All Riders have two books in common:
- Bible, RSV Catholic Edition
- Liturgy of the Hours, 4 volume set counted as one book
After that, a rider picks a few books of personal interest. For me, that is Robert Frost’s Collected Works and several Shakespeare volumes (Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Sonnets).
One’s booklist expands and develops during one’s novitiate; however, it usually happens that one’s booklist changes somewhat once a parish has been decided. For me, being a part of St George Melkite in Sacramento is decisive.
For some books, I’ve picked just part of a larger set:
- Aquinas - just the first half of his Summa Theologica
- Dante - just Purgatorio and Paradisio
- Pelikan - just the recent history volume (ie since 1700)
The major theme for me is ethnic diversity within ecclesiastical structure, as one can see from my booklist:
- Bible, unabridged Revised Standard Version
- Vergil’s Aeneid; Sarah Ruden translation
- Harp of the Spirit; St Ephrem the Syrian
- The Confessions; by Saint Augustine
- Homilies on John; St John Chrysostom
- Summa Theologica; St Thomas Aquinas
- Dante’s Divine Comedy; Anthony Esolen
- Sonnets & Plays; William Shakespeare
- Complete English Poems; John Donne
- Collected Poetry & Prose; Robert Frost
- Reading Mark in Context; Blackwell
- Writings & Speeches; Edmund Burke
- Leviticus: Ritual & Ethics; Jacob Milgrom
- The Christian Tradition; Jaroslav Pelikan
- St Edmund Campion Missal; Sophia Press
- Bible & the Priesthood; Anthony Giambrone
- Water & the Spirit; Alexander Schmemann
- Horologion; Melkite Greek Catholic liturgy
- Compendium to the Catholic Catechism
- The Liturgy of the Hours; unabridged