Schall: Another Sort of Learning

A perfect book to begin the reviews (and your reading) is James V. Schall's Another Sort of Learning. It is a perfect selection because it is about everything. It is a books of essays, "contrary essays" it claims in a subtitle too long to type and too fun to read aloud, about reading, studying, teaching, longing, thinking, evil, sanity, values, lectures, devotion, prayer, sports, and a few other things. Easily, Schall could have entitled his book "On Everything" if only Hilaire Belloc had not used that one for a book of essays in 1909.

The book begins with a quotation from Mad Magazine, and ends with a reference to Aristotle. In between the end-pages you will repeatedly encounter names such as Samuel Johnson, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Russell Kirk, Augustine, Plato, Machiavelli, Josef Pieper, Eric Voegelin, Thomas Aquinas, Flannery O’Connor, Stanley Jaki, John Henry Newman, Dorothy Sayers, and Maurice Baring. It is a book largely about reading and thinking.

What keeps one going back to the book, if not only to reread the essays, is to consult the book lists. Part of the beautiful subtitle states "Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found". Each chapter contains at least one delightful book list; and then there is the bibliography. You will find "Eight Books on Evil and Suffering", "Five Books Addressed to the Heart of Things", "Sixteen Books on Belief and Disbelief", "Eight Collections of Essays and Letters Not To Be Missed", and so on.

It is easily read, in any chapter order, and at any speed. It is a perfect start to a journey in worthwhile books. Schall's Another Sort of Learning is "Not To Be Missed".

[originally posted at veni.sanctespirit.us on July 4, 2007]