he wrote this book which takes a look at just four of the Patristic Fathers :-
Clement of Rome.
Ignatius of Antioch.
Justin Martyr.
Irenaeus of Antioch.
His book is in a very readable style and I have lent it to others who have also gone on to buy the book.
I'm sure that you are aware that Harmony Media Inc. produced a CD-Rom which is a translation of all the Early Church Fathers. I own a copy. The only bit which is not in English is that it contains the whole of the Jerome Vulgate. That, of course, is in Latin. I must confess that it is much easier to read a book than to sit at a computer and go through text on the computer screen. That, for me, is the main disadvantage of this production. I think that it was Tan books who published....no, I'm wrong, and I'm not deleting the above, because Tan books publised a new translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' four volumes of The Catena Aurea. St. Thomas certainly wrote that quoting from his memory of the Church Fathers. He did not have Card Indexes to assist him with his quotes from them.
Once again, Harmony Media have produced such a CD-Rom and I possess a copy.It is very useful in picking out quotes from the Bible because it has a copy of the Bible on it and also a search facility.
JARay
Yes, Fr. Brown and Don Camillo !
Fr. Brown, I feel sure, would fit in anywhere : a small parish church, Brompton oratory, a simple presbytery, a gentlemen's club, he would take it all in his stride, looking harmless, blinking shortsightedly, and noticing all those little things which only a true detective would notice.
I've seen that part of the Po valley which was the "Little World of Don Camillo", but I've never met a real life Don Camillo.
What would he be, I wonder, without his constant adversary, Pepone, the communist mayor of their little village ?
A very good priest, I imagine.
They both would.
Hey! See, it wasn't soooo bad, was it?
(Great answers, BTW)
And ok, I promise not to tag you for ages... at least two months!
I enjoyed your picks. The only patristics Ive ventured near is Quasten's patrology. What tomes are you reading re: Patristic archeology?
Karen
[had a good laugh on your Jeffry ARcher answer. It was fun to see other people who'd like knowing Russian really well. I cheated and picked Greek - to read the New Testament - and Russian for the rest.]
Karen thanks for the "E" award, I tend to just do Pat. Arch. on the net and read reviews, lazy I know, but time saving.
At the moment I am re-reading Iraenaeus' Proof of the Apostolic Teaching, I keep coming back to that. I am reading, very slowly Bede's De Tabernaculo, tediously fascinating, a bit late as Father but very much in the style of one.
Thanks Father. (BTW, I hope you don't mind me casting you as Fr. Brown - even before Fr. Brown came up as a topic, I thought "ah, PERFECT Fr. Brown!"
Bede is someone I'm guilty of NOT reading ... though I've had a Bede kicking around here for a good twenty years. I always think "well, there's Bede now...." Which is odd I haven't gotten to him yet, given I like history so much.
Do you have any particular websites that are especially good for the archeology? I don't have a good road map on any of that stuff, and it would be nice to get shoved in the right direction.
Karen
Post a Comment