Member: bwiegand

Dear Barry,

I remember you very well, and periodically I check on your "recent activity." I wish you would post some reviews of the interesting books you read, though I know you are much busier than I am.
I was not overly bothered by the comment on my comments on Terry. It was not a kind review and I suppose I should have toned it down. It just happened to be my feelings when I read the book, back in 1996.

I am presuming the people who helped the Pope do his work on the Anglicans are not the same people who help him with some of the other things he has done. I strongly feel that the priest shortage calls for some heavy thinking and I can't help but think that there are a lot of Catholics in communion with Rome who have celibacy optional for their priests, and it seems to me that we should be working toward that--and the Anglican opening is a step in the right direction.

I am intrigued by your comments on Scotland and that your daughter is going to St. Andrews. How and why did that come about?

Dewie

posted by Schmerguls at 5:44 pm (EST) on Oct 25, 2009

Briar Cliff University--located about three blocks from our house, has 33 items in its catalog by Hilaire Belloc, but How the Information Happened is not one of them. There are copies of the book in various Iowa libraries, including a copy at Loras College--my alma mater. I am sure I can get a copy thru inter-library loan, and I may.

A Google search for The Sign was unsuccessful in telling me when it became defunct, as I am sure it is. I did find that it started in 1921, and a summary of Passionist events up to 1952 did not indicate it ceased publication so I am sure it went on some time after 1952--you subscribed to it when you were young and you still are so it was in existence recently.

As a result of reading The Sign I remember telling my mother I wanted to be a missionary in China, and she was a bit dismayed by this--I must have been about 10 at the time--and she intimated that maybe I wouldn't have to go to China to do good.

posted by Schmerguls at 8:44 am (EST) on Apr 29, 2008

Dear Barry,

So good to hear from you. I have you in Interesting Libraries and often check your site to see what you are entering. I only catalog the books I have read--every book I have read is entered--so I only add a book when I finish reading it. My lifetime total is at 4430. My site shows a few less than that, because of trouble entering separate books in a series, for instance, I have read the 40-volumes of Ludwig von Pastor, but I don't think all 40 volumes are listed in my catalog on LibraryThing.

I am currently entering "reviews" of my books and have over 2000 entered. These are based on post-reading notes I make on a book immediately after I finish reading it. I have such notes for about every book I have read since 1969, so when I finish this project (if I ever do) I will have about 3400 reviews--really just my reaction to the book

I first became acquainted with Hilaire Belloc when I was a kid and his articles often appeared in The Sign, a magazine put out by the Passionists which we subscribed to. He was a very enthusiastic Catholic apologist, and I alwasy found him a delight to read, though I knew that his take on English history was not in the ordinary camp.

Here is what my computer shows when I put "Belloc" in as the search word for my list of books read:
91 The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes (read in 1941)
633 If or History Rewritten, by Philip Guedalla, G.K. Chesterton, Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Andre Maurois, Hilaire Belloc, H. A. L. Fisher, Harold Nicolson, Winston Churchill, Milton Waldman, and Emil Ludwig - Edited by J. C. Squire (read 12 Nov 1960)
2057 I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia" by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes (read 26 Feb 1987)
2059 Hilaire Belloc: a Memoir, by J. B. Morton (read 2 Mar 1987)
2284 The Path to Rome, by H. Belloc (read 7 Apr 1990)
2446 The Life of Hilaire Belloc, by Robert Speaight (read 14 May 1992)
2916 Characters of the Reformation, by Hilaire Belloc (read 5 Oct 1996)

As you see, I have actually read only two books by him, and only one of those is history. He became disabled in I think about 1941 and I don't think he wrote much after that. In the 1930's he and Chesterton were the great Catholic voices of England. While I enjoy reading him I don't think he is at all objective and so probably is not viewed as a reliable historian except to illustrate the Catholic view. (Mrs. Lowndes is Hilaire's sister.)

I have access to the Briar Cliff University library and it has a lot of his books and if there is one you think I should read I will see if it is in that library.

