Top 7 read aloud books for babies to 24 months

This post may contain affiliate links, which help me support my art habit, Liz Lenzi Art.

Worried that your baby is too busy climbing around and sticking everything in his or her mouth to actually foster a love of reading. Be not afraid!!

My (currently 22 month old) girl was always busy doing EVERYTHING except for sitting and reading with me. As a teacher, this was a source of anxiety and depression for me. Can you not just SIT with me and LEARN WONDERFUL JOY FROM THIS STINKING BOOK?!?!

It got better.

Blessedly, a few months ago something clicked and she was fully-fledged in a language building schema (learn more about what I mean by that by reading my Montessori posts). Suddenly she was getting all of her exercising running to and from her book shelves. We were devouring books, reading each one two and three times in a row (okay, so more like ten times in a row) and I was starting to feel like my brain had been strength training. I can officially boast to having memorized eleven children's books.

These have been her top seven favorites and the ones that pulled her into her language building frenzy. There are so many beloved children's books, so please tell me your favorites in the comments.

Books you must have on your shelf for your baby and young toddler

1. Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle - It has a great rhythm, filled with all of those farm animals we expect them to know (even though they only regularly interact with dogs and cats), and teaches to be good to one another even when others aren't considerate to us.
2. Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt - Perhaps this is an Irish or UK classic and not American (yet), but this was the breakthrough book that taught my girly that she can engage with the books we read.
3. Dr Seuss' ABC - Duh. How else can you watch an ostrich oil and orange owl?
4. Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan - I adore the illustrations in this book and I enjoy that it's a book about nocturnal animals. The rhythm is perfect for preparing for bed and cute Little Owl is so full of joy about his life in the forest.
5. 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle - We have the paper version and the board book version. One of the reasons this became a favorite is because the last page of the paper version includes an electronic button for making the 10th little rubber duck squeak alongside his new duck family. This book touches on cardinal directions, other forms of directions, sea animals, manufacturing (ha), ordinal numbers, and loneliness.
6. Hail Mary by Maïte Roche - It's a fabulous size for little hands without becoming a teether (does anyone else's child chew on and swallow pieces of tiny books -- maybe she's loved books longer than I give her credit, she's just digesting them instead of reading them) and the illustrations are gorgeous. This book allows her to participate in praying the Hail Mary, as the whole book is simply the prayer accompanied by pictures.
7. Trains Go by Steve Light- I have a railfan on my hands. i had to look up a word to describe one who is obsessed with trains. She has this boys' set of PJs that she calls her "choo choos" and has almost literally worn them at some point every single day for the last two weeks. It'll be a blue day when they no longer fit her. Anyway, this book came from the library and uses onomatopoeia to illustrate the sounds of the different variety of train noises. #noteverytrainsayschoochoo #apparently

Phew!

A lot has happened since I last wrote on the blog. There was a spirited "discussion" with someone I know in real life on my last blog post (which, like all "discussions" on the topic of marriage have been in the last several months, was really more about two people pretending they "just want to talk about this," but were really trying to unmask the stupidity of the other person's position), I finished my first year of grad school, I MARRIED MY BEST FRIEND, went on our honeymoon, moved into a new-to-me home, and began a summer class (and a new blog - what am I doing to myself?!).

As I make decisions about the direction into which I want to take this blog, I'll pause for one of my number one summertime struggles (oh yeah, first world problem). What should I read?!

Lauren from The Loveliest Hour (and the creative brain behind the Bright Maidens' new blog layout...which we have failed to fill) has a list of 12 Refreshing Reads for Summertime. Go check it out!

Right for writing

Of course, Jennifer Fulwiler, I'll show you where I write! At the same time, I'll share with you my new apartment!

I have the sincere delight to work from home. I didn't realize how FORTUNATE I am until I travelled for about three weeks, moving from place to place, desk to desk, and power strip to power strip, trying to work. These were work trips, inconveniently shoved close together on the calendar, but they helped me appreciate the fact that I can wear pajamas everyday of the work week.

