Chronological Middle-earth Reading List

If you've ever wanted to read Tolkien's Middle-earth writings in chronological order, you might want to check out the Chronological Middle-earth Reading List. It's available in Word or pdf format.

More Quotes on the Glories of Reading

I'm a voracious reader. You have to read to survive. People who read for pleasure are wasting their time. Reading isn't fun; it's indispensable. --Woody Allen What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright?...Without moving, you walk through the countries you see in your mind's eye; and your thoughts, caught up in the story, stop at the details or rush through the plot. You pretend you're the characters and feel it's your own heart beating beneath their costumes. --Gustave Flaubert I'll spend the rest of my life reading, and because I'd rather read than do anything else, I don't look forward to years of hopeless, black despair. Most men who are in for life are filled with bitterness and hatred for the unkind fate that led them to such a horrible fate. --Willie Sutton

Possessed by Books

I've known some bibliomaniacs in my time, but Archdeacon Meadow has got to be one of the worst afflicted: Archdeacon Meadow accumulated so many books that he was forced to sell a considerable portion of his collection. But as their auction proceeded he experienced such passionate anguish that he left the room and returned again in disguise to begin bidding for his own books. --Otto L. Bettman, The Delights of Reading: Quotes, Notes and Anecdotes

I Write in Books - And I'm Proud of It

One of the comments I often get from people who have read my book ROMAN Reading is "I could never write in my books." It's hard to get people to understand the value and pleasure of writing comments, thoughts and reactions in their books. But now I have a book to recommend to them: Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books by H. J. Jackson. I found this book in the Notre Dame bookstore, and I couldn't be more excited to read it. From the back cover: Imaginative and amusing, this book will be a pleasure for anyone who cares about books and reading. H. J. Jackson examines all varieties of marginalia, from casual scribbles to lengthy arguments, and introduces us to annotators both celebrated and unknown whose jottings in book margins reveal much about themselves, their relationships with other readers, and their passionate involvement with books. I love the phrase "passionate involvement with books." I think many readers are passionate about their books, but writing comments and reactions in books really shows a reader's involvement. I hope to read Marginalia in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how I like it.

Humiliation through Rereading

This quote by Joseph Epstein rings true with me: Rereading can be...a humility-inducing activity, when, on rereading, one learns that the first time around with a book, one's politics or fantasies or personal anxieties were in fact doing most of the work. Rereading books first read when young, one is inclined to weep for the naif one not so long ago was. And while at it one discovers, if one gets to reread the same book twenty years hence, one is even one now. I can think of several books that I thought were true masterpieces when I read them twenty-five years ago that almost embarrass me now. For instance, if you can believe it, I once thought Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara was better than Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I wonder if young readers of today will have the same experience with the Harry Potter books when they get older...

Literary Compass Meets Harry Dresden

I can take a hint. First, there was the big display at my local Hastings store: Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden. I ignored it. After all, Hastings gets paid to display products. Then, I saw a few respected bloggers mention the names and I thought, "Hmmm, maybe I should check this Harry Dresden thing out." So I did. The next time I was in Hastings I picked up Storm Front and started paging through it. It didn't take long for me to make up my mind. In fact, I can tell you the exact phrase that sold me. And it wasn't "Think Philip Marlowe meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer." No, it was a little phrase the postman used to ridicule Dresden on page 2. The postman asks if Dresden is an actual wizard. "Spells and potions? Demons and incantations? Subtle and quick to anger?" And there it was. Subtle and quick to anger. Any book in which the postman quotes Tolkien can't be all bad. So I bought it. I'll let you know how I like it.

What is Reading For?

