19 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
  2. Dec 2024
    1. what mightbe taken as the symbolic passing of the torch from Mortimer Adler toOprah Winfrey, a number of the Penguin classics chosen by Oprah forher Book Club have carried on their covers the seal with the words,‘Recommended for Discussion by the Great Books Foundation’.

      Daniel Born places Oprah and her book club into the tradition of Adler & Hutchins' The Great Books of the Western World.

  3. Nov 2024
    1. Dadalways griped that the railroad men in town got paid more than he did. Hecould read ancient Greek, but they had a union.
  4. Dec 2023
  5. Aug 2023
    1. It is not quite a five-foot shelf: 1 make it four feet eight-and-a-half — standard railroad gauge.

      the five-foot shelf reference is to the Harvard Classics competitor

  6. Apr 2023
  7. Mar 2023
  8. Nov 2022
  9. Jun 2022
    1. certain sub-currents in their thought. One being the proposition that the original (or translated) texts of the most influential Western books are vastly superior material to study for serious minds than are textbooks that merely give pre-digested (often mis-digested) assessments of the ideas contained therein.

      Are some of the classic texts better than more advanced digested texts because they form the building blocks of our thought and society?

      Are we training thinkers or doers?

  10. Sep 2021
  11. May 2021
  12. Feb 2017
    1. They retain enough references to the heroes of the classical tradition and enough illustrations translated from great Greek and Latin works to provide an overview for scholars not versed in the originals

      Like watching the Wishbone version?