Відео

So I got out my copy of The Great Ideas 1964 to follow you through the book and the first thing I noticed was, of course, the map which was drawn by Jodocus Hondius in 1607 and it struck me how accurate it was for it's time

Hope for the best; prepare for the worst. Certainly food for thought, as you say. Thanks! And some deep books there...

I read Parable of the Sower a few years ago and did not like it. One reason was that the descriptions of dead people lying around, not buried, were too disturbing for me. I consider it a very violent, unpleasant, unhappy novel. Another issue was the Earthseed religion and Lauren's abandonment of her father's religion. I think that was semi-autobiographical, after reading about Octavia Butler's life. Before reading this book I read Kindred, by Octavia Butler, and loved it, but after reading Parable of the Sower I'm unwilling to read more of her literature. I don't want to be exposed further to that kind of violence.

Oh, I love Alfie! I enjoyed your video. You’re reading a lot of books. I like how you’re reading some Ruskin in order to get some perspective on Proust. Good for you!

Alfie❣️🥰😍

True scholarship requires some sacrifice. It's like chasing an idea that is difficult to grapple with it in order to reveal the gold it contains.. We amaze ourselves with how these writers understand man's knowledge with primitive writing tools, graphic design and the environments they had to work in. Modern man needs to be less lazy and feeling less superior to our scholarly forefathers who fought hard to record their thoughts for posterity . Count you blessings that you can join in the great conversation with them. Put your big boy pants on and CRACk ON !

That's some reading marathon. Best I can do is 2 pages per day - and that's without really understanding a lot. I'll read it again when I'm done only next time I'll take more time and try to get a better understanding.

I like how good books lead you to other good books.

Thank you so much for the review! I’m currently reading 'At the Existentialist Café', and I’m really enjoying it-it’s never boring and full of fascinating anecdotes.

My girlfriend's father had a set, which went to her after his passing. His ex-wife had a set as well, which basically served as furniture... furniture which accumulated dust and mold. Though there certainly was some overlap between my college books and these, I hope to start at the beginning of "The Great Books" (as you did), and wend my to the end. I only wish I'd started the journey when you did!

Redwall... nice!

You look like gale from breaking bad if he didn't break bad

Thanks for shedding some light and insight on Fear and Trembling, I have the Penguin Classics edition on my shelf and have wanted to revisit it. And I hope it serves as a good inspiration for further writing for you

I am really behind on my Kierkegaard purchases, but he is said to have remarked that "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom," and something like, the problem with life is that it is lived forwards and learned backwards. For those two remarks, I am enboldened to read what he wrote.

Redwall! Wow, I read that series in Dutch many years ago, really loved it… Those intros of the Penguin Classics are fantastic, especially if they lead you down interesting rabbit holes… Reading Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity at the moment after hearing Parker Settecase rave about it on his channel ParkNotes…

It strikes me that this week's readings are kind of a union of opposites, Butler and Kierkegaard on one side and Thurber on the other side. Thurber to me is an exercise in quiet neurosis and he has always appealed to me as a fellow traveller. The Library of America has a great edition of Thurber that includes his drawings, especially the iconic one of the first wife crouching on top of a bookcase in the study in unmoving consternation.

I have a World Book set with the matching dictionaries, that I don't recall the price I paid, maybe 40 or 50 bucks a decade or more ago? The dictionaries see good use, the encyclopedia not as much, because I prefer my Britannica set. That said, I remember our lessons in HS about research and having separate sources, so having at least two DIFFERENT print encyclopedias (even out of date ones) is worth it for me. I got my set of Britannica, along with the second edition of Great books, for $200 for both. In the years sense I am still astounded at the steal I got with that deal. :D

If there was a similar book done today, for 2024: I wonder if they would also include Smith, Mill, Hegel, Marx and Freud? [I doubt it].

My birth year!

What a literary history! It's quite amazing how the authors you mentioned are largely forgotten except on booktube. The New York Review of Books circle dominated the literary scene for decades. No one reads Mary McCarthy and even less her partner, Edmund Wilson. I have that Antonioni screenplays. I found it at a used bookshop one day. I couldn't believe it. La Notte is my favorite film by him. What an ending!

I have all the Great Ideas Today but I haven't read them all. As for Internet Archive they have a lot of lost telecourses that I watched years ago and am re-watching now. It's a great site and I was concerned those lost telecourses might really be lost when it was hacked but they're all back up and reorganized alphabetically so when I'm not reading I'm watching

great video

Omg Hawk looks sooo much like my Bob. Bob has made appearances in my videos...what a ham. You must have been a fantastic teacher, Jim. Consider me a grateful student :)

Impressive. Finnegan's Wake is daunting without a reading guide. I'm not familiar with the Redbook series. YA? Not much changed in my reading list. Slow reader. Dyslexia can be as daunting as Finnegan's Wake. Almost finished "The Frankenstein Murders" (2008 companion sequel to the original classic). It's good, but not extraordinary, sadly. It grounds Mary Shelley's classic in modern psychology, or so I imagine, not actually finished yet. I failed in reading a DFW essay today: "The Empty Plenum: David Markson’s Wittgenstein's Mistress" (1990). I suspect I need to research its subject matter if I'm to have any hope in understanding what he is talking about. My state of mind was definitely not up to the task. Periodic depression, of late, but that's neither here nor there. I began a book of short stories by Mavis Gallant the other day: "Paris Stories" (just the introduction by Michael Ondaatje, thus far). She was an extraordinary writer; she ought to be far more famous than her relative obscurity warrants.

That last reading was. Perfect!

Always a bonus to have a feline companion in the book bunker! Hope Hawk makes future guest appearances.

