The Grumpy Old Catechist on E-Books
For all my love of technology, I’m still a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to e-books. I’m simply not convinced that the convenience of being able to carry around a library in your backpack offsets what I see as some very real and core problems with the technology. As I’ve refined my thoughts on the subject I continue to have two problems with e-books: one philosophical, one technological. My philosophical problem stems from the fact that, as highly editable constructs, e-books enable the kind of post-publication tinkering that now plagues movie-making. Imagine if J.R.R....
Read MoreFive Books for 2012
As I have done the past two years, I’d like to offer five book selections that I read the previous year to “jump start” your reading pile! These books come with my highest recommendation. (Of course, I’ve also been told that I have strange tastes, so your mileage will vary!) Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, by Fr. James Martin, SJ (2011) – I can’t imagine anyone else having written this book. Fr. Martin’s signature wit and gift for bringing spiritual topics to the masses makes this not...
Read MoreA Note on Amazon Links
A quick note: you may have noticed that the Amazon-powered book recommendations in the right sidebar have returned. I removed the Amazon links a few months back when my affiliate account was shut down in response to my state legislature’s decision to start taxing Amazon purchases. (It wasn’t a huge loss for me as I never made much off the links; at the time the account was closed I had a little over $7 in the account.) I’ve linked the new recommendations to the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership‘s Amazon account. This means that every time you click an...
Read MoreReading bad books
In a factory a man was selling many copies of a penny paper consisting entirely of attacks on God and religion. One Catholic boy, Dan, refused it. ‘Afraid to read the other side?’ sneered the seller. ‘I’d rather not swallow poison either into my stomach or my mind’ was the answer. Jim, another Catholic boy, said: ‘Let’s have a penn’orth!’ Then during the dinner-hour, sitting around with some of his mates, he read bits out of the atheist paper with comments of his own, showing its arguments up and where its facts about the Church were all...
Read MoreThese Are a Few of My Favorite Things…
Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day, a day when when Catholics list “their favorite 3 blogs, 3 podcasts, 3 other media, 3 random Catholic things online, and their own projects.” Here, in no particular order, are my favorite Catholic: Blogs (Catechetical) This is a hard category because there are so many great ones! Among the ones I rarely miss: Catechist’s Journey Marc Cardaronella The Religion Teacher Scrutinies Blogs (Non-Catechetical) Building Cathedrals Domine, da mihi hanc aquam Whispers in the Loggia Podcasts This is another hard one for me, because I...
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