Coffee cup, obviously a necessity. I'm a duo-computer-wielding chickadee, as you can see. This inspiration-centre doubles as -- and is typically used as -- my day job workspace. ADD-fostering happens here.

This is my beautiful new bed with my beautiful new comforter. More often than not, I write my blog posts, diary entries, and attempts at creative writing from my bed. I like to be comfortable when I pick apart my own brain. Note: Nook for the win!

This is my new view. Not too shabby! I love my new space, but I have yet to get back on the ball with regular writing.... maybe this brag post will kick me into gear!

And finally: I ALWAYS have a notepad with me. ALWAYS. Sometimes I forget a pen, but whenever some to-do, a brilliant thought, or a reminder needs a home, I have the paper for it.

Combining Gilbert and Wentworth

*1*

Yes, I'm cheating by doing this in Quick Takes form... a week after the topic was published.

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This topic was meant to be a light one, just in time for Valentine's Day, because no matter your vocation or marital status, there have been and always will be literary men in your life. As Liesl explained in her literary crush piece, "Excuse me while I swoon:" 

I think one of the things I have learned most from my literary crushes is not that they have shaped my heart, but that they show me what is already imprinted on my heart.

We are who God created us to be when He first knew us, before He formed us in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). We are His children, at our core, no matter what additional outer layers we allow others or the world to attach to us.

*2*

When you KNEW you could fly

My college art show focused on a related phenomenon: the concept of memory and how your life changes and experiences change your perspective on memories.

For instance, Anne of Green Gables was one of my first chapter books. Therefore, my perspective as a 5 or 6-year-old reading about Anne's contentious relationship with Gilbert Blythe was simplified. I might have picked up on their undertones, but I certainly didn't analyze it and try to apply my results to my own life like I did as a teen.

My perspective as a happy, confident, and in-Love 24-year-old reading this classic is less analytical and involves far more guffaws at some of my previously similar behaviors. Oh Anne, you're almost as clueless as I was a few years ago!

I can only imagine that I will revisit my 24-year-old perspective as an older woman and share a few more guffaws with and at myself. It's a cycle, folks, so embrace it!

*3*

Say a prayer that everyone may shed the extra layers

This whole concept rests on the notion that we are who God created us to be at our core. My favorite quick quote is JP2's "Family, become what you are." As Catholic Christians, we believe God created our souls and and gave them a home in our bodies.

Our souls should come first in the health pecking order, but many times we feed our body and our pleasures first.

Throughout our lives, we pack on outer layers of junk. I know I formed some weird habits during my tween to teen years. We all add habits and mannerisms to ourselves in order to fit in or do what we think will be best for us. Unfortunately, this is often only "best" for us in our pleasure-seeking short term.

Praise God, we're still US at our core. Through discernment, prayer, the will of God, and sometimes an Ah-Ha moment, we can shed these outer layers and reveal who we were created to be.

*4*

This inner person, the core, is the one with whom others fall in Love! This is who Gilbert noticed about Anne, not her red hair or temper. I believe he fell for the passion that motivated the temper.

Captain Wentworth tried his best to forget about his Anne, the one who broke his heart. He thought he healed from the romance bruise, but as soon as he saw her again, seven years later, and noticed her resolve, clear-headedness, and strength, he shed the blinders.

Julie, Liesl, and Sarah mentioned these fine fellows, and rightly so. I used to think that I Loved Gilbert because he was just a nice, intelligent country boy who is part of an example of an iconic Love story. I once thought I swooned over Capt. Wentworth because he secretly pined over Anne and then wrote a beautiful letter to make his affection known.

It's both more complex and more simple than that: they Loved their Annes to their core and recognized the lovable qualities buried deep in them. Once more, swoon with me. This is why they are so swoon-worthy. Gilbert embraced Anne's Anne-ness from the beginning and Capt. Wentworth couldn't fall out of Love with his Anne, even after years and distance.

