My Books – A Collection of Greatest Books and Catholic Perspectives

Collection Subjects

Books in my collection land in one of two categories right now:

1. Easton Press 100 Greatest Books Ever Written

2. Books that portray a perspective of Catholic (or Christian) spirituality in some time, place, or culture. This can be through the eyes of a main character, a description of an event, or in the world of the story.

Some books land in both categories!

The Books (in Order Acquired)

Links are to posts I have written about each book.

  • Shadows on the Rock – Willa Cather (WC) – First Edition
  • Kristin Lavransdatter – Sigrid Undset – 1929 Nobel Prize Edition
  • Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Easton Press (EP)
  • Death Comes for the Archbishop – WC – 1st/1st
  • Saphira and the Slave Girl – WC – 1st
  • Joan of Arc (Vol I) – Mark Twain – 1918 Limp Leather Edition
  • Confessions of St. Augustine – EP
  • Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes – EP
  • Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday
  • My Mortal Enemy – WC – 1st/DJ
  • Moby Dick – Herman Melville – EP
  • My Antonia – WC – Book Club PB
  • O Pioneers! – WC – Book Club HC
  • Laurus – Eugene Vodolazkin – 1st English Edition
  • Chateau & Country Life in France – Mary Waddington – 1st
  • Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh – Little Red American Edition
  • Thoughts, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Daniel and the Revelation – Uriah Smith – 1888 (SOLD)
  • The Church & Modern Society – Archbishop John Ireland – 1st
  • The Monastery – Sir Walter Scott – Waverley Novels
  • Cape Cod – Thoreau – EP
  • Walden – Thoreau – EP
  • The Red & the Black – Stendhal – EP
  • The Professor’s House – WC – 1st
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – EP
  • Two Plays of Anton Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters – EP
  • Candide, or Optimism – Voltaire – EP
  • Lives of the Saints, Vol 10-12 – Butler (1846)
  • Little Women – Louisa May Alcott – EP
  • Lives of the Saints, Vol 1-3 – Butler (1844)
  • Socrates’ Children, Vol 1-4 – Kreeft
  • Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet
  • The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoyevsky- EP

The aim of collecting is threefold: Beauty (aesthetically and literary), Truth (intellectual growth), Goodness (shared appreciation for history and stories).

Descriptions & Details

More to come as I have time to explain why each book has a home on my shelf…