To celebrate, we thought we'd play a game, as Chesterton was quite fond of games; and like Chesterton, we've completely made it up our of our heads.
Here's how you play. You answer the following questions on your own blog (if you've got one--if not, answer in the combox). Then you send me the link, and after we get all the players' answers, I'll make a big post with all the links. I'm pretty sure this is an original idea. ;-)
So, get out your thinking caps, and answer the following:
1. When did you first read a Chesterton book, story, or poem, and which was it?
2. What was the most recent of GKC's writings you read?
3. Which is your favorite book, poem - or quote?
4. Which would you recommend to a beginner?
5. What is the most unusual fact or quirky detail you know about G.K.Chesterton?
In addition to playing our game, you are required, yes- required, to celebrate in one of the following ways: have a party on the roof, eat a meal on the floor, go outside your house and knock on the front door, entering it as if you've never been there before, play a long round of gype, go out your front door, traipse around to the back door, and knock.
Okay, here it goes:
1. When did you first read a Chesterton book, story, or poem, and which was it?
It was approximately six years ago. It was "The Man Who Was Thursday" and I was both thrilled and totally confused (GKC does that to you). I then read "Manalive" which was less confusing and even more hilarious.
2. What was the most recent of GKC's writings you read?
I'm 3/4 of the way through "Orthodoxy" (and I've underlined a lot because I know I'll need to re-read it again - at least twice more - in order to really let it sink in).
3. Which is your favorite book, poem - or quote?
When I finish reading at least a dozen more of his books I'll be better able to say which book is my favorite. I've read three so far (plus Dale's book "G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense", as well as Dale's wonderful series of the same name on EWTN.) Once I finish reading "Orthodoxy," and then finish GKC's "Heretics," "The Everlasting Man," "St. Thomas Aquinas," "St. Francis Assisi," "The Ball & The Cross" and "The Flying Inn" (all of which are patiently waiting on my bookshelf, along with Dale's latest book, "Common Sense 101"), then I'll tell you which is my favorite Chesterton book.
As far as quotes are concerned, there are many in "Orthodoxy." Here's one that he uses to sum up one series of arguments in the section titled "The Paradoxes of Christianity":
"The state of the Christian could not be at once so comfortable that he was a coward to cling to it, and so uncomfortable that he was a fool to stand it."
4. Which would you recommend to a beginner?
Yikes! I'm too green to be able to accurately answer that question. I think everyone says that it's not the one that they had read first themselves. Chesterton tends to do that to you. He makes you think, and he forces you to read the book again to get a clearer understanding of what he's trying to say... which is both utterly simple yet strangely complex.
5. What is the most unusual fact or quirky detail you know about G.K.Chesterton?
The fact that he (at least) once pulled out a gun and offered to shoot someone (context is everything with regard to this hilarious fact).
And, to celebrate, I knocked on my front door. Then, when I entered I said, "Honey, I'm home!" It's very depressing because I don't have a "Honey" to come home to. But, it is a home to one day have "Honey" in.
One day... hopefully. *sigh*
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