St. PJ
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I've studied theology off and on for about 18 years. Some of it easy enough for anyone to read (I call that dessert), some of it in the language of scholars, academics, and lawyers -- with that type you can't simply blow through cover to cover, you need solitude to process and translate and follow what is being argued or said (I call that vegetables) -- at any one time I have about 6 or 10 books in some state of progress; I try to have a well balanced diet, or else I'd read nothing but dessert and go into spells where I don't read anything because all that's left is vegetable or unappetizing side dish. I try to read a chapter of everything before I get to the book I've been wanting to read (dessert). Kind of a carrot/stick approach. I also have 500 GB worth of lectures and courses on audio that I'll listen to from time to time.
There is so much out there - the Church has literally 2,000 years of history - you'll never scratch the surface. That said, I've had some great mentors and teachers, and the first who turned me on to theology really taught me that a person can only read so many books in a lifetime, and being that there are so much, only chose the best, and start with the best of the best. So anything with the impramatur and nihil obstat is a starting point - these are vetted and approved and won't lead astray from what the Church has taught since apostolic times. Best of best would be doctors of the church. Thankfully, when I started, I had a job where i had solitude on my off time for 12 hours a day with no tv or internet - very little options for entertainment other than reading while working a hitch, so it was a great environment to take in Aquinas and Augustine and other giants. I hit the jackpot when my buddy introduced me to Scott Hahn, and from Hahn I was led to John Bergsma, Michael Barber, Brant Pitre, Tim Staples, Curtis Martin, Edward Sri, Tim Gray, and other contemporary scholars who hold a hard rule that if you can't find it in the Fathers, it isn't legit. The great thing about these guys is they've devoured the Fathers and Doctors and have done the translating for you - most of what they write is in layman's terms and reads like dessert. Though they do have scholarly work if you have a taste for that. Pitre's thesis is a little pricey, but worth the read. Hahn's opus die is the same, but a little harder to find.
Long story short, I was given a very good foundation and was blessed to start in the right place.
