Sunday, November 22, 2009

Reading Plan: GBWW in the next nine years

For the most part, the books I write about are from the "Great Books of the Western World" (GBWW) collection, following their 10 year reading plan. If I read other books that I consider "classics" I also write about them, since GBWW does not cover all the great works of literature available. This is also considering that the collection was released 50 years ago.

I decided to map out my reading schedule for the next 10 years. It is a bit strange to be thinking I will still be reading these books ten years from now (when I am 45). More realistically I wonder if I will still be picking up these books in 6 months. In any case, it was good to map out my future reading since I think I have been reading too deeply.













The GBWW provides complete, unabridged versions of all their readings. However, they only ask the reader to read a small part (say 20 to 60 pages at a time). Since I don't want to miss anything, I have been reading the entire volumes, afraid that I won't be returning to these works. Looking ahead, I now see that in some cases this is true, while in others it is not.

For example, I read all of Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics", but I now see that I will get to read most of it, bit by bit, over the next 10 years. I am not sure if I like this fragmented reading schedule provided by GBWW; surely reading it all at one time would be easier. However, returning to a particular piece may help strengthen my comprehension and improve familiarity.

In future readings I will try to only read the assignments so that I follow the plan and increase my speed. If I know I will not be returning to a particular work, I will then finish the remainder.

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