I saw this comment on a post in someone else's blog the other day: My theory is, at least they're reading. Who cares what they read? Just read, damn it. If the discussion were about kids who were just learning to read, I'd be inclined to agree--there is a point in everyone's life when the best way to improve as a reader is to read as much as you can, regardless of the content (mostly--I hate Captain Underpants!). But the blog post was about reading in general, and I just can't agree with this comment. There is no point in reading for reading's sake, unless you're trying to build fluency. You either read to be entertained or to be educated. Both kinds of reading are worthwhile, but I think too many people stop at merely being entertained (and here I must say again that reading for entertainment and reading for education are not mutually exclusive). Henry Fielding offers this comment on reading for amusement: The present age seems pretty well agreed in an opinion, that the utmost scope and end of reading is amusement only; and such, indeed, are now the fashionable books, that a reader can propose no more than mere entertainment, and it is sometimes very well for him if he finds even this, in his studies. Letters, however, were surely intended for a much more noble and profitable purpose than this. Writers are not, I presume, to be considered as mere jack-puddings, whose business it is only to excite laughter: this, indeed, may sometimes be intermixed and served up with graver matters, in order to titillate the palate, and to recommend wholesome food to the mind; and for this purpose it hath been used by many excellent authors: "for why," as Horace says, "should not any one promulgate truth with a smile on his countenance?" Ridicule indeed, as he again intimates, is commonly a stronger and better method of attacking vice than the severer kind of satire. When wit and humour are introduced for such good purposes, when the agreeable is blended with the useful, then is the writer said to have succeeded in every point. Pleasantry…should be made only the vehicle of instruction; and thus romances themselves, as well as epic poems, may become worthy the perusal of the greatest of men: but when no moral, no lesson, no instruction, is conveyed to the reader, where the whole design of the composition is no more than to make us laugh, the writer comes very near to the character of a buffoon; and his admirers, if an old Latin proverb be true, deserve no great compliments to be paid to their wisdom.

5 Great Books to Read Aloud at the Family Dinner Table

One of my favorite things to do is share stories with my family at the dinner table. A few years ago when I was reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series my boys asked me each night at dinner to tell them what had happened to Captain Aubrey and his friend Stephen Maturin. It gave me a chance to share the joys of reading with my sons, and it also encouraged me to keep reading. Another great way to encourage reading in your kids is to read to them at the beginning of dinner. Reading to your family at dinner has several benefits: Everyone has to be quiet while you read. The stories give you something to talk about as a family. You get the chance to model good reading skills. You create family memories that last a lifetime. Reading at the dinner table should be brief, for three reasons: (1) kids have short attention spans; (2) you need time to talk about what you've read; and (3) you need to eat. Here are several titles that contain short readings that are perfect for reading aloud at the dinner table (Be sure to preview each story before reading it to your kids--some of these books contain stories that would launch the kind of discussion you may not be ready for, if you know what I mean): Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story - My eighth grade students love these. True stories with a twist at the end. When you finish with the first book, get More Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. The World's Shortest Stories - All the stories in this book are 55 words or less. The hard part is not giving in to the temptation to read more than one. Two-Minute Mysteries - Fun little brain exercises for kids between the ages of 9 and 15. 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories - A terrific collection of Twilight-Zone-type stories edited by Isaac Asimov. Out of print but easy to find used online. Also see Asimov's Microcosmic Tales and 100 Malicious Little Mysteries. 3 Minutes or Less: Life Lessons from America's Greatest Writers - Reading aloud is not just for kids. Adults can read to each other, too. This book is more sophisticated than the others and may be more appealing to couples or empty-nesters; older teenagers may enjoy it too. You can also read from your favorite saint book, Aesop's fables, or chapters from books like the Magic Treehouse series.

Are ROMANs Elite?

