The Catholic Book Club discussion

5. Have you added any of the works referenced in Literary Converts to your reading list? What, and what attracts you to those works in particular?

In my answer to question 1 I gave a list of books I have bought/downloaded/read since reading this book. I'll comment about them a little in more detail here:

a) "Lord of the world," by Robert Hugh Benson, science-fiction. I had already heard about it (Pope Francis recommends it frequently). You can find my Goodreads review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

b) The two mystery novels by Ronald Knox. "The viaduct murder" is an atypical mystery story, where the amateur detectives blunder all the time and the police finally solve the case. It is very funny. The other novel, "The three taps," is more classically built.

c) T.S.Eliot's "The waste land" I read twice in a row, not just because it is really difficult to follow, but because I always do that with poetry, in the first reading you usually don't get everything. Pearce's comments were very helpful.

d) Baring's novel, "Passing bye," I liked a lot.

Some of these books can be downloaded free from the Gutenberg Project.

I'm generating a long list of notes on books to add to my reading pile. Most of those are on it

There are two glaring omissions in my previous comment, two authors I have read after reading Pearce, moved by reading his book, who are now very important for me:

a) Christopher Dawson: "Dynamics of world history," the best non-fiction book I read in 2015.

b) Ernest Schumacher, whose book "Small is beautiful" is a good contender for the best non-fiction book I have read in 2016.

More Chesterton, including The Everlasting Man. Belloc, especially The Path to Rome. Elliot's The Waste Land. More Sayers and Spark. More Benson, including Lord of the World. Baring's novels. Dynamics of World History, by Christopher Henry Dawson, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by Ernst F. Schumacher and something by John Seymour (how can I resist a guy with my own name who makes it into Pearce's book).

John wrote: "More Chesterton, including The Everlasting Man. Belloc, especially The Path to Rome. Elliot's The Waste Land. More Sayers and Spark. More Benson, including..."

Just for your information, "The path to Rome" tells about a trip across Europe that ended in Rome, it has nothing to do with becoming a Catholic:-)

Manuel wrote: "John wrote: "More Chesterton, including The Everlasting Man. Belloc, especially The Path to Rome. Elliot's The Waste Land. More Sayers and Spark. More Bens..."

Not a conversion story, but a book whose Catholicism led to conversions.

My main interest is that my wife and I are walkers. We are currently walking the Camino in stages - last year was Le Puy - Figeac. Life of course disrupts plans, but we will finish eventually. I asked my wife what she wanted to do when we got to Santiago and she said "turn around and start for Rome?"

John wrote: "We are currently walking the Camino in stages - last year was Le Puy - Figeac. "

So you'll soon be in Spain! (in 2-3 more stages)