January 08, 2004
Glory!
Rec'd in the mail today: the 5-volume 1962 English edition of Dr. Pius Parsch's The Church's Year of Grace from Catacomb Books in Greenville, South Carolina, complete with that old book smell that makes me tremble; the books were formerly owned by "Sr. M. Nathanael", then by "Sr. Eileen Woods".
God is good.
November 21, 2003
Which it's an O'Brian miscellany
- Sir Max Hastings, English military historian and journalist, on Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels
- Searching for POB
November 11, 2003
For a home library
Here's a bit of Scripture (chapter 7 of Wisdom) that would be suitable for framing in a home library:
[15] May God grant that I speak with judgment
and have thought worthy of what I have received,
for he is the guide even of wisdom
and the corrector of the wise.
[16] For both we and our words are in his hand,
as are all understanding and skill in crafts.
[17] For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,
to know the structure of the world and the
activity of the elements;
[18] the beginning and end and middle of times,
the alternations of the solstices and the changes
of the seasons,
[19] the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,
[20] the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,
the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men,
the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;
[21] I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,
[22] for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
September 26, 2003
In praise of a large home library
My reading, computer programming and recreation usually revolve through a cycle of theology, history, astronomy and music, with a period of about a year or a year and a half. This week I turned the corner from Church history to American history with the following books and a movie:
- Henri Daniel-Rops' The Church in the Dark Ages, concentrating on the century and a half between Pope Saint Leo the Great, the great conservator of a fallen civilization, and Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who began the re-evangelization of Barbarian Europe;
- The Well-Trained Mind - classical education at home
- A small Dover edition of sixteen of Abraham Lincoln's speeches and letters;
- James Madison's notes of the Constitutional Convention debates in 1787;
- The first half of the new movie Gods and Generals with its shocking scene of VMI cadets desecrating an American flag, its beautiful partly-digital reconstructions of the Virginia countryside and townscapes in the 1860s, and its many hundreds of yards of facial hair and florid speechifying. The portrayal of secession was especially uncomfortable having just read Madison's introduction to the debates in which he summed up the evils of America's fissiparous political tendencies under the Articles of Confederation;
- Washington Irving's 1860 biography of George Washington;
- volume 1 of The Founders' Constitution, a massive collection of original documents relating to the Constitution, its history and its development through American history.
August 25, 2003
Calling all booksluts
If the thought of cheap used books makes you giddy, head on over to Book Sale Finder.
You're welcome.
July 28, 2003
In the stacks
I spent an hour this afternoon in the stacks of one of the world's greatest libraries - the 10-million-volume library of the University of Illinois - and came away with the following small treasures:
- Christopher Derrick - The Rule of Peace: St. Benedict and the European Future
- Christopher Dawson - The Formation of Christendom
- Christopher Dawson - The Crisis of Western Education
- Christopher Dawson - Understanding Europe
I hope to post excerpts as I have a chance to read them.
July 25, 2003
Old books
What's your oldest or most unusual book?
Mine is an 1853 edition of Cardinal Newman's Discourses to Mixed Congregations published in Boston by Patrick Donohoe, and discarded by the diocesan library of Fort Wayne, Indiana. A stamp inside says "Bibliotheca Dioecesana J. H. Alerding Ep. Wayne Castris, Ind." Bishop Alerding served the diocese from 1900 until his death in 1924.
I also collect old Doubleday Image paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s and old missals and breviaries.
By the way, I thought my 3,000 books was a lot until a fellow blogger revealed that he has 20,000 volumes (and he's not even a Dominican!) How large is your home library?
Have any good book-buying memories? I'm fond of my "500 Mile 500 Dollar" day back in my Rich Young Bachelor days - it was a book-buying trip all over central Illinois in which I found the 1940s Ottawa edition of the Summa of St. Thomas in Latin and Stephan von Bechtolsheim's 4-volume TeX in Practice.
Until it closed recently, the best source for old Catholic books around here was a used book store in the basement of the University of Illinois YMCA
July 23, 2003
More books
I have a slightly less painful way to post book listings on my library blog, so they'll be posted a bit faster now.
