Now that we've established that I'm a rabid systematizer, I'd like to talk lists. I live by lists. This is partly because my M.E. makes me as forgetful as your grannie who puts her dentures in the linen press, and partly because lists magically transform impossible amorphous dreams into concrete achievable goals.
My impossible amorphous dream is to read all the great works of literature. My concrete achievable goal, though still pretty huge, is a more or less finite list. But which list? I have a thick file folder full of various "great books" lists, but no one of them has exactly what I'm looking for. I've been avoiding the fact that I am going to have to make up my own list, but thanks to Jessica's list I'm inspired to take a shot at it. I think it will be something that evolves as I learn more about the literatures of each period of history, so I will just start off "small":
General Preparation
- The Well-Educated Mind, Bauer √
- How to Read a Book, Adler & Van Doren √
- The Trivium, Sr. Miriam Joseph (working on it)
- New History of the World (Roberts) and Encyclopedia of World History (Stearns) for background on each era (nearly done prehistory!)
References
- Oxford Classical Dictionary
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- ye olde internette
Mesopotamia (it's hard not to write that "Mess O' Potamia")
- Myths from Mesopotamia, Dalley
- Ancient Epic Poetry, Beye (chapter on Gilgamesh)
Hebrew Bible
- Oxford Annotated NRSV Bible (because if I can't read the original Hebrew I want an accurate translation; I'll read the KJV when I get to 1611)
- Oxford Bible Commentary
- Any suggestions, Talmida?
Preparation for Ancient Greece
- Classical Mythology, Morford & Lenardon
- possibly some sort of intro text on Ancient Greece
Homer
- Iliad & Odyssey, Lattimore
- Ancient Epic Poetry, Beye (chapters up to Homer)
Hesiod?
Greek Lyrics
- Lattimore (thanks for the tip, Jessica!)
Greek Drama
- all of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (from my glorious boxed set ::grin::)
- Aristophanes: all or part? (I've heard the comedies don't really translate, but the bit of Lysistrata I've read translates hilariously well)
History
- Herodotus: The Histories (trans. ?)
- Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (trans. ?)
Hippocrates
Plato
Aristotle
The list gets pretty sketchy pretty quickly. I'd like to read a little supplementary material for each author, just enough to know what is going on but not enough to write a dissertation. Right now I'm focussing on the Western canon, i.e., works that have directly influenced my culture. I'll check out the rest of the world separately, since we/they were culturally separate until recently. I also plan to include the greats of science and mathematics. And music. And art. Yup, I'm nuts. And at the rate I'm going I will probably still be doing this when I hit my golden years. But I can't resist. There is so much wonderful human creativity to discover!