These are the men we want, ladies. Go find them.

Half an idiom is wanting

I'm in a British mood. I'm currently obsessed with a new television show, and no, it's not Canadian. It's British and brilliant. As I seem to have a struggle finding time for poignant posts that fit the original intent for this blog, I will share with you a fun one.

Maggie Smith is quite British.

There is much to be thankful for with the English language. We are so blessed with synonyms that we could potentially create 78,990 versions of one ten-word-long sentence, without repeating key vocables. Or locutions, or morphemes, if you prefer.

However, I often weep for the English language, at the same time I torture it. We're losing the ability to exchange intelligent thoughts, I fear. In looking for shorter, newer ways of speaking, we've lost a more eloquent tongue. One of the casualties of this slow murder has been the loss of significance in our idioms.

Here are several idioms that the show "Downton Abbey" uses in their entirety. You will probably recognize them, but you might not know they were longer than the version we throw around each day. Enjoy!

• There are more fish in the sea than ever came out of it. - When one of the characters used this in the TV show, it was the first time I realized the phrase didn't stop with "there are more fish in the sea." With the tail (pun) at the end of the idiom, it's more specific, as it refers to the fisher (usually someone looking for a love) who might catch two or three fish (love-ees). This serves as a reminder that not only are there more fish out there to "catch" but that you haven't done a relative amount of fishing to find them. I won't comment on how that agrees or disagrees with TOB...

• Shipshape and ready in Bristol fashion. - How FUN IS THIS IDIOM!? Try saying it with a British accent. Fun, right?! Bristol has been a prominent seaport town in the UK for centuries, though it is on a estuary river instead of at the coast. Therefore, the ships that came to Bristol had to be prepared to sit on dry land sturdily -- with carefully stowed goods-- as low tide went out (or came in, depending on if you're an English professor) each day. This phrase is a merge of two: ship-shape, which means just what it sounds like and has been used since the 17th century, and "in Bristol fashion" from the early 19th century.

• You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. - You cannot make a good quality product using bad quality materials. Because I never really paid attention to this and just made my own guess for what it meant, I absentmindedly took this phrase to mean something similar to "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Funny how I had that backwards.... When life hands you lemons, go shopping for better quality fruit, so they say.

• A drowning man will clutch at a straw. - I'm sure you know this idiom, or "grasping at straws," is used to describe the actions of someone in desperate situations. Its meaning comes from the former inference of "a straw" as it was once an accepted example to refer to anything flimsy or worthless, just as straw seems flimsy or worthless. So the language already had the word "straw" referring to anything worthless and we add the image of a drowning man clutch (derived from Wycliffe's 14th century English translation of 1 Timothy 6:12) at whatever might be able to prevent him from falling below the water, mix in several centuries and POOF we have "grasping at straws." Now you know what you're saying when you use that phrase!

• Three sheets to the wind. - I was so excited to learn that this idiom, used when someone is very drunk, is derived from the "sheets" or the ropes that hold the sails in place on a ship. If these are too loose, they are blown by strong wind, making the boat unsteady and resembling a drunkard. Jolly ho!

• One swallow doesn't make a summer. - One example or bit of proof doesn't make a pattern or truth. From Richard Taverner's transcription of the [Latin] proverbs of Erasmus - Prouerbes or adagies with newe addicions, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, 1539: "It is not one swalowe that bryngeth in somer. It is not one good qualitie that maketh a man good." And we thought we invented symbolism and imagery!

• The best-laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry. - Tickle me pink to learn this is the whole phrase that we lopped off into two! It's directly from the Scotsman Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse:" "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Gang aft agley, as you will have to trust me, means "go oft awry," or "often go awry." Just as we shorten idioms to "When in Rome," here we see that people can quickly use "best-laid plans!" as a quip to bring our fellow men and women to the trough for a taste of sweet, sweet humility. Other times, people tend to throw around "of mice and men," methinks carelessly and in a way that doesn't seem to fit with the origin. However, "the best-laid schemes!"

