A Great Books Read Through

A couple of months back I had a conversation with my dad about our various e-readers. I made a point to him that old, classic books were usually free. To illustrate this I used the example of the Great Books of the Western World series. All of this, I proudly told him, was now free through my Kindle. Well, almost all of it.
If you're not familiar with the series, back in the 50's a collection of the important books of Western civilization was put together by Encyclopedia Britannica. It stretches back to the ancient Greeks and is as far forward as the 19th century, ending with Freud. We had it while growing up and dad gave it to me about ten years ago or so. Here is wikipedia on it.
The only thing not out there for free was the introductory book, called 'The Great Conversation' and two volumes that index the set by ideas. After talking to dad I cracked open the Conversation just to see what it gave me. To my great surprise it had a suggested reading plan.
The set is simply too big to really get your arms around. Literally in this case, it probably takes up five feet on the shelf. But all told it is some many thousands of pages. How is a lay person supposed to know what to read and what can be skipped? Well, the editors offered a way through. Here is what they laid out:

• A ten year plan
• Each year has 18 pieces
• The editors argue that a normal person can get through it if they can read for fifteen minutes a day
• Each author is touched on
• The plan is coherent in content and theme, just like you'd want from a well thought out teaching plan
• At the end you will be a better person for having done this

Well, you know how reading lists get to me! I decided that I would simply have to do this. I'll be starting in January and I'm inviting anyone and everyone to join along with me. Don't have the books or an e-reader? No problem, I'm providing links to online versions. Don't have time for every book? Again, no problem. Skip in and out as you want. No one will hold it against you.
And just to avoid clogging up this blog with posts on dead Greeks and Romans (and English, French and German, etc.) I've set up a new blog for it. You can find that one here.