July 14, 2003
Preserving the fruits of civilization
There being no online edition of John Mason Neale's Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, I asked my local library to find a copy - it arrived today! I have the third edition of the book, published in London in 1867, and I'll copy it tonight (it's a sturdy little book) to begin preparing an online edition.
July 10, 2003
Library stuff to review
Info from a co-worker:
Amazon Web Services
isbn.nu
WorldCat at UIUC
RLIN
Dewey or Library of Congress?
When cataloging my home library, should I use the Dewey decimal system or the Library of Congress system? I've chosen the LC system solely for aesthetic reasons since I know nothing further about them. Any opinions?
July 07, 2003
New blog
Can a blog be used as a home library's online catalog system? We'll see.
At a theoretical rate of 1 book per day, this should take a little over 8 years.
June 13, 2003
Books books books (and a t-shirt)
Hi. My name is Bill, and I'm a bibliophile. Today's arrivals:
The Oort Gnus T-shirt. Gnus is an email and news client that runs within Emacs.
June 12, 2003
NICU for Dummies
Speaking of NICU information, much of the printed material the NICU folks are required to hand out reads like this:
Hi.
I am your new baby.
Sometimes I cry.
When I cry I might need a new diaper.
Not exactly helpful.
Baby update / the NICU encyclopedia
Regular ultrasound scans of our daughter's brain have revealed a small spot in one of the ventricles. The spot was still there in yesterday's scan so her doctor ordered a CT scan, which showed that all is well. If there had been an intraventricular hemorrhage, it caused no damage and it's resolving itself.
She also had a barium swallow X-ray yesterday, which showed no abnormalities in her esophagus and stomach. Good God, the barium cocktail reeks when it comes out the other end!
Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs to Know is a marvelously comprehensive guide to what can happen in a neonatal intensive care unit. One of the pediatric physical therapists at the hospital gave us a copy of the book yesterday (which generosity depends on this year's availability of grant money), and it has helped us understand what's going on and what to really worry about (not that worrying does any good, but it's gonna happen anyhow).
April 24, 2003
Speaking of tombs...
Perhaps the presence of tombs could be one of Earth's distinguishing marks in some science-fiction story. A great planet of tombs.
January 20, 2003
The Twentieth Day of January
At Rome, the birthday of Pope St. Fabian, who suffered martyrdom in the time of Decius, and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus.
Also at Rome near the Catacombs, St. Sebastian, martyr. He was in command of the first cohort under the Emperor Diocletian. On being accused of being a Christian, he was ordered to be tied in an open field and shot with arrows by the soldiers. Finally, he was beaten with clubs until he died. A duplex feast.
At Nicaca in Bithynia, St. Neophitus, martyr. When fifteen years old, he was scourged, cast into a furnace, and (then) thrown to the beasts; but he remained unhurt. As he continued to profess unswervingly the faith of Christ, he was finally slain with the sword.
At Cesena, St. Maurus, bishop, famed for virtues and miracles.
In Palestine, St. Euthymius, abbot. He flourished in the Church in the time of the Emperor Marcian, full of zeal for Catholic teaching and endowed with the power of miracles.
V. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
R. Thanks be to God.
January 17, 2003
New Books!
Like I have time to read...
- Etienne Gilson, The Unity of Philosophical Experience: The Medieval Experiment; The Cartesian Experiment; The Modern Experiment
- Frank Sheed, To Know Christ Jesus
- Christopher Dawson, The Making of Europe
- John R. Willis, S.J., The Teachings of the Church Fathers
- Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words
- Dwight Longenecker, Listen My Son: Saint Benedict for Fathers
January 02, 2003
On the Aquisition of Christian Books
From Loome Theological Booksellers:
"The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them. For the mere sight of these books renders us less inclined to sin and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness." - Abba Epiphanius
December 19, 2002
Current Reading
The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity & The Truth of Catholicism, by John Saward
Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought, by Luigi Gambero
November 12, 2002
November 11, 2002
Current Reading
- Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues: bathroom book at work.
- Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought: kitchen book at home.
- Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose: bathroom book at home. I just discovered this cool study guide!