John at SF Signal reviewed my free ebook ROMAN Reading in post called When in Rome...Do as Elitists Do? I really appreciate the time he took to read the book and write about it. His comments actually illustrate a couple of the elements of ROMAN Reading: Asking questions about what you read, and Naming your experiences. One of the questions he asks is if the neighborhood analogy is elitist. Here are his thoughts: Encouraging reading is a good thing, but I detect a smack of reading elitism here, particularly in this passage: Books are like neighbors, and your personal library is your neighborhood. Take a look at your bookshelves. What kind of neighborhood are you living in? Are you in a slum or in the suburbs? Who are your neighbors? Are they trash talkers or shrewd sages? If you live next door to Socrates, then invite him to dinner every night. If you live next to Dan Brown, then put your house on the market. He goes on to say: I sometimes hear people speak as if (or say outright that) reading is not a worthwhile activity unless you are reading Literature with a capital L. Enter self-doubt. Am I wasting my time by reading anything else? Am I denying myself the true value of reading? Am I becoming a literary snob? Is this self-doubt the beginning of a midlife crisis? What great questions! I began to leave John a comment, but it kept getting longer and longer, so I thought I'd respond here. Again, I'd like to thank John for mentioning the book and linking to it. First let me say that I have "lowbrow" tastes in books, too--my favorites span a wide range: on the "lower" end I have such favorites as pulp hero Doc Savage, the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison, the Conan series, and any short story collection with Alfred Hitchcock in the title. Reading for fun is as necessary as taking the weekend off from work, or going on an extended vacation every once in a while. Not every book is meant to educate or inspire. What I was trying to say with the neighborhood analogy (while poking a little fun at Dan Brown), is that behind every book is a real person. Books have as much power to influence us as the friends we hang around. Each person must choose their own friends, but if I see my teenage son constantly getting into trouble because of the influence of his friends, I will try and point that out to him. In the same way, books can have a positive or negative effect on us, and I was trying to remind my readers of that. I'd like to insert one of my favorite quotes here. It's by Father John Hardon, and you can find it on every page of this blog: "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." Are there some books that I think everyone should read? Yes, I must admit that I believe there are. Not necessarily because they are "better" than others, but because they have so much to offer everyone. Think of it this way: Aren't there some people who are just so inspirational and intelligent (and even holy) that everyone would benefit from meeting them? Mother Teresa comes to mind. Well, I can't meet Mother Teresa in person anymore because she has passed on, but I can read what she left behind and get to know her through her books. She is someone I think everyone would have benefited from meeting. There's also some faulty logic that people can slip into when talking about books. I'm guilty of it myself at times. I occasionally fall into the trap of putting books into two categories: (1) fun books, and (2) literature. The mistake is thinking that these two categories are mutually exclusive. What has happened to me as I've expanded my reading is that the books I used to think of as "fun" (like Conan, for instance) have actually become a bit boring and not as entertaining as they used to be. What I find now is that literature is more fun and entertaining to me, and much of the enjoyment comes from wrestling with the author's ideas. If you "wrestled" with my ideas in ROMAN Reading, I hope it gave you some enjoyment. I'm sorry if it seemed elitist, and I hope this post has clarified things a bit. Thanks again, John, for your challenging remarks and for linking to Literary Compass.

How to Turn a Book into a Treasured Heirloom

(Cross-posted at ROMAN Reading) Stefanie at So Many Books has just posted a review of ROMAN Reading and it's generating some great comments about marking in books. Here's one by Whatladder that I particularly like: My husband claims that his favourite book ever is the copy of the Norton Anthology of Poetry I gave him that had all my pencilled notes in it. What a terrific reminder of the value of marking in books. Besides helping you engage in the text, writing in a book also leaves a visible sign of your presence. When Whatladder's husband reads her marked up book of poetry, he's not just coming into contact with great writers, he's getting to know his wife more intimately. She's there in those pages--her ideas, her reactions, her spirit. I think it's beautifully romantic that her husband has recognized that. Can you imagine a more meaningful and personal family heirloom than a library of books full of our own thoughts, comments and insights? Think of our children and grandchildren reading through them, getting to know their ancestors. I would love to have a set of books written in by my grandparents. We only get to know our parents and grandparents when they're older; what if we could read their minds when they were our age? What if I could know what my own father thought about life when he was twenty or thirty or forty? Leaving comments in books gives us that chance. Let's take it a step further: What if your grandmother wrote comments in her copy of Pride and Prejudice, for example. And what if your mother inherited it and added her comments to her mother's? And now the book is yours. Not only do you have a treasured physical possession, you also have something far more valuable: your mother's and grandmother's intimate thoughts and emotions captured for a brief moment on paper. But there's more: Now you have the chance to add your own reflections, insights and reactions to the book for your daughter to read. Here's an idea: Buy a book with one of your children or grandchildren in mind and read it, marking it up as you go. You can direct the comments directly to them, or you can simply mark it up as you would any piece of literature. After you've finished the book, wrap it up and give it to them as a present. Save it for graduation, or their wedding, or a significant birthday. Maybe give it to them on their confirmation or bar mitzvah, or at a baby shower. For more about marking up a text, download my free ebook ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skills for Transforming Your Life through Literature.

