How to Build Your Own Catholic Library Collection

When you build your own Catholic library collection it gives you ready access to a wealth of knowledge about Catholic faith. Not only does godd Catholic reading teach the faith it should also edify you.  The books in your catholic library ought to help you adopt and plan your particular way of knowing, loving and serving God here on earth in order to be happy with Him for ever in Heaven.

The younger members of the family will enjoy having their own little library on a convenient shelf in the play room or bedroom.

This is an important consideration as you need ready access. You will want to be able to find a particular book quickly.  Another consideration is to display them in a prominent position in your home, a place that you can refer to as your Catholic Library of books.

Personally I have a wall to wall, floor to ceiling bookcase which gets many compliments.  My husband, the builder, often waves his hand towards the middle of it and boasts that the whole centre piece is not attached to anything and holds itself up!!!!  You of course will want to be much more careful, especially if you have little ones at home.

A bible, a catechism and a daily Missal are considered the foundation of a good library.

Old Catholic encyclopaedias are a must for your library but must be dated before (well before) the 1960’s.

You must choose your bible, your catechism, your daily Missal and encyclopaedias wisely.  Unlike my husband and the bookcase you must not leave these things to chance.

In another article and video I have covered the choosing of a Bible which is the most TRUTHFUL to the original Latin.  There I show you how changes have been made in Protestant bibles and modernised Catholic bibles have simply copied these and just added in the missing Books of maccabees etc and stamped the whole lot with an imprimatur.

This question is really about niche.  As you begin your Catholic Library collection which niche within the Catholic faith are you most interested in?

Which category do you select when you peruse your local parish library or online Catholic book sellers?

In your faith journey what subjects do you feel, give you the most support?

Important also will be the books that you can lift down from your shelves and discuss with visitors or Catholic friends.

Dogma is what you should be looking for as a foundation for your home library.

Next on the agenda is the lives of the saints.  Ah now nothing is better than the old rendering of Butlers Lives of the Saints.  I notice a kindle edition of this is on offer but sadly the information has been shortened.  You just don’t get what you deserve as a Traditional Catholic if you settle for less than the full heavy weight Butler!

Catholic Historical fiction is another must genre for the faith hungry catholic bookworm.  Hilary Belloc writes such amazing works that to be truthful I cannot read them twice because I know he is using actual history, actual sorrowful history as the template for his stories.  But for more stalwart souls than mine I would say most people would read and reread them.  Also some of these books are so beautifully bound that  on your shelves they are an experience to behold.

In order to enjoy reading your books in comfort you need to be thinking about an easy chair and perhaps a desk.  Certainly you will want to journal notes and lessons learned through your reading so pencils and pens and paper will go on your list of extras.  Good lighting is also a consideration.  Daylight by a window is very pleasant but a good solid standard lamp or desk lamp is a good idea to be able to focus the light on your book.

First consider what catholics books you already have in paperback or hardback. Do you consider Kindle books as a good investment?  Remember Kindle books can be lawfully removed from your kindle, computer, iPad etc at the behest of Amazon.

When I was young in the 1950’s my parents were members of a Catholic Book Club which sent them a book every month and in this way they built up quite a good Catholic Library in our home.  A book a month is an easy and inexpensive way to add to your collection.

You need to decide will you buy second hand books or new books or both.

Second hand book stores and thrift shops in your own locality.  My experience has been that the owners do not value the books and sell them cheap.

Abe books: another good source of second hand or rare books.

E-bay:  My son got a very old Missal on e-bay and I was more than happy, if somewhat shocked, when instead of what I thought was a simple Sunday Missal, the postman staggered to the door with a huge pre Vatican II Altar Missal also sourced on E-bay.

There are a few indie authors selling their books on Amazon who have taken old Catholic books in the public domain and re-written them.  There is even a beautiful paperback Douey Rheims New Testament available on Amazon.

The two most trustworthy Catholic book sellers are Tan Books USA and Carmel Books UK.  There are other outstanding publishers and sellers and I hope to review these in the near future.

There are many ways that you can Catalogue your books.  The most important thing is that you do it from the start.

Obviously a computer spread-sheet is the best way for those computer literate.  Also what would be nice is to be able to lift from the shelves a nicely bound A4 note book containing all the relevant headings and giving short information on each book.  Of course this could be acquired by printing out the computer spread sheets as well.

I have around two hundred  books in my Catholic Library collection and one day a non catholic visitor looked around and said.  “All these books are about the Catholic religion!  How could you find that much to say about the Catholic religion?”

Now!  Can we ever even begin to thank God enough, for the hight and depth and riches and knowledge and holiness of our Catholic faith?  So much of this treasure is passed on in Catholic books and Catholic Libraries.