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Reading is basically someone is doing the thinking for you ! And the more you read = reading is like writing on a blackboard that has been written a thousand times ! So when you try to remember what have read is trying read that blackboard and decipher what you wrote on the 1001s time !

8 minutes videos are not long enough 😭

I have a buddy in seminary who has this collection. I would love to join in the effort someday. So many classics that I feel I should know more personally as a history major.

This was wonderful and ;inspiring!

I couldn’t get past the scene with the horse. Someday I’ll give it another shot.

I can understand people taking books out of reading list after watching books reviews because I sometimes get interested in books, but when I have time to think or watch books reviews see if books worth reading and I realize I more likely won't read books or end up not liking it especially if books is expensive,I can be indecisive and I want to make sure I don't regret buying books.

Wow...another self-proclaimed "intellectual".

Hmm, I wonder how many you really ‘read’.

That is on my to be read list. I finished the biography about Dumas’ father and that was very interesting.

I’ve read a lot of Dumas. ‘The Count…’ is my favorite of his books but is on par with the three musketeers entire cycle of books in which the first is not the best. I think the stories of the musketeers really picks up in the second book - ‘twenty years after’. I would also like to recommend the latest translations by Lawrence Ellsworth. He spreads them out over about 8 books (the last of which will be released sometime in 2025). Especially notable is his translation of ‘The Red Sphinx’ which has never been published before and fits into the musketeers cycle after the first book, or as a standalone. One of the main things I love about reading his books so much is that they are like a puzzle to put together and a challenge for the mind to keep track of all the characters and events while reading a 19th century French-to-English translation. Enjoy. What are we but our memories? My memories are filled with adventures never lived and of clever, flowery prose never spoken and also of long, quiet periods of still and silent reading time. I love the way you pronounce his name.

I am a retiring professor, and am also a poet/playwright/composer. I love what you are saying here. You are exactly correct - the intellectual life is for everyone, not just for us academics because to be an intellectual, one must always be a student. We are born to learn, but it’s really about what we learn. Keep growing and yes, “Follow your bliss.” I did that for almost 40 years, and I highly recommend it to everyone. All my respect.

Amazing looking series. I've been doing this with novels

I like your suggestions a lot, so I mean this next part in the spirit of honest engagement, but you’re way too rigid and codified. Get messy. Like crap. Get highbrow. Go through phases. When you’re onto something, it pulses through you and transforms. It could be so many different interests, I could never name them all, but ultimately it’s what touches upon your personal dimensions and hums with the vibration of exploration and discovery.

I think the Harvard Classics were first, and it started with something like a challenge to get a liberal education in a 3 or 5 foot shelf. Great Books of the Western World seemed like a response to that. But, they are not the only ones to create such lists. Harold Bloom did not publish a set of books, but rather compiled a much larger list (which holds no size limit) in _The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages_ (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994). Not everyone likes Bloom, but there is a quite a number of books which are more recent than the volumed sets you mention. Not all are European (some Arabic, African, India, Hebrew, etc), but there are none from China, Japan, or Korean, for example. And people may quibble with his list. For example, he has only one Steinbeck on his list ( _The Grapes of Wrath_ ), one Margaret Atwood ( _Surfacing_ ) and only one Toni Morrison ( _Song of Solomon_ ). I am sure there are a bunch more disagreements. As I mentioned last time, I'd like to see an equivalent _The Eastern Canon_ so if you ever find one, I'd be sure watch that video.

Please read Bleak House, is THE BEST Dicken's❤❤

I have all the great books! This is a great reminder to read them😊

Wow ❤❤❤❤❤

How beautiful! Stunning. When my publisher handed me the hard-bound edition of my first book, I burst into tears. Unforgettable moment, and when I saw an antique photo of me as a little girl on the cover of my second, my response was identical to the first. Congratulations. You, like me, will remember this moment forever. ❤ 🎉

I have been doing this for a long time. As I've gotten Older, I periodically feel overwhelmed and take a break. It never seems to last indefinitely. There are a lot of books out there, and many that you will want to reread at different periods of your Life. Thank you for reminding me that it's a good pursuit, even if there will always be loose ends. I have added books from China, Japan, India, the Middle East over time, as we in the West don't have a monopoly on Culture and brilliant Minds. I'm reading a lot of Greek/Roman stuff at the moment.. Happy reading!

