James’s Comments (group member since Jan 03, 2011)

James’s comments from the SQPN group.

Confessions by St Augustine
Lord Have Mercy by Scott Hahn
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Amanda wrote: "Speaking of spiritual reading, I need to find something to read for Lent. Every year I say I will and it all falls apart. I need to find something not real heavy because when I go for the heavy I b..."

Confidence in God is a good little book overall. Good spiritual reading.

I purposefully did not put together a list of books or a specific reading plan for this year, because I knew that my choice in reading materials would be a little more fluid and would not lend itself to such a strict plan.

That being said, I do have a list of spiritual books that I plan to get to for Lent, including St. Augustine's Confessions & Scott Hahn's Lord have Mercy.
Fr. Jim Tucker
Catholic Creativity

One of the things I consider is whether the book is meant to be a reference, or a book with self-contained sections or chapters in it.

I think, the Bible is better as a physical book, because of the need to reference specific books, chapters, or verses. One could say that there are e-book versions of the Bible with helpful hyperlinks. Point taken, but I think it's still easier to navigate through a physical Bible.

Another would be the Summa Theologia, for the same reasons, although in this case, given how expensive physical copies of the set are, it might be more economical to get an ebook version.

Another example would be a copy of Shakespeare with footnotes and textual notes. It's easier to navigate a physical copy.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for ebooks. It's amazing that one can carry around an entire library in one device. I used to cram a bag full of books whenever I traveled. Now, I don't need to do that.

Fr. Jim