Great books Strategy
Is there an order to start reading the books in this collection? And what use can you give to them in Logos?
DAL
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Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Thanks, MJ! That’s a lot of years! I’ll get Logos to read them and see if I can shorten the amount of time.
DAL
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The shortest plan I'm aware of is a 4 year full-time student plan.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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DAL said:
Is there an order to start reading the books in this collection? And what use can you give to them in Logos?
I would read them in the order in which they come up for you as personal interests, or references from other books you've read. I always find that reading some set group of books in a set order that someone else came up with does not work for me, because I'm not at the place of being able to get the most out of or be most intensely committed to each book when I read it. I'd rather have my reading follow a meandering flow that is serendipitous and interest-driven than be systematic and boring about it.
But maybe that's just me. I'm pretty sure I have ADHD so that's what makes my brain tick. I have to be interested in order to stick with reading.
Also, the older I get, the more I realize life is too short to force myself to read (or finish) a book just because it's some "great book" that someone said I ought to read. If I don't ever get around to reading all the Great Books, that's not going to bother me. But I do try to chip away at them every so often.
FYI, I've read only 23 of the "Great Books" (7% of them, according to List Challenges, putting me ahead of 53% of users), and there are a ton of them that I have no intention of ever reading.
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Rosie Perera said:DAL said:
Is there an order to start reading the books in this collection? And what use can you give to them in Logos?
Also, the older I get, the more I realize life is too short to force myself to read (or finish) a book just because it's some "great book" that someone said I ought to read. If I don't ever get around to reading all the Great Books, that's not going to bother me. But I do try to chip away at them every so often.
Wow that’s very profound! You may have just saved me $149.99!!! As a Bi-vocational preacher life is even shorter to find the time to read other books! I might just stick to becoming a better student and presenter of God’s Word! I didn’t get to read them all when I was younger why start now. It’s best just to find the useful quotes and use them. Life is too short and time with loved ones is more enjoyable! I still may consider the collection only because the syntopicon makes it easier to find what I might need.
Thank you, Rosie!
DAL
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DAL said:
Wow that’s very profound! You may have just saved me $149.99!!! As a Bi-vocational preacher life is even shorter to find the time to read other books! I might just stick to becoming a better student and presenter of God’s Word! I didn’t get to read them all when I was younger why start now. It’s best just to find the useful quotes and use them. Life is too short and time with loved ones is more enjoyable! I still may consider the collection only because the syntopicon makes it easier to find what I might need.
Cool!
I will put in a plug for these few of the Great Books, because they have shaped me and have shaped so many other authors we read. If we have the common ground of understanding these books as background, it will help so much in our other reading.
Homer's "The Odyssey" (I'd also probably recommend "The Iliad" though I haven't ever completed it myself; I think I read the first couple of chapters in high school)
Virgil's "Aeneid"
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
The Divine Comedy (Dante)
Calvin's Institutes (but only if you are from a Reformed tradition or have that in your background or are moving in that direction)
Shakespeare: a selection of his plays (I would vote for Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear; Romeo & Juliet is also good)
Milton's "Paradise Lost" (or at least some major excerpts from it, and perhaps some commentary to help you with it)
Soren Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling (I've only read bits of it, but I'd like to read the whole thing sometime)
Goethe's "Faust" (I've never read it, but think it's probably one of the more important ones on the list that I haven't read yet)
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (if you're American, it's a classic that every American should read if they haven't already; just a great tale, it also deals with the race issue; beware of the use of the "n" word -- it was common in that era, so read it contextually)
"The Brothers Karamazov" (Dostoevsky) - probably one of the best novels ever written
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But among the rest of the "Great Books" list, meh. Way too much Aristotle (all the works), way too much Freud (all the major works; nearly 900 pages worth). Just a sampling of each of those if you want to get familiar with them. And pick out a few of the others where you're either familiar with the title or at least the author. Other than that, give the rest of it a miss.
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Dal I am a proponent for the pastors across our land to read books across disciplines and always be reading outside biblical studies too. Pastors should be professional readers and Great Books of the Western World is certainly a product every Pastor or preacher should read.
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Matt Hamrick said:
Dal I am a proponent for the pastors across our land to read books across disciplines and always be reading outside biblical studies too. Pastors should be professional readers and Great Books of the Western World is certainly a product every Pastor or preacher should read.
I agree, but then you gotta think: How many kids read Plato now days? Are schools still teaching Huckleberry Finn, The Odyssey and Moby Dick? (Many have dropped those books because some got offended by them). I grew up watching the films and cartoons about those characters so it doesn’t really catches my attention to read them or use them in a sermon unless the audience is an older audience. Professional readers, not so much, but better students and presenters that connect with today’s audience with the message of the one book that can change their lives. We can read all we want but if we can’t communicate effectively, then it all goes out the window.
