Interview With a Bibliophile

Noelle Mering

It’s Monday, and time once again for “Interview With a Bibliophile” in which I invite some lovely bibliophiles I know and love to answer some questions about tastes, reading habits, and preferences. This is to pique some interest among friends and family about new book finds, to perhaps stir up some thought provoking ideas, and to simply share our mutual love of books. If you love books, I hope you will join us and take a look.

Today I catch up with my friend Noelle Mering. Noelle is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She is the author of the book Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology. and is one of the editors at Theology of Home, an online magazine that provides resources and encouragement for Catholic mothers. She is also a co-author of the Theology of Home book series.

Noelle lives with her husband Adam and their six children in Southern California. Between surfing, camping, ferrying children to and fro, and running her home, Noelle manages to share her wisdom and expertise as a sought after guest on many a podcast. She has a lovely mix of intensity and gentleness that I have come to admire. Noelle admits that she is always game for taking up the mic at her local pub for some all out karaoke, but she points out, “Some people are singers and others….karaoke. I am firmly in the latter camp.” She muses that perhaps this is because she is half exuberant Filipino and that’s where the karaoke penchant might come from; that and perhaps her “secret talent for making up ridiculous interpretative dances on the fly to almost any song.” I confess, I now have a great desire to see her in action! I was also glad to discover that, like me, she admits to having no sense of direction and often has to use maps in her own town - where she has lived for twenty years! Finally, in the spirit of true confessions, she reveals that her childhood crush was none other than David Letterman! And now without further ado, I welcome Noelle to Interview With a Bibliophile.

What is your favorite genre of book?

Noelle:

I love Catholic fiction writers: Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, Evelyn Waugh. In my twenties I tended to read what my husband read: more challenging things from the Russians and then fun reads from Tom Wolfe, John Updike, and Richard Ford. But I guess the most consistent sort of reading throughout my life is the sort of non-fiction that offers insights into culture, religion, and the human person: Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Tom Howard, Roger Scruton, and Joseph Pieper.

Do you have a favorite spiritual book? What do you look for in a book on spirituality?

Noelle:

Because I need to do a lot of intellectual reading for work, I really want spiritual reading to be simply about helping me with prayer. I love Fr. Jacques Phillipe's books, Time for God and Interior Freedom. I have a particular devotion to St. Josemaria Escriva. His trilogy The Way, Furrow, and The Forge gives excellent prayer guidance. I also love The Fulfillment of All Desire by my friend, Ralph Martin. He brings the wisdom of seven doctors of the Church to light the way of the path toward God. All of these books are accessible reads but still really rich and insightful--which is what I want in spiritual reading.

What five books would you recommend as important for teens (16-18) to read? Why?

Noelle:

This might be a biased list because these are all books that shaped my thinking in my youth: The Abolition of Man by Lewis, The End of the Affair by Greene, Václav Havel’s The Power of the Powerless, Witness by Whitaker Chambers, The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.

Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy was among my dad's most recommended reads so I'd add that. And Anna Karenina is Adam's favorite novel. I did not read it until adulthood and even then only listened to it so that I could multitask. But I would want to make room for the favorite reads of my favorite people who are greater readers than I!

How have you formed good reading habits in your children? What advice would you give parents in this regard?

Noelle:

We had books strewn about the house and did lovely programs when they were young like Five in a Row that centered learning of other disciplines around lovely children's literature. My big advice is: let your kids get bored. You're not their cruise ship director. In boredom they tend to turn to creativity and reading.

What is a life changing book for you? The one you could not put down. The one that stayed with you long after you were finished? Why?

Noelle:

The Abolition of Man stuck with me. I find myself referencing it still decades later. Lewis has such a way of making deep truths simple, winsome, and compelling. He is a real treat to read.

I read Witness in my late teens and could not put it down. It read like a thriller. It holds a special place for me because the day after my dad died one of my daughters (seemingly randomly) pulled it off his book shelf, opened it and saw that it was inscribed to me from him over twenty years ago. In it he wrote that it was the story of a great man who sought God first in Communism then in Christianity, and how that is the spiritual odyssey of our age.

Do you have a favorite author? Why?

Noelle:

I love Flannery O'Connor. I like her wit and I'm drawn to her darker themes and the way Christ haunts her stories.

What would you say to adults reluctant to read? Any advice on beginning a reading habit in their lives?

Noelle:

The best way to begin a habit is to do it daily around the same time for a set amount of time. Read something you enjoy--that'll make you more likely to sustain it.

Well, thanks so much for sitting down and talking books with us, Noelle! I had forgotten about The Abolition of Man and now would love to reread it at your suggestion. Happy reading to you! Hope to hear you live one day on the Karaoke scene!

Read more of Noelle’s thoughts at her personal substack

I do not feel inclined at this time to have a paid substack. But if we were together in a cafe discussing all these thoughts, I would not be opposed to you buying me a cup of coffee - with cream, of course. In that spirit, if any of my posts resonate with you and you feel so inclined, you can donate here: buymeacoffee.com/denise_trull