Schmerguls

posted by Schmerguls at 8:55 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2008

Dear Barry,

As you see, I am reading "Rebels" - and I like it! But it is going slowly, as I have a lot of work to do to prepare my new classes for the next academic year...

I am eagerly waiting for the comments you promised - on Drogheda, Sean and Paddy, Desmond Ryan... :)

posted by Romanus at 10:18 pm (EST) on Aug 6, 2007

Barry, I was intrigued by how thoroly your daughters have succumbed to Potter mania. I have never looked at any of the books or movies, and have noted a reaction in a group I am with and will send you a copy of that e-mail, which has a link to Harold Bloom's over-hyped comment.

I am glad to add your name to my Book Report Group which does not require you to read my monthly reports since they are easy to delete.

I did see a lot of movies when I was in Washington. I have a list of all movies I have seen (in theaters--TV doesn't count) and in late years I note the theater where seen but I don't seem to have done that earlier. But I was in Washington continously in 1954 and that year I saw 30 movies--whereas I read only 5 books (the fewest books read in a year since I learned to read). I went to summer school at Georgetown that year, enabling me to finish law school in January 1955. If I had not done that no doubt I would not have ended up in Sioux City so my whole life would have been changed. But I bet I did see movies at the Uptown, since we tried to see good movies. Nowadays I hardly ever go to a movie theater.

Dewie
PS: If you hit "reply" on this message you are taken to my site, where you can type your reply. You know this, because I do get your good missives

posted by Schmerguls at 1:41 pm (EST) on Jul 21, 2007

Dear Barry,

Yes, my name is Dewie Gaul. Schmerguls is the name of a great cat I had as a kid, and is the name I use on the Interent. The beauty of that name is that if you put it into Google all the hits refer to me: it is sui genereis.

I think having a host of books left you is a great thing, even if some of them do not turn out to be too enthralling. All the books I have listed are books i have read, and most of them I do not own. I have thought about listing books I own but have not read but have not done so. I add a book when I have read it. I have on my computer a list of every book ever read in full, and expect to add no. 4340 today. Incidentally, I pick a best book of the year at the end of each year, and have done so since 1944. These are tagged "book of the year", and clicking on that tag on my tag list will give the list.

I also at the end of each month do a review of my month's reading which includes non-profound comments on each book, and send is to people who act as if they want to see it. At midmonth I do the same for books read 30 years ago in that month.

Dewie

posted by Schmerguls at 8:09 am (EST) on Jul 15, 2007

Dear Barry,
I was much pleased to hear from you and read with great interest of your father's most admirable devotion to book sales. You are fortuante to have such a wise father. I go the the annual Good Will and Friends of the Public Library sales here in Sioux City, and some rummage sales (when 'books' are mentioned in the ad, but most times they are worthless books), but you are a much more knowledgeable connoisseur of such than am I.

I did read Michel Lind's book and my comment on it was as follows:

I found this a startling and thought-provoking book, arriving at conclusions not "in vogue" but some of which make sense and some of which disturb. He concludes "The Vietnam war was a just, constitutional and necessary proxy war in the Third World War that was waged by methods that were often counterprocductivbe and sometimes arguably immoral. The war had to be fought in order to preserve the military and diplomatic credibility of the US in the Cold War, but when its costs grew excessive the war had to be forfeited in order to preserve the consensuswithin the US in favor of the Cold War." (I seldom copy sentences from a book into my post-reading note but I did copy those.) This book is a slim, facile book which makes various superficially interesting arguments, some of which I agreed with. One arguement he makes, and with shich I agree, is that Johnson was right not to escalate the war to such an extent China would openly join the war on North Vietnam's side. This has been a fascianting albeit disturbing book." I might say that I supported the war till 1968, mostly I suppose because I was a good Democrat.

I wil have to look into Tom Cahill, whom I have not read. Thanks for telling me about him.

Dewie

posted by Schmerguls at 8:07 am (EST) on Jul 9, 2007