In honor of the American Chesterton Society Blog’s 1st Anniversary they have a game or what is now know as a meme.
1. When did you first read a Chesterton book, story, or poem, and which was it?
The first thing I ever read of Chesterton was a chapter from The Everlasting Man "The Man in the Cave" at what use to be called PetersNet and is now CatholicCulture.org. The chapter made quite an impression on me and so eventually The Everlasting Man became the first of his books that I have read.
2. What was the most recent of GKC’s writings you read?
Well the last couple of months I have been ripping through many of his works including What’s wrong with the world, The Catholic Church and Conversion, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, Napoleon of Notting Hill, Manalive, and Heretics.
3. Which is your favorite book, poem – or quote?
I always have a difficult time picking favorites. Both Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man have become annual reads so I guess those two would be a tossup. Picking a favorite quote is also difficult since many of his books are really collections of my favorite quotes. Though I did start my first blog and first post with "if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly," which Chesterton himself says is a defense of hobbies which blogging certainly is.
4. Which would you recommend to a beginner?
The list of quotes at Chesterton.org is a good beginning. I have given a selected list to people at work and most of them after reading them become astounded that they have never heard of G.K. Chesterton. Though I never heard of him either until I was in my conversion phase.
For books though The Father Brown mysteries is a good start or the series Apostle of Common Sense on EWTN, a show which I really love.
5. What is the most unusual fact or quirky detail you know about G.K. Chesterton?
Where would you start? Whether it is his carrying around a sword stick, sending telegrams to his wife to find out where he should be, or that he could be great friends with those who were his polar opposite in philosophy of life; he was just one great big quirk. Or maybe because he was just really alive and most of us have become so staid that fully living life appears as a quirk.
3 comments
You should “tag” Dawn Eden at the Dawn Patrol with that.
Interesting that the first time I really heard anyone speak of Chesterton in conversation, it was a non-Catholic…she was a homeschooling mother of an autistic spectrum son (as I am) and she was telling me about “famous autistic people in history.” Apparently, some feel that GKC could be posthumously diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. (Which, from my personal experiences with my boys, often comes off as if the person is “one great big quirk.”)
My two favorite quotes by GK are:
1) “Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a dual.”
2) The last paragraph of the first chapter of HERETICS; a book I’ve never been able to finish reading.
I find GKC hard reading. I did, however, enjoy ORTHODOXY, THE EVERLASTING MAN, and ST THOMAS AQUINAS.