Great Books of the Western World
Discusses the selection of works for and purpose of the set "Great Books of the Western World" and provides tools for use with the set, including author-to-idea and idea-to-author indexes and a ten-year reading list.
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- A while back I joined this group called OnlineGreatBooks.com which placed you in a cohort of about 10 people who would have monthly seminars via Zoom to discuss the Great Books of the Western World. They started you off with How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and it was such a useful guide for me, who had not read a book in about 10 years after graduating high school. Since then I read maybe 10 to 12 books a year!
I particularly enjoy the idea of writing notes in the margin. Adler describes this as "having a conversation with the author". I hope that my son one day picks up my books and writes his own notes to have a conversation with the author and me.
- I have Great Books of the Western World by Encyclopædia Britannica This is a great set to have in case of some sort of information apocalypse.
- > It would have to be something I can plan. Something where I can calculate cost of learning, timeline and how to make money with it at some point.
This might be the opportunity to learn a skill that isn't dependent on making money. Learn to paint, write a novel, read classic literature [1], repair motorcycles, or make music. Just a thought. You have an opportunity to step outside of financial restrictions on what to do with your time, at least for a few years. Oftentimes, developing a hobby will turn into lucrative opportunities unexpectedly.
Otherwise, maybe just find a tech field you want to work in and then master it? AI, data science, crypto, etc.
> Do you have personal experience with some or all of those countries?
Yep, I've been to about half of them and are familiar with / have acquaintances from the other half. Depends on what you're looking for, but my personal top choices would be Belgrade, Istanbul, or somewhere in Morocco.
[1] I recommend these collections: The Harvard Classics, Great Books of the Western World, St. John's Eastern Classics, and Sacred Books of the East. You could read most of these in a few years.
- I’ve been trying to get my recently retired mother to read a large literature collection like The Harvard Classics or Great Books of the Western World. If you supplement them with specific omissions + research the best translation available, they are a great long-term project.
- Here's a list of the Great Books of the Western World, which is a pretty good place to start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...
- This is apparently an unpopular opinion, but READ THE PRIMARY SOURCES.
"There is a strange idea that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about ‘isms’ and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire." -C.S. Lewis
I attend the best "Great Books" program in the country, the Torrey Honors College. Here are the strictly philosophy texts they had us start off with the first semester: Plato's Meno, Symposium, and Republic, and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. You can find the full reading list here: https://www.biola.edu/torrey/academics/reading-list
If you want to dig in more, I would encourage you to look into the "Great Books of the Western World" set compiled by Mortimer Adler. There is an accompanying curriculum that walks you through reading them without a teacher or classroom [https://www.thegreatideas.org/tgi-program.html]. You can typically find them on eBay for relatively cheap.
