The Lewolkien Literature Society met and enjoyed a weekend at the Nichols Lake house.  While lively laughter and joy-filled debate were the staple, a trip to local eateries led to a small used bookstore and you can imagine the society bought books, critiqued books and discussed how they would of course build a better book store, if they had a few more lives to live. “The bookshelf” on the small quaint street in the hamlet of Tellico Plains received mixed reviews from the society members.  It had a friendly attendant and fairly good prices, however the selection was wanting.  Don’t hear that wrong, there were classics, and Timothy bought 10 volumes in there.  The point was made that the 22,000 volumes advertised (in our humble opinion) did not seem to stand up to the experience.  Now much of that can be explained by the large quantity of cookbooks and romance novels that we dutifully passed right by.  Across the street from the bookshelf there was a marvel of a run down building.  That my friends was the source of a good dream like discussion full of hope that a bookish ministry would come and bring Truth, goodness, and BEAUTY to…

Join Castle Ministries on MARCH 25th in historic Rugby, TN  once again for encouragement, fellowship, and an opportunity to celebrate the good, the true, and the beautiful in literature.

Join Castle Ministries in historic Rugby, TN  once again for encouragement, fellowship, and an opportunity to celebrate the good, the true, and the beautiful in literature. The Lewolkien conference is a small, intimate gathering of book lovers and thinkers to herald the written word. Gather as we discuss books and unite over our admiration of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and authors like them. For the third time, the conference will be held in Rugby TN, a little town rich in literary history. We hope this could be a launching point for you to discover and celebrate God’s hand at work through the written word, and to pick up your next “great read” and beyond. JOIN US for an energetic time of thinking, sharing, and exploring great literature. Dates: March 25-26th Special Notice This year we’ll be discussing a specific work of Tolkien in one of the sessions, The Silmarillion. Reading it before you come to the conference is not required, but is highly encouraged! This will be the time to get your questions answered and discuss this, one of Tolkien’s more polarizing and yet deeply rich books.  Schedule Time Name Speaker March 25     7:00 pm Meet and Greet…

Join Castle Ministries in historic Rugby, TN  once again for encouragement, fellowship, and an opportunity to celebrate the good, the true, and the beautiful in literature.

I recently traveled to western NC for a day outing and stumbled into a great display of Inkling artifacts!

Read on for all that was of the flaming comet streaking through our literary skies known as Lewolkien 2019.

Six great reads for your 6th grader is my second attempt at the all-elusive list-making.  I do not mean to say these are the greatest books of all time, just that they are standouts and might give you some ideas.  Parents are entrusted with the great task of putting good words into the hands of their budding adults; I for one have found it difficult to find safe booklists I can trust.  How do you decide what to allow your child to read?  Do you simply sit in the car and let them run in to the local bookstore? Do you trust Amazon’s top picks?  I believe the parent who can come home to their children at the dinner table with a book in hand (or a loaded Kindle) will accomplish mighty things, such as: Gaining the edge on feeding good thoughts into his/her children Connecting with his/her children Laying a foundation for difficult upcoming conversations Increasing academic success Indirectly teaching morality (alright, that is a lot like #1) Christopher Perrin and Leslie Rayner in The Classical Reader write: “Ensconced with great books, our children will travel to places that we cannot take them and to times we cannot go.  Lives…

Five great reads for your 5th grader!  This is a short stab at trying to pass on the all-elusive skill of list-making from one Father/Educator to the next.  Every parent has a 5th grader at some point, and all the ones that I know are expecting their children to read something.  How will you decide what to allow your child to read?  Do you simply sit in the car and let them run in to the local bookstore? Do you trust Amazon’s top picks?  I believe the parent who can come home to their children at the dinner table with a book in hand (or a loaded Kindle) will accomplish mighty things, such as: Gaining the edge on feeding good thoughts into his/her children Connecting with his/her children Laying a foundation for difficult upcoming conversations Increasing academic success Indirectly teaching morality (alright, that is a lot like #1) The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit is a story of three children whose father is mysteriously sent to prison, forcing them move out to the country and live near a railway.  The narrative is witty, and adventures with these kids are always fun.  The power of the story, however, lies in the good sense…