• The darkest hour is just before the dawn. - A character from Downton Abbey used this phrase and followed it with, "But the dawn always comes." I've more often heard the intro to this phrase, "darkest hour," used as if it stands alone. I prefer knowing the entirety, because it packs in optimism while leaving it to the negative half of the equation suspends negativity indefinitely. That's the last thing our world needs.

• The proof of the pudding is in the eating. - "The proof is in the pudding."  What?! "The proof is in the pudding" made me think of some piece of key evidence -- a credit card receipt, a murder weapon, or my little sister's neglected green beans -- swimming around at the bottom of the pudding bowl. I chalked it up (probably another misused idiom) to the goofy English language and moved on. Now I know that "proof" means "test," in this example (as we know we only get proof as a result of a test). This proverb can be traced back to the 14th century and basically means what it seems after we replace proof with test: until you have experienced something and done everything to learn as much as possible about it, you can't know its value.

• The exception that proves the rule. - This never made any sense. Here again we need to remember that "proof" is the result of a test, so replace "proves" in the phrase. The phrase was intended to convey, "The exception demonstrates that the rule exists." It comes from latin legalese, circa 17th century: "Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis," or "exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted."

Most of my information explaining the idioms comes from here. Check out more of them!

Announcing: VirtuousPla.net, website for young adults

Readers o'mine, do I have a treat for you!?

The answer is both yes and CLICK HERE!

Welcome to a new world where a group of young adults who uphold a dedication to the Magisterium gather to write on one website about a myriad of topics relevant to young adults!

We launch today, on the Feast of the Assumption, with the prayer that Mary, Our Mother will help us direct people to her Son.

Please, if you like what we share today (and you look forward to seeing more) bookmark Virtuous Planet, tweet about us, post a link on Facebook, tell your friends, email your grandmother, spray paint the URL on your roof....

Let's pour some more Christianity into the Internet streams, what do ya say? UPDATE: Now we're at IGNITUM TODAY

In Which I Pretend Perfect Weather Exists

Summer Reading

"Summer Readin', Having A Blast!"Julie at The Corner with a View
"Summer Reading" Trista at Not a Minx, a Moron, or a Parasite

"In Which I Pretend Perfect Weather Exists" by Elizabeth at Startling the Day

The "Bright Maidens" were originally three from the oft-mentioned, widely-speculated upon demographic of young, twenty-something Catholic women. Now, we all take up the cross to dispel the myths and misconceptions. Welcome!

In my mind's eye, I'm sitting in a bug-free, snake-free meadow, sprawled out in the tall grass, in a light, summer dress circa Anne of Green Gables with a book in my hand. Later, I'll glide down to the lake and hop in the paddle boat with my musty, bound book and push off into the middle of the water, breaking up the reflection of the puffy-cloud sky.

A breeze rocks the boat as I turn from page to page.

But I don't live on Prince Edward Island. I live in Richmond where the days are hot, sticky and there isn't a bug-free, snake-free meadow even in our dreams. We've hit 100°F almost everyday for about three weeks here in the former capital of the Confederacy.

The books get soggy with ... feminine glow, not sweat ... if you try to read outside. The animals laugh at you if you walk out with your book, waiting for the cool breeze.

I'm going to share my resources for summer reading during those "thank you, dear Lord, for whomever invented air conditioning" days. Yes, it's high-tech and yes, you have to have a computer to read these, but that's just one more opportunity to be grateful for what we have.

And for what we don't need to have, namely a sweat-soaked summer dress in a field as we slowly bake to death.

First of all, CatholicFiction.net. Need I say more?

If you're a fan of all things fiction, but you want to be sure you're entertaining yourself outside the confines of a harlequin novel or the fiction-version of "Knocked Up," hit up Idylls Press' website.

