Completed
First Quarter:
“The
Background,” a short story by Saki (H. H. Munro).
“How
to Mark a Book,” an essay by Mortimer J. Adler.
“In
the Snow,” a short story by Stefan Zweig, translated by Anathea Bell.
“Poldi,”
a short story by Carson McCullers.
“Mother,”
a short story by Sherwood Anderson.
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, RSV
Translation.
“A
Sin Confessed,” a short story by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Adam Elgar.
“Gibberish,”
a short story by Thomas Berger.
“A
Fire-Stained Cathedral Gargoyle: Léon Bloy and the Catholic Literary
Tradition,” an essay by Joshua Wren.
"Why
Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine," a short story by James Lee Burke.
Paradiso,
3rd part of the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and
annotated by Robert and Jean Hollander.
Paradiso,
3rd part of the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and
annotated by Anthony Esolen.
Completed
Second Quarter:
The Life of Saint Dominic, a biography by Augusta Theodosia Drane.
The Fathers of the Church: An
Introduction to the First Christian Teachers,
3rd Edition, a non-fiction work by Mike Aquilina.
"Thunder and Roses" a
short story by Theodore Sturgeon.
"A House on the Plains" a
short story by E.L. Doctorow.
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, KJV
Translation.
Book
of Lamentations, a book of the Old Testament, KJV
Translation.
Book
of Lamentations, a book of the Old Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
First Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
First Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Imitation of Christ, a non-fiction devotional by Thomas à
Kempis.
The
Second Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Third Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Third Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
Completed
Third Quarter:
Death
Comes for the Archbishop, a novel by Willa Cather.
“Social
Error,” a short story Damon Runyan.
In
the Image of St. Dominic: Nine Portraits of Dominican Life,
a collection of short biographies by Guy Bedouelle, O.P.
Mariette
in Ecstasy, a novel by Ron Hansen.
“The
Sin of Jesus,” a short story Isaac Babel.
Pascendi
Dominici Gregis, a Papal Encyclical by Pope Pius X.
Completed
Fourth Quarter:
Vol
5 of Les Misérables, “Jean Valjean” a novel by Victor Hugo.
“The
Worst You Ever Feel,” a short story by Rebecca Makkai.
“The
Light of the World,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“The
Salvation of the Hearer the Motive of the Preacher,” a discourse by St. John
Henry Newman.
“Wilde
in Omaha,” a short story by Ron Hansen.
“Blood,
Sea,” a short story by Italo Calvino and translated by William Weaver.
The
Letter of James, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Letter of James, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
Treasure
in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, an autobiography
of Bishop Fulton Sheen.
“The
Martyrdom of Polycarp,” an account on the martyrdom of St. Polycarp by an
unknown writer.
Brief
Lives: Stendhal, a biography of Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal)
by Andrew Brown.
Gospel
of Matthew, a work from the New Testament, RSV Translation.
The
First Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
First Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament,
KJV Translation.
The
Letter of Jude, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Letter of Jude, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
“Where
Love is, There God is Also,” a short story by Leo Tolstoy.
“A
Child's Christmas in Wales,” a short story and prose poem by Dylan Thomas.
“The
Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son,” a discourse by St. John Henry
Newman.
The
Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, a novella by
Charles Dickens.
The Horse and His Boy, a novel from the The Chronicles of Narnia series by
C. S. Lewis.
###
I’m
pretty late with my 2019 summary. But I
have to say, I read a lot last year! It
was one of my most read years. This year
I read thirteen full length books, twelve books of the Bible (eleven in two
different translations), seventeen short stories, and six short non-fiction
works. If you averaged that over a
monthly basis, it would be roughly one full length book, two books of the
Bible, and two short works per month.
How did I find the time for that?
I don’t really know. I’m
impressed, if I say so myself.
Of
the full length books, six were non-fiction and seven fiction. Of the non-fiction books, four were
biographies. Augusta Theodosia Dranes’s The Life of Saint Dominic and Andrew Brown’s
Brief Lives: Stendhal were standard
biographies, though Drane’s had a bit of hagiography mixed in. Treasure
in Clay was Bishop Fulton Sheen’s autobiography. Sheen has been undergoing the canonization
process and should be declared a saint shortly.
