Your comments about simplicity prompted my recollection of a book I read in the early 80′s entitled, “Freedom of Simplicity” by Richard J. Foster. It was pop religion/psychology and I don’t remember the good, the bad, and the ugly about it, so I can’t necessarily recommend it, but I think it did reinforce some of my own appreciation for the value of simplicity. I’m curious whether anyone else ever came across that title?

To start the “media” unit for my freshman composition class, I have them do a “media fast” of 24 hours without the use of any electronic media whatsoever (no TV, cell phone, Facebook, email, radio, etc.) (Then they write about the experience). It’s an idea I got from the introduction to Postman’s Amusing Themselves to Death. The results alternately horrify me and amuse me. My students are often terrified by silence, and startled by the experience of having thoughts that are not distracted or interrupted by noise or music. They are utterly dependent on their friends for amusement and interaction at all times, yet they are almost anti-incarnational in their relationships, as everything is mediated through the text message (not even the phone call).

Many of them express gratitude for having been forced to set aside their media for a time — but it’s truly sad that such an experience is so rare and so unsettling to them.

Here is part of the challenge: How do you reach out to share deeper truth with someone who never has mental space to think about anything except the most immediate and crude sensations and experiences in front of them? Many of my students are dissatisfied and restless, yet they fill their life with such noise and fuss that they never reflect on why they feel this way, or how things might be different.

When I told my priest I had taken AP Latin in high school, he sort of urged me to try my Latin out with the Bible–and that is when I bought the Vulgate. I can understand portions of the gospels fairly well because I am familiar with them, but a book like Hebrews trips me up because of the complicated sentences. I did get my Wheelock out and try to go through it a bit last year. I also purchased Augustine’s Confessions through the Loeb Classical Series, but I have not really looked at it. I, too, would love to read his Confessions as well as The City of God in Latin–as well as some of the other works by the Church Fathers.

You are the second person who has recommended Charles Taylor’s works. I actually have A Secular Age out from the library because I was determining whether to buy it. Which book of his would you suggest reading first? What about Eagleton? He looks interesting too. And I definitely want to read Bloom’s book. I firmly believe that there are many successful people in the world in the professions of business and the law who know nothing about literature, culture, arts, and music–and I think they are sorely missing out. You list of books is quite impressive. You really have given me lots of ideas for reading.

Many of the works of fiction you mentioned I read in high school. I received an exemplary education from a small private school where I was fortunate to study the Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, the Bible as literature, and British literature. I also was extremely proficient in Latin and read portions of the Aeneid in Latin as well as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the poetry of Horace and Catullus. I chose not to study Latin in college, and I kick myself for not doing so. I would love to know Latin now like I did twenty years ago, but I did buy a Vulgate several years ago and hope at some point to get back into my Latin.

I was fortunate to be exposed to all that great literature so young, but only now do I realize how wonderful my education was. I went to Penn, and I did not work as hard in college as I did in high school–nor was I exposed to as much broad learning as I was in high school.

A truly great book

Of your three books tied at #10, which would you recommend first?

I tend to prefer classical fiction (Wharton, the Russians, and George Eliot are my favorites) to nonfiction, but my interests are slowly changing. Ever since converting to Orthodoxy over two years ago and becoming very serious about my faith, I have become interested in reading about theology, Scripture, Christianity, etc. My priest who is very knowledgeable recommends books to me all the time when I talk to him about my questions, Scripture reading, etc. One of my best friends is Pentecostal, and he constantly challenges me on my beliefs because our theology is quite different, but he is also a huge influence on me.

I am about halfway through The Beauty of God as I am reading other things right now, and I am really enjoying it. It is definitely not a slow read, but I am learning quite a bit. Walford’s essay on Broken Beauty and Herman’s essay on Wounded Beauty are thought-provoking and insightful.

Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind is spot-on.

I’d recommend bumping Rieff’s The Triumph of the Therapeutic up a notch in the queue; it’s a slow read but well worth the time to process it.

I haven’t read the Pelikan books you noted, but I’m in the middle of reading his The Vindication of Tradition, and finding it excellent.