I have started my journey in this intellectual dream a few months ago. It really opens your eyes on how knowledge evolved over time and I believe it is one of the greatest investments one can do. Good luck!❤️

Chère Emmelie, as a reader and book nerd considerably more than twice your age, I have come to view your videos as a goldmine of advice and encouragement. However, in this case, I have strongly different views. For once we are not in agreement. Proust is a waste of time. He was and wrote as an isolated, selfobessed man, deeply determined by his incapacity to embrace life with others. I read to avoid exactly that autistic mousetrap. And as for reading this in English...

I don’t know this from experience, but I read that Faulkner got the idea of tracing the evolution of so many characters through so many novels from reading Balzac.

I skip the math and science books. A quick but very interesting book about the great books is A Great Idea at the Time: the Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam. It is about the creation and marketing of the series.

Just finished a re-read of Ovid's glorious 'Metamorphoses'! It's always good to keep in touch with the canon. ❤

Interesting looking book but it doesn't use BC/AD so I have to give it a pass.

If you speak English and are actually C1 in French, then you should have no problem at all reading French novels. I can read a lot of French just from 1) being a native English speaker (50% of the vocab is the same) 2) having taken a crappy French high school course--but at least I learned some verb conjugations, etc., 3) having self studied some Latin. I would probably be a bad A1 in French if I took a formal placement exam, but I can read science relatively easily and Literature as long as I have a dictionary.... BTW, I am somewhere between A2 and B1 in German, but I can still enjoy a lot of literature and news (again with a dictionary), so easily reading literature should definitely be possible by the time you're actually C1.

I downloaded the Western series for kindle...at age 65, I've already started, no time to waste.

I like your ballanced comment about this series of classical books and I completely agree when you say: "This list is not the only matters". In my case, I find interesting this list but at the same time I think is very limited and ignores (I think intentionally) works by women and authors of another ethnicity. In some way "books by dead white male" is true in this canon. At the same time I think read the works of them which could be fascinating are great choices. In my case, I choose don't follow the full list (a lot of them looks dry for me). I like classics but I will chose more interesting books such "The city of Ladies" by Christine de Pisan (this book wasn't include in this canon ... "strange", isn't it?) or the works by Maria Zambrano a Spanish author who was philosopher and explored philosophy with poetical lengths or the works by Simone Weil. Why? Why these women were not included in this list?? . I prefer read them than Thomas Aquinas 🥱, think of that man makes me yawn intensely. Sorry if I am intense, and I know my lasts questions doesn't have a definitive answer but I think sexism was a factor that influenced in men who made that annoying and interesting list.

One of my favorite books… I am a scifi guy but this classic I love plus the movie with Cavizel. The historic events happening in parallel could be “boring” but I was so enveloped in the character that it flowed easily. Characters are well developed and not that difficult to follow. I suggest this for older audiences to comprehend all going on- some books such as Dostojevski you understand better as you grow

I bought my first set of the Great Books as part of a bundle with the Bicentennial edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1976 when I was 26 years old. I've been reading from it's curated list ever since but I gave the actual books to an alternative high school when they were starting a library. I've since given three additional sets to my nieces and nephews for their own libraries over the years. I've done the same with the Harvard Classics. Always a good investment.

