Questions/Comments/Suggestions/Musings

[Kendra]

Question for all of you: Do you think our reading order should be based on date written or date published?

Specifically, I'm looking at the upcoming months books and I noticed that Commentariolus by Nicolaus Copernicus was written in 1514 but published in 1543. Which date we decided to go with will determine if it comes before or after Utopia by Sir Thomas More.

Personally, I'm leaning towards written date, since it easier to place in the context of its time, especially if there's many years in between those two dates. Nevertheless, I figured I'd put it to a vote.

Thoughts?

[Cleo]

I would vote for written order in this case too!

[Kendra]

Hi Martin,

I think that is a great idea! If I'm not mistaken, I think you should be able to create a thread yourself, and you are more than welcome to do so. Let me know if you're having any trouble doing that.

[Jenni]

I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I saw a blog post a few months ago about why schools should not be reading the classics, but students should be reading more relevant books, i.e. modern books.

I've been mulling that over in my mind, and today I posted my thoughts on why reading the classics is still important:
https://jennienzor.blogspot.com/2020/...

What do you all think?

[Erin]

Hi Jenni,

Great blog post!

I agree that students should read the classics in school. Oftentimes, in the rush to be "relevant" to students, quality is forgotten. For instance, many readers written for the purpose of teaching students to read are very poorly written and not likely to inspire a love of reading.

There are many wonderful contemporary books schools could teach, but many times they don't introduce students to new ways of thinking, and instead stick with the same paradigm students already have. I encourage my students to read a variety of kinds of books to expose them to more vocabulary and ideas.

Another frequent objection to teaching classics is that they are "hard," to which I say: good! That's the point of going to school! (My students very quickly learn not to say something is hard.) If students don't learn the skills necessary for tackling the classics at school, then where will they learn those skills?

I also love your point about making up your own mind. Saying a boom is boring because it is old is just another way of judging a book by its cover. The only way to really know how good a book is is to start reading it!

[Ashley]

I realized something silly (none of my friends or acquaintances would find this funny so I'm sharing here, LOL) when I was looking up something in Adler's How to Read a Book. He says you should preferably read the Great Books (classics) in one sitting; can you imagine trying to read some of these hefty books like The Iliad in one setting?