Anyway, I still have a few more days to think about it 👍
DAL
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Candide is a must read!
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 1TB SSD
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Beloved Amodeo said:
Candide is a must read!
I remember seeing a story like that. I just used ChatGPT to give me a summary of 5 of the books I’ve read or watched as a film or cartoon and it’s pretty accurate 😂 I may just settle for AI summaries and find relevant quotes 😁
DAL
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For a reading strategy, compare the reading plan from this College. By checking the Syllabus carefully, you get an idea which of the Great Books are useful to read for which topic.
I personally use audio-books for keeping up with my daily workload and gaining some new knowledge. This worked well for me with Homer, Tolstoy, Dostoyevski and even Marx´ Communist Manifesto.
Certainly, works on mathematics, science and philosophy would require and deserve an attentive study on my desk. Time for that maybe will come in another period of life.
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Beloved Amodeo said:
Candide is a must read!
I'm glad I read it, and it was a fairly quick read, but TBH, the main thing I got from it was his skewering Leibniz ("the best of all possible worlds").
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DAL you're hilarious. Nothing can replace the rich experience of reading the work itself.DAL said:Beloved Amodeo said:Candide is a must read!
I remember seeing a story like that. I just used ChatGPT to give me a summary of 5 of the books I’ve read or watched as a film or cartoon and it’s pretty accurate 😂 I may just settle for AI summaries and find relevant quotes 😁
DAL
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 1TB SSD
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Thanks for bringing up this thread DAL. I purchased this set when it was first released in 2016 and set out to read it in 7 years and I chose to read it in the order of the volumes.
Alas, I've been a bit distracted the last while and am currently still only on volume 43. Recently I took a break from the reading order as I'm reading Volume 52 - The Brothers Karamazov etc.
Your post is a good reminder to get back on the wagon. Thanks.
Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God
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Rosie Perera said:DAL said:
Is there an order to start reading the books in this collection? And what use can you give to them in Logos?
I would read them in the order in which they come up for you as personal interests, or references from other books you've read. I always find that reading some set group of books in a set order that someone else came up with does not work for me, because I'm not at the place of being able to get the most out of or be most intensely committed to each book when I read it. I'd rather have my reading follow a meandering flow that is serendipitous and interest-driven than be systematic and boring about it.
But maybe that's just me. I'm pretty sure I have ADHD so that's what makes my brain tick. I have to be interested in order to stick with reading.
Also, the older I get, the more I realize life is too short to force myself to read (or finish) a book just because it's some "great book" that someone said I ought to read. If I don't ever get around to reading all the Great Books, that's not going to bother me. But I do try to chip away at them every so often.
FYI, I've read only 23 of the "Great Books" (7% of them, according to List Challenges, putting me ahead of 53% of users), and there are a ton of them that I have no intention of ever reading.
I heard one of the preachers from Desiring God . org say that his rule for books is to take 100 - his age = maximum number of pages to decide to put a book down unfinished. And it recognizes we are all getting older. Rosie, great perspective. There are far too many books in the world and so very, very little time to read them.
Windows 11 & macOS 15 (Logos Pro) | iOS 18 (Logos Mobile Beta)
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Chris Heil said:
I heard one of the preachers from Desiring God . org say that his rule for books is to take 100 - his age = maximum number of pages to decide to put a book down unfinished.
That's a great rule of thumb. I guess my 101-year-old friend Jim Houston (one of the "founding fathers" of Regent College) shouldn't ever crack open a book! He's still reading voraciously, though. ❤
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Rosie Perera said:Chris Heil said:
I heard one of the preachers from Desiring God . org say that his rule for books is to take 100 - his age = maximum number of pages to decide to put a book down unfinished.
That's a great rule of thumb. I guess my 101-year-old friend Jim Houston (one of the "founding fathers" of Regent College) shouldn't ever crack open a book! He's still reading voraciously, though. ❤
I went ahead and bought them for quotes and maybe illustrations of the lessons you learn from Moby Dick, Huckleberry Fin, Socrates, Dante’s Divine Comedy, etc. The Syntopicon makes them more valuable in this regard than taking on the monumental task of reading them all! Besides, there’s always an AI summary to get an idea of what a book is about 👍😁👌 I definitely feel more comfortable with this purpose I’ve given to this collection and I plan to use it whenever a sermon or class calls for it.
DAL
DAL
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