I've been Tagged!

It's an idle evening, so I thought I'd surf the 'net for a little bit. Reading Joe's website Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam I see that I've been tagged. I really don't know what this means, but I suspect that I have to answer some questions. So, copying the questions from his site, here are my responses:

1. A book that changed your life.

In the Gloaming by Alice Elliot Dark. I read this collection of short stories in graduate school for a class on narrative and spirituality. The title of the book is the name of the lead-off short story, about a young man who returns home to die of AIDS. It's a powerful narrative of the transformative power of hospitality, of love, and of reconciliation.

2. A book you've read more than once.
I wish I could say that I'd read some deep theological treatise several times over (and for enjoyment, not for my inability to understand it on the first attempt). I cannot. I have read The Little Prince many times and find that, with each reading, I resonate differently with each character. Lately I've been feeling like the fox!

3. A book you'd want on a deserted island.
Hmmmmm, provided I had a lighter, a book with a lot of pages (I might need to build a fire). I'd probably read "The Brothers Karamazov" more because I find that each time I turn back to it, I find something wholly new and different.

4. A book that made you laugh.

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Brilliantly funny!

5. A Book you wish had been written.

In light of a conversation I recently had, Naming Grace would be a book that aimed at providing young people (or people of all ages) with a language for naming the graces in their lives. Too often we get stuck on abstract theology and I think what we need is a good primer on how to express our encounters with God, the God we meet in our day-to-day lives.

6. A Book you wish had never been written.

Any book about using the microwave for cooking. There's something just so unnatural about that!


This is the first time I've ever answered such questions. It's been a fun though experiment, one I can enter into without *too* much deep thought!