Literary Testosterone - 30 Must-Read Classics for Teenage Boys

This is a follow-up to Maureen's question about recommendations for 12 and 13 year-old boys. Without getting into a big discussion about gender stereotyping, let me just say that in general boys at this age tend to read books that are more action and adventure oriented, while girls enjoy reading more about relationships. Case in point: I teach The Hobbit and Les Miserables to my eighth graders each year. Both boys and girls love these books. But when I look at the few students who didn't like them, I have more girls who didn't like The Hobbit, and more boys who didn't like Les Miserables. The books I'm about to recommend for boys are also great for girls to read, and there are many books not listed here that boys would like. I think boys should read Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Louisa May Alcott, but I don't think most boys would pick these books up on their own. The following books are titles and authors that I think most boys would enjoy, and that contain themes that are valuable for teen and pre-teen boys to think about. Fantasy/Horror Anything by Ray Bradbury: I think of Ray Bradbury as a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe, and his books are perfect for teenage boys. There's always something to talk about after reading Ray Bradbury. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Every boy should read this book, and every father, too. It can be frightening, but it is well worth reading. Dandelion Wine - Scary, funny and tender. The Martian Chronicles - Great sci-fi. Fahrenheit 451 - Perfect for talking about the value of books and reading. The Illustrated Man - Thought-provoking stories. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Along with Treasure Island, probably the perfect action/adventure story. The Belgariad by David Eddings - Lord of the Rings lite; lots of fairly innocent fun; not much depth, but a good read. Animal Farm by George Orwell - An excellent introduction to talking about political systems. The Once and Future King by T.H. White - Classic story of King Arthur. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. - This book is a hidden gem--important spiritual themes, connections to Chaucer and the middle ages. I once had the opportunity to interview the author with my eighth graders after we finished studying it - they loved the interview and the book. Don't miss it. Science Fiction Flatland by Edwin Abbott - A brief fairytale-ish book that explores mathematical concepts like the fourth dimension. Fun and educational. The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov - A sort of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire set in space; great plot twists. A true classic of the genre and very accessible to teens. The first book in the series is Foundation. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov - A great murder mystery set in the future. Combines elements of science fiction and classic mystery stories into one. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - I hesitated to put this on the list because it contains some profanity and a few disturbing elements, but every single student of mine who has read this has loved it. Without exception. Read this with your kids so you can talk about it with them. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Before Michael Crichton's version, the author of Sherlock Holmes had already written about a lost island of dinosaurs. Time and Again by Jack Finney - A terrific time travel story; the amount of historical detail in this book is mind-boggling. Part mystery, part romance, part sci-fi, it really defies categories. Historical The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - Pulitzer winning novel of the battle of Gettysburg; would be great to read in conjunction with an American History class. After they finish, show them the movie Gettysburg. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - Look up swashbuckle in the dictionary and you'll find this book. Young readers may need help understanding church politics. Mr. Midshipman Easy by Captain Frederick Marryat - a great precursor to Forester's Hornblower series or Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. Fun and easy to read. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott - Classic medieval adventure. Mysteries The Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton - The gentle, intelligent Father Brown makes a great role model for boys, and gives them a healthy portrayal of a priest. Anything by Agatha Christie - Her books are continual favorites of my students, especially the novels featuring Hercule Poirot. Make sure they read Curtain (but only after reading four or five other Hercule Poirot mysteries first). The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters - Brother Cadfael is a monk in the thirteenth century who always seems to end up in the middle of murder investigations. The first book is A Morbid Taste for Bones. Assorted other titles: Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling - Terrific coming of age story set at sea. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Explores many issues, but one key issue is the definition of courage. The Ox-bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark - Not only a great Western, but an insightful exploration of justice and vigilantism. Perfect for discussing over the dinner table. Hondo - Every boy should read at least one Louis L'Amour novel in his life, and Hondo is one of the best. Shane by Jack Schaefer- The all-time greatest Western ever written (in my humble opinion). Another must-read for pre-teen or teenage boys. Hiroshima by John Hersey - A nonfiction account of survivors of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. This can be a frightening book for young readers, so use your own judgement. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot - Nonfiction account of a rural veterinarian; another perfect book for boys. For more titles for both boys and girls download my Books to Be Tasted Junior High Reading List. You may need to sign up at FreeIQ to download it, but the account is free. Also, I'm currently developing a summer reading group for junior high and high school students and their families that I plan to launch in the next week or two. Stay tuned.

Don Quixote for Young Readers?