They even provide a list of free e-books, with the suggestion that if you enjoy them and you can donate, to indulge the urge. The next book lined up on my Nook (yes, I'm going new-fashioned. It prevents the soggy-book-effect) is The Innocence of Fr. Brown by G.K. Chesterton.

I know many people hold to the idea that books should have pages that crease and tear and ink that leaks down the page when the crying scenes are just that good, but let me remind you of the beauties of air conditioning...

Give it a chance at no cost to you. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Kobo (as well as many other resources, I'm sure) provide free computer/tablet/smart-phone-based applications
for e-reading. Simply download the application and download the free (or not free, whichever floats your indoor, sweat-free boat) e-books and go to town.

If you are interested in more free stuff, never forget our e-vangelizing tools from my post earlier this year. Make sure you visit FreeForCatholics.com, as well, and peruse some of the free or cheap items that companies and organizations are willing to send to us.

So you want to walk away from this post with some titles?

Spiritual must-reads:

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

• I mentioned this in my first list of book suggestions and I stand by that choice here. The devil makes chess moves throughout my day and it's imperative we think about what kind of plan he has for our lives so we can recognize when our impulses are from him and when they're from God. Also, if you have a chance to see this performed on stage, I suggest you go, ASAP.

How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul by Jason and Crystalina Evert

• My review for this book gets a surprisingly high number of hits every week, even three months after I read it. I continue to benefit from the explanations it provided for me and I hope enough teens get their hands on it before they start making decisions that will affect them for the rest of their life.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• When a priest suggests a book, you read it. A priest suggested this... it's time to read it.

To read for fun:

Persuasion by Jane Austen

• The greatest Austen novel, in my opinion.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

• I don't know that I can back up this book as fine literature or an astute political piece, but it was a relatively safe way to get inside the fictionalized head of someone who found a reason to support abortion and an alternative way of life, in a "mild" way. If you want to try to understand why people disagree with the Church on things like the Sanctity of Life and Theology of the Body, this is a quick read.

If you're anything like me, dear reader, you're always looking for a suggestion for a good book to read. Rather than making a trip to the store or trusting the Amazon reviews, consider signing up for Library Thing. You can make a list of all the books you can remember reading and filter through the suggestions that like-minded readers provide!

Happy trails! Stay cool...

... I'm off to day dream of a perfect reading corner.

Introducing a new label

merging adult. That's my new title.

I'm not a full adult (except in the eyes of the Church, government, and Hogwarts, of course) because I am an in-between-er.

Clark University psychology professor Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett calls phenomenons like me (those in their 20s) members of the category "emerging adulthood."

Arnett identifies five qualities of people like me:

1. They are searching for their identity and exploring different options
2. Their lives are unstable
3. They are self-focused, meaning they are not yet beholden to anyone
4. They feel "in-between" adolescence and adulthood
5. It's a time of remarkable optimism.

Here is my response, AKA, "nuh-uh":


1) I know my identity (daughter of God, one in His Church), but I'm still learning about myself.
2) My life isn't unstable, but I don't own my own house.
3) I feel pretty beholden to my family, if do say so, but I don't have my own kids.
4) I don't feel "in-between," but do live in my parents' house and I am unmarried.
5) Bingo, I feel pretty optimistic.

1 out of 5.

Maybe the 6th quality is "They have a picky nature and choose to debate key points until they like what they hear." I could accept that; I have a "pet peeve" tag on my blog, for crying out loud.

Read more here.

 

What are your thunks?

You're welcome, English language

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America: the land of the free and the home of the inventor.

I do not support killing the English language with text lingo ("r u goin 2 da mall l8r? lol.") or with "abrevs," (fab, totes, etc) as my Canadian friends call them.

But I do like making up new words and phrases (Ex: Ennui-versary). My dad is the genius behind most of the definitions below, as he is always saying, "We need a word for..." If these new words stick, they could be a wonderful birth in the language. If they don't, at least Google will find them on here.