The last biography, Guy
Bedouelle’s
In the Image of St. Dominic: Nine
Portraits of Dominican Life was a series biographical sketches, all of whom
reflected some aspect of St. Dominic’s nature, the founder of the Order of
Preachers. The remaining two non-fiction
books were non biographical. Mike
Aquilina’s The Fathers of the Church is
a survey of Church Father’s writings and Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ is a devotional, one of the most famous
devotionals.
Of
the fictional works, four were novels, one novella and the last cantica from
Dante’s Divine Comedy, Paradiso, but I read it twice in two
different translations, so I’m counting that as two books. Also consider I read the annotations and
commentary in both. Both translations
are recommended. I would consider the
Hollander and Hollander translation as the “gold standard” for both scholarship
and poeticism, but the Anthony Esolen translation is just as solid and perhaps
simpler for the non-scholar. I also thoroughly
enjoyed all four of the novels. I
completed the volumes of Hugo’s tome Les
Misérables, which I started five or six years ago. The immense opus is divided into five
volumes, each volume of about a novel length, and every year I read one volume as
a novel. This year I read the fifth and
last volume, titled “Jean Valjean.” I
made progress on The Chronicles of Narnia
series I’ve been reading. I read this with
my son, Matthew, and this year we finished The
Horse and His Boy. Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop is a
wonderful classic that everyone should read, especially Americans since it
covers some of history in the Southwest.
Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy
should and I think will be a classic. I
thought it was one of the best contemporary novels I have ever read. Finally, Charles Dickens novella, The Cricket on the Hearth was
terrible. I can’t believe it was
actually more popular in its day than A
Christmas Carol. Unless you’re a
Dickens fan that feels compelled to read everything he wrote, spare yourself on
that one.
I
continued to make my way through the Bible.
Of the twelve books from the Bible, two were from the Old Testament (Jerimiah and Lamentations) and ten were from the New Testament. The two OT works and nine of the ten NT works
were read twice each in two different translations. As I’ve said before, I’m trying to complete
the Bible in the King James Version for its value to the English language, but
because I also want to understand what I’m reading as best I can I am also
reading it in a modern language translation.
The modern translation I used is the Ignatius
Revised Standard Version (RSV). In
the past I think I had been calling it the Ignatius
NIV. That was a mistake. There is no such book as the Ignatius NIV. It’s RSV.
I’ve now corrected it here. In
the NT this year I read all the non-Pauline epistles. The one scripture text I read only in Ignatius RSV was the Gospel of Matthew. I had already read it in KJV. I read Matthew
again this year because at Mass we are in the A Liturgical Year where most of
the readings are from the first Gospel.
Of
the twenty-three short works I read, six were non-fiction. Two are essays. Mortimer J. Adler’s “How to Mark a Book” is a
well-known essay that I think every reader should read. Joshua Wren’s essay on Leon Bloy opened me up
to a writer I had never heard. Another
of my short non-fiction reads was a papal encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, by Pope Pius X, an argument against the
intellectual trend of modernism. Another
was the narrative account from the Church Fathers relating the martyrdom of St.
Polycarp. Finally there were two
discourses from the recently canonized saint, John Henry Newman. A Newman “discourse” is a sort of blend
between an essay and a sermon, and both discourses were great reads. I can see how Newman has a fine reputation as
a preacher and a prose stylist.
Normally
at this point in my annual review I assess the short stories and crown what I
consider the best story I read for the year.
I’m going to do something different this year. I’m going to dedicate a specific post to
review and rate all the short stories.
Suffice it to say that I read seventeen stories. They ranged from traditional stories to experimental
writing, from realism to science fiction, from religious to anti-religious,
from serious to comedic, from well-known writers to unknown writers, from exceptional
stories to downright duds,. You can see below
their titles and authors. Reading short
stories is truly a pleasure and something everyone should squeeze into their
reading schedule.
