2012: Books in Review

Always carry a sword an a book-it worked for St. Catherine.

2012 is almost at its end. It has been an interesting, and at times, sporadic, reading year. I'm not about to offer a litany of book reviews, first because I tend to have lengthy opinions about nearly everything I read, but also because I have this terrible habit (or wonderful, depending on how you look at it), of moving on so quickly to the next book that book reviews get neglected (save my personal notes). But here is a rough approximation of what I read in 2012, in no particular order (* indicates titles I have started):

Eugenics and Other Evils, G.K. Chesterton

On Being Human, Bl. Fulton Sheen

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen, Christopher McDougall

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain

Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade



Sex, Style, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things That Really Matter, Ed. Hallie Lord

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Francis Collins

Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week-From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI

Dream and Your Dreams Will Fall Short, Pedro Casciaro

At the Origin of the Christian Claim, Luigi Giussani

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, J.R.R.Tolkien

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Ed. Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter

My Brother, the Pope, Georg Ratzinger, Michael Hesemann

The Moviegoer, Walker Percy

Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot

No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy

Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, trans. Mark Walker

Libraries and the Enlightenment, Wayne Bivens-Tatum

The Shadow of His Wings: The True Story of Fr. Gereon Goldmann OFM, Fr. Gereon Goldmann

Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting, and Why it Still Matters, Philip Hensher

Dependent Rational Animals, Alasdair MacIntyre

The Case of Galileo: A Closed Question?*, Annibale Fantoli

The Catechism of the Catholic Church*

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman*

What is a Book: The Study of Early Printed Books*, Joseph A. Dane

Transformation in Christ*, Dietrich von Hildebrand

The Power and the Glory*, Graham Greene

Life of the Mind*, Fr. James V. Schall

Rediscover Catholicism*, Matthew Kelly

I have no intention of making a giant master 'to read' list for 2013, although I have a strong feeling that Boswell's Life of Johnson and Flannery O'Connors Habit of Being will be priorities, and I've already heard all sorts of very different individuals rave about Eric Morgenstern's The Night Circus that I don't suppose I can put that one off for long. I have learned that within the general guidelines I set for my reading, the right book tends to present itself at the right time. Forced reading for the sake of finishing alone tends to be barren. After progressing most of the way through Fr. Schall's Life of the Mind, I am intrigued by the reading lists he has compiled-they are so eclectic, and contain so many titles I have either not read or have hardly heard of (I'll post a few in the future). As I trust and respect the man immensely, I have a feeling this may be a good starting point for reading in the new year.