Book Meme

I've seen this on a couple of different blogs and thought I'd post it here. I'll update it later with my responses. Feel free to send me yours to: ex.mea.sententia @ gmail . com.

Responses added below.

1. One book that changed your life:
My Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis has changed, is changing and will continue to change my life. Like Scripture, you never finish reading this book. Once you get to the end, you start over again. I’ve read this book about 5 times now and still get new wisdom and insights that I did not glean in previous readings.

Another book that comes a close second is He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter Ciszek. In case you hadn’t heard of him, Fr. Ciszek was a Jesuit priest ordained just as WWII was about to engulf Europe. Nevertheless, Fr. Ciszek went to Poland to minister and was almost immediately arrested by the Russian secret police. He spent the next 23 years in various Soviet prisons – including several years in solitary confinement. Once he was released and returned to the States, he wrote a great book entitled With God in Russia – which was a biographical account of his years in Russia. However, he was often asked about his spiritual trials while in confinement and he then wrote He Leadeth Me. Fr. Ciszek’s spiritual growth and insights are incredible.

2. One book you've read more than once:
Based on the above, My Imitation of Christ is obvious. Another book I’ve read many times is the collected Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. I started reading Sherlock Holmes as a boy and have never grown tired of the stories. Some of them I’ve probably read close to ten times. Even though I always know the outcome, these stories make great reading.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:
Sacred Scripture is the (too) obvious answer, so I’ll think of something else. Chesterton would (and I think did) answer this question with something to the effect: How to Make an Ocean-going Raft out of Desert Island Materials. (Gotta love Chesterton). I think the next best thing to Scripture would be St. Thomas’ Summa.

4. One book that made you laugh:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This book gets my vote for the best American novel. I laugh out loud at some of the passages.

5. One book that made you cry:
Love Story by Eric Seagal starring Al Gore. Sorry, just kidding. J I can’t think of one offhand; however, I can recall being brought to tears on a number of occasions reading the 13^th through 16^th chapters of John’s Gospel.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
How to Understand Women. Just kidding (but not too much)

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
I don’t know the name of it, but it was written by a guy during the “Enlightenment” and it started the whole chain of thought that man was a rational creature in charge of his future and that he no longer needed God – in fact, he himself could be “god”. Maybe there is no specific book that this heresy can be traced back to, but we’ll never know, this side of heaven, how many lifes and souls have been destroyed by this “liberation” in thought.

8. One book you are currently reading:
Oh boy. Let’s see:

• Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
• Armageddon by Max Hastings
• How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods
• The Faith Explained by Leo Trese
• Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt
• The Civil War by Shelby Foote
• Common Sense 101: Lessons From G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist
• Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
  

9. One book you've been meaning to read:
Boswells’ Life of Johnson. This has been recommended to me numerous times by different people. I bought a copy and have never even opened it yet.