My
list of reads above organizes them in roughly chronological reading order,
divided by quarter. Below I re-arranged
the reads by type of work. I did this
two years ago and I like listing it both ways.
It gives insight into what I’ve read.
Full
Length Books:
13
Non-Fiction:
The Life of Saint Dominic, a biography by Augusta Theodosia Drane.
The Fathers of the Church: An
Introduction to the First Christian Teachers,
3rd Edition, a non-fiction work by Mike Aquilina.
The
Imitation of Christ, a non-fiction devotional by Thomas à
Kempis.
In the Image of St. Dominic: Nine
Portraits of Dominican Life, a
collection of short biographies by Guy Bedouelle, O.P.
Treasure
in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, an autobiography
of Bishop Fulton Sheen.
Brief
Lives: Stendhal, a biography of Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal)
by Andrew Brown.
Fiction:
Paradiso, 3rd part of the
epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and annotated by
Robert and Jean Hollander.
Paradiso, 3rd part of the
epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and annotated by
Anthony Esolen.
Death
Comes for the Archbishop, a novel by Willa Cather.
Mariette
in Ecstasy,
a novel by Ron Hansen.
Vol
5 of Les Misérables, “Jean Valjean” a novel by Victor Hugo.
The
Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, a novella by
Charles Dickens.
The Horse and His Boy, a novel from the The Chronicles of Narnia series by
C. S. Lewis.
Bible: 12 Books, 11 in
two different translations
Old Testament:
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, RSV
Translation.
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, KJV
Translation.
Book
of Lamentations, a book of the Old Testament, KJV
Translation.
Book
of Lamentations, a book of the Old Testament, RSV
Translation.
New Testament:
The
First Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
First Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Third Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Third Letter of John, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Letter of James, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Letter of James, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
Gospel
of Matthew, a work from the New Testament, RSV Translation.
The
First Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
First Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Second Letter of Peter, an epistle from the New Testament,
KJV Translation.
The
Letter of Jude, an epistle from the New Testament, RSV
Translation.
The
Letter of Jude, an epistle from the New Testament, KJV
Translation.
Short
Works:
23
Short Stories:
“The
Background,” a short story by Saki (H. H. Munro).
“In the Snow,” a short story by Stefan Zweig,
translated by Anathea Bell.
“Poldi,”
a short story by Carson McCullers.
“Mother,”
a short story by Sherwood Anderson.
“A Sin Confessed,” a short story by Giovanni
Guareschi, translated by Adam Elgar.
“Gibberish,”
a short story by Thomas Berger.
"Why
Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine," a short story by James Lee Burke.
"Thunder and Roses" a
short story by Theodore Sturgeon.
"A House on the Plains" a
short story by E.L. Doctorow.
“Social
Error,” a short story Damon Runyan.
“The
Sin of Jesus,” a short story Isaac Babel.
“The
Worst You Ever Feel,” a short story by Rebecca Makkai.
“The
Light of the World,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“Wilde in Omaha,” a short story by Ron
Hansen.
“Blood,
Sea,” a short story by Italo Calvino and translated by William Weaver.
“Where
Love is, There God is Also,” a short story by Leo Tolstoy.
“A
Child's Christmas in Wales,” a short story and prose poem by Dylan Thomas.
Non-Fiction:
“How
to Mark a Book,” an essay by Mortimer J. Adler.
“A
Fire-Stained Cathedral Gargoyle: Léon Bloy and the Catholic Literary
Tradition,” an essay by Joshua Wren.
Pascendi
Dominici Gregis, a Papal Encyclical by Pope Pius X.
“The
Salvation of the Hearer the Motive of the Preacher,” a discourse by St. John
Henry Newman.
“The
Martyrdom of Polycarp,” an account on the martyrdom of St. Polycarp by an
unknown writer.
“The
Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son,” a discourse by St. John Henry
Newman.
I've posted on the details on the short story read: Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
