Mike ([info]augustine) wrote,
@ 2009-01-01 13:41:00
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Entry tags:books, quotes (chesterton)

Well, I may or may not make more New Years resolutions later (besides the obvious ones), but one resolution I'm going to try to keep is to read more books. I've always been a slower reader, so I don't read as many books as a lot of other people, but this year in particular I really didn't read that many (due to a noisy enviroment). While the enviroment is still noisy, I'll try to read more this year anyway. :-)

At the top of my list of non-Chesterton books (besides the Bible obviously) is Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis, as well as From the Angel's Blackboard: The Best of Fulton J. Sheen.

However, I also wish to read Chesterton books as well, of course. Believe it or not, I've only read 13 books of his (if I remember the number correctly). Considering he wrote around 100 books, I have a lot to read. :-)

The first book I plan on reading is his autobiography, which was completed just weeks before he died in 1936. It should be a fun read. Just to give you a taste, here's the opening two paragraphs of his Autobiography (read at least the opening line):
___________________________________

Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1874, on Campden Hill, Kensington; and baptised according to the formularies of the Church of England in the little church of St. George opposite the large Waterworks Tower that dominated that ridge. I do not allege any significance in the relation of the two buildings; and I indignantly deny that the church was chosen because it needed the whole water-power of West London to turn me into a Christian.

Nevertheless, the great Waterworks Tower was destined to play its part in my life, as I shall narrate on a subsequent page; but that story is connected with my own experiences, whereas my birth (as I have said) is an incident which I accept, like some poor ignorant peasant, only because it has been handed down to me by oral tradition. And before we come to any of my own experiences, it will be well to devote this brief chapter to a few of the other facts of my family and environment which I hold equally precariously on mere hearsay evidence. Of course what many call hearsay evidence, or what I call human evidence, might be questioned in theory, as in the Baconian controversy or a good deal of the Higher Criticism. The story of my birth might be untrue. I might be the long-lost heir of The Holy Roman Empire, or an infant left by ruffians from Limehouse on a door-step in Kensington, to develop in later life a hideous criminal heredity. Some of the sceptical methods applied to the world's origin might be applied to my origin, and a grave and earnest enquirer come to the conclusion that I was never born at all. But I prefer to believe that common sense is something that my readers and I have in common; and that they will have patience with a dull summary of the facts.



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[info]pammalamma
2009-01-01 07:14 pm UTC (link)
I love Chesterton, but have only read Orthodoxy and The Man Who Was Thursday. What would you recommend as a next pick?

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[info]augustine
2009-01-01 08:39 pm UTC (link)
I guess it depends on what you are interested in....any particular genre or subject?

Until then, this may be helpful.

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[info]beneficient
2009-01-01 07:16 pm UTC (link)
:D

I'm adding "Orthodoxy" to my reading list for '09. ;)

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[info]augustine
2009-01-01 08:54 pm UTC (link)
:-)

Do you still have that one copy?

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more books
[info]losingconqueror
2009-01-02 04:05 am UTC (link)
More books is always a good resolution. I love books so much.

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Re: more books
[info]augustine
2009-01-02 03:09 pm UTC (link)
Very true.

And nice to see you posting again! I was wondering if I had scared you off or something. lol. :-)

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[info]lilyforchrist
2009-01-02 07:33 am UTC (link)
That has to be one of the best book openings I've ever read. Thank you for sharing!

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[info]happeningtolife
2009-01-02 08:41 pm UTC (link)
That does promise to be good. Let me know how you like it, and I'll see about getting myself a copy of the same!!

:-)

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[info]augustine
2009-01-02 10:34 pm UTC (link)
Will do. :-)

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[info]steps_of_faith
2009-01-02 10:19 pm UTC (link)
I just love his sense of humor. Who but he would start his autobiography this way? lol

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[info]augustine
2009-01-02 10:46 pm UTC (link)
Exactly. lol. :-)

I also like the opening two paragraphs of Chesterton first novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill, written when he was 30 years old. (Actually, the opening line of that book is ranked #63 by the American Book Review on its list of the 100 Best First Lines from Novels. See here)

Anyway, Chesterton's novel, which was written in the year 1904, was set for 80 years later, in 1984. Yet he begins the novel with an opening chapter called "Introductory Remarks on the Art of Prophecy", where he pokes fun at all the "clever men" who are always trying to predict the future. Here are the first two opening paragraphs of the novel:
___________________________________

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, "Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.

For human beings, being children, have the childish wilfulness and the childish secrecy. And they never have from the beginning of the world done what the wise men have seen to be inevitable. They stoned the false prophets, it is said; but they could have stoned true prophets with a greater and juster enjoyment. Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity as a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman.


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[info]steps_of_faith
2009-01-02 10:52 pm UTC (link)
Haha! I love that first part the best, "to which so many of my readers belong", so slyly implying that there are some who should not be considered as belonging to the human race. I have met several such, myself, lol. Almost as humorous is the phrase "which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up". I've always had a thing for this decidedly English-type humor (or humour, as they would say)...including Monty Python, Blackadder and the like. 'Tis wonderful stuff!!

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[info]augustine
2009-01-02 11:07 pm UTC (link)
Unfortunately, I don't know much about English-type humor, er, humour. Heh. I've heard of Monty Python, but don't know anything else...

But I do love GKC, of course :-)

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