Just got my own copy... looking forward to reading it! [And I need my own buchbunker... ]

May I ask, how have we lost our republic? Was not trump elected exactly how our constitution dictates?

We have witnessed the demise of our constitutional republic. The majority of the electorate no longer has faith in the foundational democratic principles on which the nation was established. We might come back from this eventually, but will have a long, hard fight if we even manage to do it. I notice the diploma from The University of Texas at Austin on the wall behind you! I am a UT alumnus myself, having received my Bachelor of Arts degree from there in 1990 (major was English, minor was French). My very best instructors AND my worst instructor were all in the Department of English. It's still an academically excellent institution, though it resembles more and more to my mind a corporatized, glorified vocational school, and I think far too much money and attention are pumped into the football team at the expense of the humanities that were the traditional bedrock of higher education.

“I don’t want to talk about politics.” Then goes ahead and talks about politics for 15 minutes. 😮

Hi Jim. I never have reading slumps but I've certainly been reading less in the run up. And I'm reading more in the aftermath, so there's that. I used to teach college (2004-2015) and the amount of reading that students would do when I taught was about a quarter of what was typically assigned in my undergrad days (early 1990s).

Thanks for the shout out!! Amazingly, like you, his first stint in the Oval Office had me perpetually glued to the news - but now I'm over it and barely take a look. It's just too low energy. I feel it's up to myself to personally focus on positive things and hope to attract similar. Like attracts like. I'd rather attract good. The Agitation Creation Industry [news media] is out the window for me.

Thank you for your channel. Your perspective and presentation mean so much to me - especially now. I super appreciate you. Please keep sharing. 📚

You have the whole Redwall series? WOW!

Really appreciate you sharing your thoughts, Jim. I feel the same way you do about everything you talked about. I agree stepping away from social media, watching breaking news,etc is best for you & reading good literature. So glad I found your channel.

As a, finally, former teacher, I'll cosign the idea of education going to pot. It's getting hit from all sides. You have people who want to test, test, test and punish teachers (even though test scores are primarily a function of household income) so now there aren't enough teachers. You have people who want computers to replace teachers even though kids learn horribly from computers. You have administrators who think everyone should go to college and put all the students in high level classes then make the teachers dumb everything down so those kids can pass. I tried to get out years ago, but kept getting called back because there was no one to take my place (I was actually a math teacher). But as they were asking me to come back they were also ignoring all my recommendations and pushing me to do things I didn't think were effective, and so I finally said enough is enough. Happy ending for me, I have all the time in the world to read now. :) And weep for the future. :(

Jim, your channel is comforting to me, that people still read and think. It also reminds me of my early days in the Philadelphia area, which is still one of the best places to live in America. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Jim, the republic will prevail. It is bigger and better than any one of us. Please remember that everything will be OK.

1. My reading shot through the roof when I stopped watching TV about six years ago. 2. Thanks for the (relatively) even-keeled election take. 3. The enfeabling cultural/educational trend you describe is not just a thing in America. We got it in Europe too. It's just better hidden, which is worse.

Yea, makes sense that would put you in a slump… Funny, I’m actually reading The Great Conversation at the moment, and it’s shocking really that Maynard Hutchins was lamenting this exact lack back in 1952, and it hasn’t been getting any better since… I stay away from most media too, but get one newsletter that’s pretty comprehensive & unbiased, it’s called 1440…

Congratulations on diving back into what you love. Reading is my greatest love, too. As to what has transpired of late, I understand your concern and wish you well. Indeed, I wish us all well, and, if I may be so bold, opine that "This Too Will Pass." Keep your spirits up. And thank you for your channel.

This series is awesome man

I'm 50 pages away from completing Moby Dick for the first time.

Borges is interesting. As to slumps... it's all natural. The words will wait. Come back fresh and all will be well.

I just finished Yoga, by Emmanuel Carrere and I'm just beginning The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I always need a couple of days after I finish a book to let it sit before I begin others. Especially books that really "land" for me like, Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith, which I finished not long ago and really deserved a couple days of reflection. 😊📚

Hi Jim. Well, first of all, you have some pretty legit reasons for “falling behind” on the reading so you’re ok there. As far as pulling yourself out of a reading slump, what always works for me is middle grade books. They’re easy reads and they do a good job of warning up my reading muscles. Here are some suggestions: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling Good luck!

Reading slumps happen to everybody. Right now I'm reading a Library of America edition of James Thurber

I've never had a reading slump problem. I'm always reading something that stimulates me to continue doing it. Sometimes in the mornings when I don't know what to read I'll read an essay or short story. That is enough to provoke my thinking. Borges is always good, not his stories, though but his essays. The same with Italo Calvino, V.S. Pritchett, and Milan Kundera. I also watch writer interviews. Those from Mexico, Latin America, and Spain are the most interesting to me especially by contemporary authors, many of whom haven't been translated into English. I like how they talk about books. That also gets my interest going.

I was at my parents' house looking at the books I had as a kid. I found Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a pretty famous book from the 80s, and... it's pretty disappointing. It kind of seems like a rip off. The illustrations are pretty awesome, but the stories are like one page long and end with you shouting at someone to scare them.There's like 20 pages of material stretched out to 100 pages. I don't know, maybe all kids books are rip offs.

Yea, we all go through slumps sometimes! Doubt this is a genre that might interest you Jim, but if I’m slumping I tend to pick up quick, fast-paced romantasy! I do usually read some of that or longer fantasy while reading classics too (just finished Robert Fagles’ translation of the Iliad & looking forward to the Odyssey), to mix things up and keep the interest. Have a great weekend!