(I don't own the rights, but I did make up these words...)

 We need a word for:

• Benedict Arnoldyougoingtosignthat? - a disloyal pro player who switches teams to the hated, dreaded enemy.
• EX: Boggs, Damon, and Favre are famous Benedict Arnoldyougoingtosignthats? who played the traitors' game of capture the flag with fans' hearts.

• Condisweat- the very watery liquid which first comes out of a ketchup and mustard bottle on a hot day.
• EX: "Tommy, don't forget to shake the ketchup. Your father is afraid of condisweat because of his soggipaniphobia."

• Creeptronic Period - the era in which cyber-stalking, otherwise known as "MyFaceStalking," is socially acceptable and common.
• EX: It was in the Creeptronic Period that man started losing retinas and more sleep than ever before.

• Digiveil - the moment one says, "Hello?" when answering a phone with caller ID, which told one who called.
• EX: Since the late-nineties, Edith has upheld the digiveil, pretending she doesn't know what the caller ID already told her.

• Deliveranc-hnozzola - the moment one can breathe again after having a cold or flu.
• EX: Finally, Jim thought, deliveranc-hnozzola after 72 hours of sneezing. 

• Dess-nial- the mindset when a waiter asks "Will there be dessert?"; everyone in the crowd thinks, "Darn, right," but says aloud, "No, I probably shouldn't." Bonus for a commenter who invents a name for the good soul who orders it with six spoons!
• EX: It was their first date and she was in dess-nial, but that Death By Chocolate cake sounded delectable.

• Gray-dar - the ability to notice when someone is dying his or her hair, covering the gray.
• EX: My gray-dar goes off whenever I meet a 65-year-old raven-haired beauty.

• Jublianthusiasm - the phenomenon of one noticing one's parents are still hopelessly in Love and entertained by one another. 
• EX: The jublianthusiasm was palpable when my mom burst into laughter because of something my dad said.

• Melanchaudio - the feeling that overwhelms one when one hears a song that reminds one of a bad time, of an ex-significant other, or of some memory that puts a gray cloud over one's head.
• EX: Sally's melanchaudio was particularly strong the night of the Michael Bolton concert.

• Misconscription - a joke, idea, or thought that doesn't translate well in writing without a lot of explanation.
• EX: In the first few conversations with his new friend, Jake thought Adam was a mean jerk, but it turned out much of Adam's humor became misconscription when they were instant messaging.

• Mortigait shuffle - the action of running for a few steps while looking back at the area where one tripped over nothing, when many might be watching.
• EX: The man engaged in a little mortigait shuffle to fool the other people on the street. That microscopic crack was a doozy.

• ObliviPAX - the thoughts that escape you so quickly that you KNOW you're never going to remember them so you make peace with it.
• EX: I have at least one obliviPAX per day and I'm okay with that. They must not be important.

• Obnoxygen - when the general atmosphere of a room is an unhealthy combination of annoyance and impatience. (This one comes from my good friend's dad!)
• EX: "I have to get out of here. I'm allergic to the obnoxygen in this room right now."

• Phone Tennis- that uncomfortable 120 seconds when both parties say goodbye on the phone but cannot seem to hang up.
• EX: Mary was a champion Phone Tennis player, confusing the person on the other end of the phone and costing her more minutes on her cell phone plan. 

• Redundanecdotes - stories heard a million times before, which are recognizable before the fifth word is spoken.
• EX: The 17-year-old Anne politely smiled as her grandfather told her another redundanecdote at the family reunion.

• Renter's block - the phenomenon where one can never think of a movie to see when one is standing in the store (or at the redbox, or with the Wii-mote on Netflix).
• EX: Margaret rarely rents movies because she gets renter's block before she even enters the store.

