The First Step

Introductions

Begin as you mean to go on. Wise words my father-in-law taught me decades ago. So with that thought in mind, I begin my journey. As the aim of this first year is to prepare myself for tackling the 'big stuff' in the Great Books of the Western World, I had no problem starting at the 'bottom.' I am not sure what to expect in this series, so the Introduction is vital.

Since the total page count is somewhere around 5300 for the entire series, it seemed ideal for a year's work, at a rate of about 100 pages a week. I also decided that six days a week was plenty, allowing for an extra day to catch up if necessary, or just take a break. This breaks down to about 17 or so pages per day or a commitment of about 30 minutes a day, plus a little more for comments. I am going to have make sure that

Each week, I will post my thoughts on the readings, taking notes as it were, and keeping accounts of my progress.

So here is the coming week's set up, all conveniently contained in Volume 1. The title of the section is followed by the page count.

1. Introduction: I. The Ways—and Whys—of Reading (19)
2. II. Human Imagination (17)
3. III. Human Society (21)
4. IV. Science and Mathematics (14)
5. V. Philosophy (17)
6. VI. The Endless Journey (5)
   Syntopical Guide - Introductory remarks (7)
   A Plan of Graded Reading - Introductory remarks (2)

Next week, more on the method, the beginning of Part 1, and comments on this week's reading

Crossing the Threshold

Hitting the Wall, Finding the Door

It's about time. It really is. I have been meaning to do this for years. Not that there haven't been some failed attempts before. It is, after all, a huge undertaking.

As we approach a new year, it bodes a new attempt at reading the classics of the Western Canon. Years ago I had collected both the complete Harvard Classics as well as the 60 Volume edition Great Books of the Western World. I have waffled between the two series for some time, undecided as to which would be the best to start with (a mere excuse for procrastination - and it would seem an effective one).

I was in the midst of preparing a version of the '15 Minutes a Day' for my Harvard Classics edition (it was too early to have been included with my set), when I came to the realization that this approach would not do. The 15 Minutes run through the year appeared to have been created by the marketing branch at the publishers in order to drum up interest in the flagging series. The introductions and the selections were random and not terribly helpful. There was also the fact that the selections were from the collection itself, and I would be revisiting them when I started through the series proper.

So when I discovered the Gateway to the Great Books, the answer was found. A proper selection of preparatory works, organized and directly tied to the larger series, which itself was brought up to date in the 90's. All that was left was to prepare for the coming year, to prepare to enter the Western Canon through the Gateway.

Preparing to Enter

The Gateway to the Great Books (GGB) has several helpful features that I have decided to take advantage of. The first decision was duration. How long should I take to get through the series. As I am approaching my 50s, I choose to tackle GGB in just a year. I am planning to follow this with the 10 Volume Great Ideas Program and then when I turn 50, to dive into the Great Books of the Western World 10 year reading plan. I should have it all said and done by the time I turn 60.

The first volume of the GGB conveniently provides several features that, when used together, are going to make for a very enriching experience. The first is A Plan of Graded Reading located in the Appendix. This plan breaks almost the entire series into four groups, each geared to a progressively more challenging level. Each level lists the works by volume, and then by alphabetical order. A quick look at the table of contents of each volume indicated that the works themselves are not in this order. And so a plan was born.

As the weeks pass, and we move from one level to the next, I will endeavour to explain the process by which I decide which works are read and in which order. And so we are off.