Thanks for this Emmelie! What a great goal to have in the back of your mind! I really admire your dedication to reading and the desire to become a more well rounded person. This is something that is very inspiring! As always - Happy Reading! 😊📖

I have the 1990 edition. And I bought it knowing all of the shortcomings I'm about to mention. I just felt it would look good on my bookshelves, but also act as a backup for less commonly read works. For the more commonly read works, I would prefer other editions. The two biggest problems with the set (other than the debate over what was included and what was left out) are: The translations are very old. Of course the works that were already in English aren't translated at all so you have to suffer Victorian-era English quite a bit. The other big problem is that the print is tiny and the paper very thin because they chose to pack so much in. For example, Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is typically printed in 6 or 8 volumes. In The Great Books it is just 2. And none of the works are abridged, so if you find yourself wondering how they packed so much in, that's how! It's like reading a pocket-size bible, put a full page (at least they set it in two columns).

You are to be commended in your continuing efforts to advise and guide people, especially young people ( not dinosaurs like me ) towards important and essential works of literature, science and humanities. Having read this series many, many years ago now, my only additional advice would be this: Read these volumes as an initial guide - an overview as it were, but seek out more recently published works, on specific subjects for modern academic accuracy, interpretation and critical analysis. Knowledge ( which may lead to wisdom ) is the greatest asset an individual can aspire to - but beware, it can lead to a lifetime thirst for more :)

❤❤❤thank you

Wait til you get to the end my dear- not your standard happy ending.

I discovered this collection some years and it was when my journey into reading began seriously! Basically, it contains the education they took from us.

"A 10 year reading plan." Damn! That is dedication!

I would recommend reading Achilles in Vietnam, written by Dr Jonathan Shay, the psychiatrist who has worked extensively with veterans of that war. He uses both of Homer’s epics to understand the lasting effects of combat trauma. Am writing a book about PTSD in vets and in ordinary people and have used his book extensively. My copy is so beat up from use that it is very nearly falling apart.

This is perfect for you! Contemporary lit can wait.

I was lucky enough to inherit a set of these. There is also an 'index' volume of sorts, which refers you to different texts within the set that discuss the same 'great idea'. I have supplemented it with the two volumes from the Harvard Classics which include key religious texts for Buddhism, Confuscianism, the Koran, and others. I've read maybe a quarter of the set and highly recommend it as well as making sure to supplement reading with more diversity :)

Good evening Emmelie! It's defnitely a task to go and curate a list of the Great Books of the Western World, but the criteria seem to be sound enough to make it a reasonable list. As always, the care you put into making us have somewhat of a starting point already is very admirable! Take care and see you soon!

Yay! So cool you’re attempting this set, I started last year and slowly enjoying it!

What a program! I don't think I would have enough in my entire life to read all these books. In any case, it gives something to read and think about given the variety of works. Thanks for sharing!!

On one casual stroll through a used bookstore, I stumbled over the complete set of Great Books of the Western World. I was THRILLED! Didn’t even look at the price. Just bought it!

And again, first of all, I want to express admiration for your image! And I also want to report my pleasant surprise: just yesterday I thought that if I survived, I would devote my free time to reading the great books of the Western world, and today comes your video dedicated to this topic:) At the same time, I have already bought several books from your list. There are still a few authors from your recommendations in the plans. Especially, as I promised you last year - books by French authors. In addition, I plan to read Ukrainian authors. Of course, this seems audacious and ambitious, given the situation I find myself in. But I think that even in difficult circumstances it is necessary to make positive plans. You inspire me, thank you!

What a brilliant project to guide a literary life. The drawback for me is, at my age, I may not have the 10 year horizon to complete it!😂

Hopefully you discover some wonderful pieces of literature!❤

I have found that the clothbound volumes age better than the vinyl-like covers (which sometimes crack at the hinge). Wishing you just a grand time with your collection - thank you! 🤠

Hello Emmelie! Great video! My wife and I have this 54 volume set. It was one of the first things we purchased together shortly after getting married (like maybe 6 months afterwards). We bought it in 1996. We have it prominently displayed in a special cherry wood bookcase in our living room that we specifically bought for these books a year later. I have read The Iliad out of this set. I have always wanted to read the two books by Gibbon in this set. I look forward to your next video! Have a great day!

Thank you for this recommendation, Emmelie