• Resplanitory - a message that needs no reply.
• EX: "Carl, 'I'll see you in five minutes' is a resplanitory. No need to waste a text with 'K.' I am going to see you in five minutes!"

• Revertigo Melanchaudio - the depression which envelopes one when a song popular in high school or college days plays on the elevator Musak station (the idea for this one is from my dad and I stole "revertigo" from How I Met Your Mother).
• EX: Revertigo Melanchaudio set in when Harold heard the chorus of a watered down version of "Fat Man in the Bathtub" play between the 20th and 32nd floors in the elevator. 

• Rude-duet - when one is talking to someone on the phone and it is quite apparent that the other person is also on the computer or watching TV.
• EX: "I'm listening," Samantha said. "So you heard me tell you I'm going to the hospital because I have heart burn from the live parrot I ate for lunch? You're rude-dueting me."

• Soggipaniphobia - the fear of bread that sat in soup too long. This phobia can also apply to a day old sub sandwich, the tomatoes and lettuce of which have moistened the roll.
• EX: Elizabeth has severe soggipaniphobia and therefore keeps bread and liquids totally separate. (taken from real life)

• T-ninerpreter - one with the ability to decipher T9 or auto-correct foul ups in a text received.
• EX: "What? I can't read this: 'G an three me ugh,'" said Sydney. "Oh, he said, 'I am tired of this' and forgot to type the last letter," said Patrick.

Tweet with me

Social media isn't scary, it's helpful. In the last several months I have crossed tweet-paths with hundreds of Catholic bloggers, Catholic tweeters, and pro-life activists. The deal is: you follow me, I'll follow you. With my new crop of Catholic followers I traipse on my merry Twitter way and expect we're making an impact.

I'm sure we're making some kind of impact, but I think it's time we make a deal, Catholic blogosphere. Billy Atwell wrote a great piece about the Christian effort in the social media world and I agree with him vehemently. Go read it and if you don't come back, that's okay.

Tweet me!

There are a LOT of Catholic blogs and we all seem to turn inward. These blogs are really great in many cases and I enjoy stumbling across new one after new one.

We get into a pattern of driving traffic, so we visit others' blogs, comment and then move on. We RT (retweet, for non-tweeters -- actually, "retweet" probably means nothing to you either... just know it's a compliment) and @ reply (again, compliment). There are a handful of blogs we read regularly, but the main objective seems to be attracting more people to our own site.

Billy points out that we need to create relationships in this social media realm. Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. Let me repeat: a REPUBLICAN (albeit pro-choice, etc) took a seat formerly held by a Kennedy. Whoa.

And yes, I believe we can give a lot of credit to social media and tweeters spreading the word about Coakey's slip of the tongue that Catholics just shouldn't work in health care. Ahh that fits so nicely in 140 characters: the absurdity of saying that to a state full of Irishmen came across in a short, sweet tweet.

I don't like that Brown is pro-choice and the party affiliation has nothing to do with my point: we should foster the same kind of movement among Catholic blogs. Pick ten or fifteen Twitter buddies at a time, click on their links, read the blog in its entirety, post it to Facebook, ask everyday Catholic questions in your blog like they do on The Practicing Catholic and other blogs, and don't be concerned with coming across as "too" Catholic on your social media forums.

We're in this for a reason and it's a pretty darn good one. Let's grab the torch and RUN!

The BBC has no faith in us

Many of you have seen this BBC list of 100 greatest novels on Facebook. Apparently, the BBC thinks most people have read only 6 of these 100 books. Show those limeys what's what. If you've read more than 6, shout out. If you haven't... read a few of them. Many of them aren't very long (Great Gatsby: love, obsession, murder, parties, all under God's watchful eyes).

You'll notice I didn't go through and show which ones I've read because I have an unfair advantage over science and econ majors.

Groan if you want to, but I'm actually disappointed that I have read only 32 with all the time I spent in English lit classes. I've gotta get crackin'!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 White Fang/The Call of the Wild - Jack London
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo