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A Great Books Primer

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114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

3 people want to read

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Great Books Foundation

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Jen B.
24 reviews37 followers
March 19, 2015
The first two parts were quite good, featuring a variety of brief pieces about reading well, the real purpose of learning and education, and so forth. The second part is from one of Mortimer Adler's books—about reading well—and I must confess that I was nearing the end of my rope by the time this ended. It was just far, far too wordy, and making things worse (my fault for not noticing because I didn't flip through the book before reading), there's an OUTLINE of this entire section at the very end! Argh! I'd have been much happier and more satisfied with that alone, thus enabled to read more about the topic if necessary. Which for most of this, it would not have been.

On to the next, which is, in retrospect, far more promising.
696 reviews41 followers
August 11, 2015
Worth the quid I paid for it for the extracts from John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, TS Eliot on tradition in poetry, Mortimer Adler on adult education and Richard Livingstone on liberal education.

It also contains Ecclesiastes, which was selected as a Great Book; it's not one.
Profile Image for Josh.
9 reviews
October 20, 2023
Some excellent excerpts and snippets, genuinely very illuminating. The Adler’s rules for reading chapter at the back is not worth touching imo.

Read for a collection of good writers brief thoughts in one place on the subject of eduction and discussion.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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