Does anybody else do this? Keep a list of random books you’d like to write just as soon as you have the liesure to do so? Maybe not… Anyway, here are three for today:

* An Early Medieval English Catechism
This would be a set of introductions and translations from Ae’s homilies and letters with maybe a Vercelli or two thrown in for good measure. It could look at such things as General understanding of Christianity, The Creeds, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, the Sacraments, the Saints, Mary, the 4 Last Things, clerical duties, etc. This could be useful for 1)Church History students who normally just get a drive-by that totally skips the early medieval period and that is only interested in the *thoughts* of the *big names* not in how Christianity was perceived and lived out. Or for 2) Medievalists who tend to know next to nothing about Christianity. (The medievalists I know tend to fall into one of two categories–they either are pre-Vatican II Catholics/Anglo-Catholics or maintain an active and willful ignorance of Christianity. Unfortunately, Christianity so informs the cultres that the second group has no choice…) 3) Anglicans interested in finding out what the Ecclesia Anglicana really did believe…

* A Handbook of Historical Magical Texts
This would be for fantasy authors and other generalists. One of my *biggest* pet peeves as a fantasy reader is when an author inserts some kind of magic *thing* that is totally alien to the culture. It’s not like the texts aren’t available but they’re not terribly common and most non-professional medievalists/classicists probably wouldn’t know where to find them right off. Please, y’all, if you’ve got a druid thing goin’ on, don’t have ’em start out by invoking the four elements–nails on a chalkboard…

* The definitive English language work on lectionaries and homiliaries
This one’s just begging to be written and may well be the first post-dissertation project…