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Becky

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Becky is Currently Reading

Becky is currently reading

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)

by Douglas Adams

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Jan 21, 2026 10:28PM

Becky is currently reading

Starship Troopers

by Robert A. Heinlein

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Jan 14, 2026 05:53AM

Becky is currently reading

A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)

by Walter M. Miller Jr.

bookshelves: 2017reviews, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2017

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Becky said: " First sentence: Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice's Lenten fast in the desert.

Premise/plot: Canticle for Leibowitz First sentence: Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice's Lenten fast in the desert.

Premise/plot: Canticle for Leibowitz is divided into three parts: "Fiat Homo," "Fiat Lux" and "Fiat Voluntas Tua." Centuries pass between each part, I believe. Essentially what you need to know is that it's post-apocalyptic. The novel opens several centuries (at the very least) after nuclear disaster has wiped out society--at least as we know it. Knowledge is feared and simplicity embraced. A group of monks in the desert cling to what remains of book-knowledge. They memorize. They copy. They wait. They wait knowing that humanity may never be ready for their wisdom. Readers get to know a few monks in each part. The book is not bleak from cover to cover, however, by the end the message is that humanity is incapable of learning from their past mistakes and no matter how many centuries pass, humanity is always its own biggest threat.

My thoughts: This is the first time I ever-ever wished I'd paid more attention in Latin class. Just as Jane Eyre is sprinkled with French, this one is sprinkled with Latin. My general thoughts are that once is not enough to really get everything there is to get. I was reading for big-picture ideas, and not really savoring the details and looking for all possible meanings. My first impression is that it's good, but, depressing. Also thought-provoking.

"How can a great and wise civilization have destroyed itself so completely?" "Perhaps," said Apollo, "by being materially great and materially wise, and nothing else." (119)

If you try to save wisdom until the world is wise, Father, the world will never have it. (208)

It never was any better, it never will be any better. It will only be richer or poorer, sadder but not wiser, until the very last day. (216)

The freedom to speculate is essential...(216)

Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think--as long as they don't seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste. (218)

If we're born mad, where's the hope of Heaven?" (240)

When mass murder's been answered with mass murder, rape with rape, hate with hate, there's no longer much meaning in asking whose ax is the bloodier. Evil, on evil, piled on evil.(259)

Too much hope for Earth had led men to try to make it Eden, and of that they might well despair until the time toward the consumption of the world.(264)

It is the soul's endurance in faith and hope and love in spite of bodily afflictions that pleases Heaven. (292)

The trouble with the world is me. (305)

...more "

Jan 01, 2026 06:54PM · see review

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Becky’s Quotes

“It is a great truth that you will rise again. It is a sweeter truth that you will "always be with the Lord." Whatever else you draw comfort from, neglect not this deep, clear, and over-flowing well of delight. There are other sources of good cheer in connection with the glory to be revealed, for heaven is a many-sided joy, but still none can excel the glory of communion with Jesus Christ, wherefore comfort one another in the first place and most constantly, with these words, "So we will always be with the Lord.”
― Charles Spurgeon

tags: comfort, death, faith, glory, heaven, hope, resurrection

1 likes

“Your heart, mind, hands and feet are stamped with the imprint of the Creator. Little wonder that the Devil wants you to be ashamed of your body.”
― Joni Eareckson Tada, Diamonds in the Dust: 366 Sparkling Devotions

tags: christianity, image-of-god, spiritual-welfare

3 likes

“Sharper than any double-edged sword." A sword with two edges has no blunt side; it cuts both this way and that. The Word of God is edge all over. It is alive in every part, and in every part keen to cut the conscience and wound the heart. Depend on it: not a verse in the Bible is superfluous or a chapter that is useless.”
― Charles Spurgeon

tags: bible, scripture, word-of-god

3 likes

“It is not sin as we see it that was laid on Christ but sin as God sees it, not sin as our conscience feebly reveals it to us but sin as God beholds it in all its unmitigated malignity and unconcealed loathsomeness. Sin, in its exceeding sinfulness, Jesus has put away. But when we perceive sin, then we are to trust the blood.”
― Charles Spurgeon

tags: blood-of-jesus, faith, god, salvation, sin

4 likes

“If we do not love the Bible, we certainly do not love the God who gave it to us; but if we do love God, then no other book in the entire world will be comparable in our minds. When God speaks, it is the delight of our ears to hear what he says. In other books there is some truth and some error. Apart from the Bible, the best book ever written has mistakes in it. It is not possible for fallible men to write infallible books. Somehow or other we either say more than is true or less than is true. The most skillful writer does not always keep along that hairline of truth that is more difficult to tread than a razor's edge. But Scripture never errs.”
― Charles Spurgeon

tags: bible, god, scripture, truth, word-of-god

4 likes

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