The week between Christmas and New Year's found me moving books. Which, to be fair, is hardly unusual for me. This time, I was rearranging my library due to the new bookshelves I am building over the new flooring I just installed.
So I moved my complete set of Harvard Classics.
The Harvard Classics are a beautiful, leather-bound anthology of 50 volumes of world literature. My set (which I finally completed after scouring the Internet for two missing volumes) was published in 1959, the 51st printing of the series.
This anthology was born from an oft-stated belief of Harvard president Charles William Eliot. He said that all the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf.
As it happens, I own a five-foot shelf housing the very collection that Dr. Eliot curated and published. And I have read hardly any of it.
Books have always provided me with discovery. This latest book move proved no different. Because it was then that I discovered the Harvard Classics Reading Guide titled Fifteen Minutes a Day. In that slim volume that I had never really noticed before, I found this explanation of the importance of reading the great literature of history:
And, with that, a New Year's Resolution was born. I begin the Great Liberal Education of 2018, in which I read the Harvard Classics for 15 minutes a day and document it on this blog. Each post will begin with the introduction written in the Reading Guide for that day's selection. I will include quotes that stood out to me and offer any analysis or insight that occurs to me. And hopefully, start a conversation.
Wanna join me?
So I moved my complete set of Harvard Classics.
The Harvard Classics are a beautiful, leather-bound anthology of 50 volumes of world literature. My set (which I finally completed after scouring the Internet for two missing volumes) was published in 1959, the 51st printing of the series.
This anthology was born from an oft-stated belief of Harvard president Charles William Eliot. He said that all the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf.
As it happens, I own a five-foot shelf housing the very collection that Dr. Eliot curated and published. And I have read hardly any of it.
Books have always provided me with discovery. This latest book move proved no different. Because it was then that I discovered the Harvard Classics Reading Guide titled Fifteen Minutes a Day. In that slim volume that I had never really noticed before, I found this explanation of the importance of reading the great literature of history:
We want something to carry us out of ourselves, to take us a million miles from our humdrum existence, to stimulate our minds to fresh endeavor, to give us a new viewpoint upon our problems, to enable us to get a fresh hold upon ourselves.Sold.
And, with that, a New Year's Resolution was born. I begin the Great Liberal Education of 2018, in which I read the Harvard Classics for 15 minutes a day and document it on this blog. Each post will begin with the introduction written in the Reading Guide for that day's selection. I will include quotes that stood out to me and offer any analysis or insight that occurs to me. And hopefully, start a conversation.
Wanna join me?
The fountain of wisdom flows through books.
Comments
Post a Comment