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A book is a literary compass that has the potential to direct our thoughts and actions:

"Everything we read stimulates our mind to think, and what we think determines what we desire, and desires are the seedbed of our actions. Given this iron law of human nature--from reading to thinking, to desiring, to acting--we are shaping our destiny by the ideas we choose to have enter our minds through print." - Fr. John Hardon, S.J., The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan

Welcome to my own personal exploration of life through reading the great books of the world.

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"Every soul that uplifts itself uplifts the world." --Elisabeth Leseur

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Saturday, July 01, 2006

Nick's Catholic Classics Reading List: History and Rationale

About three years ago I got fed up with wasting my time reading mediocre books. As the Michael Card song goes, “So many books, so little time.” I became determined to only read books that would have a life-changing effect on me. But first I had to find a way to know which books those were. So, I accumulated about thirteen lists of the greatest or most influential books ever written and counted which books appeared on the most lists, and then I ranked them. The logic behind this method is that by using many lists I can reduce the bias of individual critics or organizations, and come up with a more objective and comprehensive list. This process would have been a lot more time consuming without Robert Teeter’s fantastic great books page.

Not long after that, I found Fr. Hardon’s The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan and I decided to put together a list of great Catholic literature, based on the same logic. I found two more lists of Catholic/Christian classics and added them to my initial thirteen. Here, then, are my sources for my Catholic Classics Reading List:

Catholic/Christian Reading Lists:
My Original Thirteen Lists:
My next post will contain part one of Nick's Catholic Classics Reading List.

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posted by Nick Senger at 2:18 PM

Comments on "Nick's Catholic Classics Reading List: History and Rationale"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (Wednesday, July 19, 2006 7:23:00 AM) : 

Hi

Just looked (very quickly) over your lists. I would like to suggest a couple of books. The first two are by the same author, Fr. James T. O'Connor. 'The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist' and 'The Father's Son'. I haven't gotten through them yet, but they are a very good and informative read. The other one is Roman Guardini's Living the Drama of Faith: What Faith Is and Where It Leads You'. Another one I'm lookiing forward to reading is 'How Christ Said the First Mass or the Lord's Last Supper' by James J. Meagher. If they ARE on the list and I've overlooked them, please forgive me. But I do highly recommend these books.

 

Blogger Nick Senger said ... (Thursday, July 20, 2006 5:53:00 AM) : 

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to start a new list of books recommended by readers, and I'll be sure to add those four books.

 

Blogger Jonathan said ... (Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:26:00 PM) : 

Hi Nick,

Would you be willing to list the authors/works in A Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan? I can't find this list anywhere on the web.

Jon

 

Blogger Jonathan said ... (Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:27:00 PM) : 

(resubmitting with "Email follow-up comments" checkbox selected)

 

Blogger Jonathan said ... (Sunday, March 15, 2009 6:06:00 PM) : 

I have posted the list of books from Fr. Hardon's The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan:
http://cooltoolsforcatholics.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-list-from-hardons-catholic.html

 

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