Welcome!

[C Nathanael]

Welcome to the Great Books discussion. We hope you will share our passion for the classics of Western literature.

A brief history: this group is the outgrowth of comments at the web log of science fiction author and St. John's College alumn, John C. Wright, where several of the commentariat discovered a mutual admiration for the St. John's College Great Books program. This group is the result: a place to encourage each other in our pursuit of the education we wished we'd had.

There are many lists and compendiums of Great Books, St. John's, the Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, and the Harvard Classics series being three of the better known. While we don't mean to suggest the St. John's curriculum is the last word in Western classics, in order to maintain a focus for the Great Books group, we will restrict ourselves to works appearing on that list. If you feel some favorite work has been slighted, we hope you will still agree that the St. John's canon is yet expansive enough to provide a wealth of reading for all.

For reference, the St. John's curriculum for the 2014-15 academic year is available at their website: First Semester and Second Semester. I have also posted an extract of readings in a separate thread here.

All of the works we will be reading are freely available from many Internet sources. I will from time to time be posting download links for those who do not yet already have copies to read, as well as links to further resources for study.

Finally, before you begin your reading, I personally cannot too highly recommend Mortimer Adler's classic, How to Read a Book, updated edition.

-Nathanael

[Garth]

A question: Is this site: http://bbs.jenandcal.familyds.org/

no longer in use? I've tried to register for it, but have never received an email.

[C Nathanael]

While we were discussing starting this group, I put that site up on my home server to test the suitability of the software. Mary suggested GoodReads, which is infinitely better suited, so the above address is not in use. I just haven't taken it down yet.

[Elena]

Hi! I'm new, from Haverhill, Massachusetts.

I just started Iliad and see that the group is close to finishing. Does it make any sense to start with Odyssey or should I resign myself to being a step behind?
Thanks!

[Mary]

It doesn't act as a series, you can go ahead and read it without the prequel.

[GeekLady]

Elena wrote: "Hi! I'm new, from Haverhill, Massachusetts.

I just started Iliad and see that the group is close to finishing. Does it make any sense to start with Odyssey or should I resign myself to being a ste..."

Also, I'm still behind on the Illiad, so if you decided to read it concurrently with the Odyssey, you'll have company.