Maureen asks: I have 12 and 13 yo boys and would love some book recommendations. Is Don Quixote appropriate for their age group? They are voracious readers, and I find we're on the brink of children's and adult books. Thanks for any advice. What a great question! One of my favorite things to do is recommend books. First, concerning Don Quixote: In sixteen years of teaching junior high students, I only recall three students who read Don Quixote all the way through, but each of them really enjoyed it. My wife and I have a sixteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old boy (not to mention our two daughters ages 8 and 2), and I have to say that our sixteen-year-old who is not a habitual reader yet (sigh), would not touch Don Quixote with a twelve-foot pole; but our twelve-year-old laughs out loud whenever my wife listens to the audiobook in the car. I'm not sure he's ready to read it, but he definitely gets the humor. One caveat: Don Quixote can be a bit risque at times, almost like a vaudeville show. It's very tame compared to society's standards (alas!), but there are a few sections where an innocent young man might come to his parents to ask what something means. Purity, honor and religion are always upheld as virtues, but there are occasional references to things like prostitutes and consummating marriages. Finally, Part I of Don Quixote is filled with digressions, side stories, and one out-and-out novel that is inserted into the story. I happen to enjoy the side-stories, but young readers may not have the patience to read about secondary characters for long periods (and most of the side stories are love stories). However, if they can make it to the second half of the book it will be worth it. Part II was written about fifteen years after Part I, and as enjoyable and necessary as Part I is, Part II is by far the better half, in my opinion. You could even suggest that they read Part I then take a break and read something else before coming back to Part II, so they don't get burned out on too much Don Quixote. Wow, I didn't expect to say so much about Don Quixote. But then, I do have Manchegan Madness, so I guess it's to be expected. I'll follow this post up with some book recommendations for pre-teenage and teenage boys.

Reading Roundup 01

What are people reading in the literary blogosphere? Sylvia at Classical Bookworm is reading Don Quixote along with the rest of the folks at Tilting at Windmills. I believe she's also reading Lord of the Rings. Amy Welborn is reading Can You Forgive Her? Stefanie at So Many Books is reading so many books I can't list them all, but here are a few: Reading Like a Writer, The Histories of Herodotus, and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. G.D. at Sci-Fi Catholic is reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces, among others. Here's a roundup of what's new in the world of reading groups: The Faith in Literature Reading Group has posted their summer reading list. Claire Cameron, author of The Line Painter, points out that HarperCollins Canada is starting a reading group based on her book. They're also giving away free copies of the book to the first 50 Canadians to join the group. The Full Moon BookClub is reading Half of a Yellow Sun for May and June. Kevin Eikenberry at A Love of Reading mentions joining a book club as one of the Ten Ways to Strengthen Your Reading Habit. The Great Books Reading Partnership reports that it is changing its focus.

Are you a Horizontal Reader or a Vertical Reader?

No, I'm not talking about your body's position when you read, I'm talking about the way you read. I was thinking about my reading habits the other day while working on another book, and it occured to me that there are two ways to approach reading: Horizontal reading: this is an approach where you try to read as many books as possible; the idea here is that the more you read the more you know. Horizontal readers voraciously devour books day after day, week after week. Vertical reading: vertical readers are deep readers, spending more time with their books and reading them more in-depth. Their philosophy is to get as much as they can out of one book before moving on to another. What kind of reader are you? If you're like me, you probably go through periods of time when you do more horizontal reading (for me it's summer time, when I read book after book), and other times when you savor your books, marking in them, outlining them, discussing them with a reading group. I can also be a genre "binge reader," where I go on a binge reading a bunch of mysteries or Catholic-themed novels, or classics, for instance. Last summer I went on binge with books about great teaching. Last fall I went on a Mortimer Adler binge. Is it better to be a horizontal reader or a vertical reader? I don't know. I suppose they're both necessary. Most of the practical skills I've learned have come from horizontal reading. Most of my philosophical and religious views have come from vertical reading. What's your opinion?

Read for Your Life

Motivational speaker Pat Williams has an important new book out called Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books. Pat is the father of nineteen children, a marathon runner, the senior vice president of the Orlando Magic basketball team, and a reader. His book is designed to encourage people to read for an hour every day. He says, "Hey, if I can do it with nineteen kids, so can everyone else." Yeah, but does his wife read for an hour every day, too, or is she the one taking care of the children so he can read? :-) (Cranky aside: Some of you may have noticed how similar his title is to my ebook, ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skills for Transforming Your Life through Literature. Not only is the title similar, but he basically wrote the book I was intending to write, and [grits teeth] he did it better. It was released just last month, and I couldn't believe it when I took it off the shelf to look at. It was one of the most demoralizing moments of my life. He even used some of the same quotes I was planning on using. Oh well, I have lots of other books inside me, even if I'm not the father of nineteen kids, or a marathon runner, or the vice president of an NBA team, or a motivational speaker with a crack team of researchers and ghost writers. And I'm not bitter at all.)

