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This year became for me a year of education and it seems it will continue to be, because I will go to university this autumn :D.
As I wanted to read quite a lot books this year and I enjoy roadmaps a lot, I was finding something like a reading plan/guide which can provide me with knowledge in a "structured manner".
So, Harvard Classics (also known as Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books), made in the beginning of 20 century, is a collection of "best works of all times" (actually it is not author's aim, but rather to show the progress of human race since its beginning). It has 51 volumes (~23000 pages), which contains main speeches, documents, science papers up to 1900. Eliot positioned the collection as a way to gain basics (actually more than basics) of liberal education.
For me these books discovered different types of readings. Since January, when I have started, I have already read first volume and a month of Reading Guide (I will talk about it later). It may sound like not a lot, but if looking from a perspective that I don't only read this series and these works are quite hard to read especially for me, non-native English reader, it is not that bad progress.
I am reading the series in the order how it was originally made in volumes, which can be not the best way and some of the works can be boring if I don't focus on the meaning. I wanted to write some essays about these pieces, highlighting main concepts, but haven't made my way to it yet.
And writing about Reading Guide, this is a good way to find interesting writings from the series, like I have found "On Friendship" by Cicero, and also this can be a nice way of structure of day-to-day readings, but actually instead of "15-minute a day" I can read one "day" for whole week, because of the hardness and my inability to focus (oh yeah, 21 century problems :)).
To sum up, for me this collection is a great way to find knowledge in my cravings of wise and also sometimes a place of stability in the modern world. I have also found "Great Books of the Western World", which also positions itself as a way to gain liberal education, but haven't read much of it yet. So I definitely recommend Harvard Classics for people craving for knowledge of all ages, especially teens, and this is also a super way to settle down in this world of instant gratifications.
22 May 2024