My Reading Life Is a Shopping Cart with Wobbly Wheels

As far as my current reading goes, I feel like a wobbly-wheeled shopping cart going out of control, swerving down the aisles of the supermarket about to collide with a big display of cereal boxes. I keep veering back and forth between different kinds of books, trying to keep up with my insatiable hunger for knowledge. Here's what I'm reading: Ethics, Book I by Aristotle Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor The Intellectual Devotional edited by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim Blink by Malcolm Gladwell Get a Freelance Life by Margit Feury Ragland The Renegade Writer by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell I'm in the middle of all of them at the same time, and I don't like it. I don't mind reading two or even three books at a time, but six is too many, and I haven't even mentioned The Liturgy of the Hours, which is my daily prayer book. And I'm also listening to an unabridged audio recording of Don Quixote during my commute. It's out of control. So I'm either going to have to finish a couple of them soon, or I'm going to have to set some aside. The Liturgy of the Hours and The Intellectual Devotional don't really count, since those are meant to be read daily, but I have to do something about the others. The problem is that they're all just so good. Oh well, so many books, so little time...

ROMAN Reading Will Improve Your Reading Habits in Under an Hour

My new eBook ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skills for Transforming Your Life through Literature is available for free today! Download ROMAN Reading (1.86 mb) and in less than an hour you'll have learned reading skills that last a lifetime. I've been teaching these skills for over sixteen years, and I can teach you. For free. Why? Because I have a mission, and I want you to share it with me. The mission? Changing lives one page at a time. I want to make the world a more literate place, a place where people think for themselves, learn about their world, and share their ideas with each other. A literate world is a world of peace, tolerance and vision. We've got our work cut out for us. To help accomplish this mission, I'm giving this eBook away for free. But I need your help. I need you to turn this eBook into a virus that sweeps the world, a reading infection that keeps spreading itself from friend to friend, reader to reader. We need to get this book into the hands of reading groups, teachers, homeschoolers, high school and college students, and interested readers of all ages. How can you help? Download the book and read it! Share it with all your friends. Visit www.RomanReading.com often for more tips on reading literature. (Linking to it would help too!) Sign up for the ROMAN Reading newsletter at FreeIQ. Together we can make the world a more literate place by changing lives one page at a time. On this feast of St. Joseph the Worker, please pray that ROMAN Reading makes a positive difference, no matter how small.

Emily Dickinson for First Line Friday

I couldn't help but think of this quote by Emily Dickinson as I was writing about Geoff Hunt and Patrick O'Brian, and since April is National Poetry Month I wanted to share it with you: There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away...

Books to Be Tasted - A Reading List for Junior High Students

I just posted my eighth grade reading list at FreeIQ for those of you who are teachers or who might have teenagers. The list contains over 300 titles of various levels that have been compiled during my last sixteen years as a teacher. I hope you find it helpful.

The Intellectual Devotional

I never buy new hardcovers because they're too expensive, but I made an exception yesterday and bought two: The Intellectual Devotional and Made to Stick. At first I was a bit worried when I saw the title for The Intellectual Devotional, thinking it was going to be a kind of anti-prayer book for atheists, pitting faith against reason or science against religion. As I thumbed through the pages, though, it doesn't appear to be any such thing. Like a devotional, it consists of daily readings, but rather than meditations, these are readings in different intellectual areas: History on Mondays, Literature on Tuesdays, Visual Arts on Wednesdays, Science on Thursdays, Music on Fridays, Philosophy on Saturdays, and Religion on Sundays. I like these "daily reading"-type books, and I had some money burning a hole in my pocket (a rare thing), so I decided to pick it up and give it a try. Today's reading was all about cloning, and it doesn't take any kind of moral stance on the issue, it simply recounts what cloning is and focuses on the story of Dolly the sheep. As I peek at this Sunday's topic, I see that the subject is the Torah. A quick browse through the rest of book reveals readings on Dickens, the Last Supper, Chemical Bonds, Real Numbers, the Manhatten Project, Rainbows, Verdi, the Battle of Midway, and Confucianism. It does bother me a bit to see the word "devotional" in the title, since it implies religious enthusiasm towards something non-religious, but the book doesn't appear to be anti-religious. In fact, the Sunday readings in religion appear to be respectful and informative, more like a survey of world religions. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it, and if my opinion changes I'll let you know. As for the other book, Made to Stick, I'll talk about that another day.