A Reading Bucket List

    It seems that the phrase "bucket list" is hanging around. I will hear folks of all ages mention adding something to the bucket list. Reading Stringfellow Barr's Voices That Endured: The Great Books and the Active Life, it dawned on me that people should have a "Reading Bucket List." Everyone should make a list of those very important books that they really want to read before they die. The wonderful thing about a list like that is that people do not have to make elaborate plans or dip deep into the savings account to see this list unfold.
     Barr insightfully divides his reading list book into three categories: (1) Books that picture humans working, choosing, and acting, such as poems and novels. (2) Books that seek to know the nature of things such as mathematical and scientific works, (3) Books that deal with what humans ought to do, such as works of ethics, politics, and economics. These three categories show how very practical and relevant are these great books.
     Stringfellow Barr is the genius behind St. John's College where everyone studies primarily the great books for four years. The reality is that only a handful of people will ever have the opportunity to study the great books in a college or university setting. That is just fine. Mortimer Adler has spoken about "the poor man's Harvard education." It is a fact that if you set out to read ten, twenty, or one hundred of the most important books ever written, you would learn more than many college graduates learn. If you are a college student, do not let college get in the way of an excellent education. Make your bucket list now and start reading, learning, growing and get the best sort of education.
     Why would anyone ever set out to read the Great Books? Stringfellow Barr says, that when it gets right down to it that the things that really pass through our sleepless minds and haunt our dreams are the thoughts about how we have wronged friends. We also are seeking courage to face the next hurdle in life. We humans constantly grapple with loss, fears, frustration, guilt, shame, happiness, joy, resentment, despair, and hope. These are the themes of the great books and partly what makes them great. An active life is a reading life. A life that looks to the works that have shaped many who have come before us and will come after us.
     I love reading and I really love reading with others. Talking about books, ideas, and the sheer delights of reading is one of the finest of human pleasures. Whether I am conversing with students in a class, my wife at breakfast, or people online with Google Helpouts, it is a joy to talk about books and the ways they enrich our lives.
     In these blogs, I will explore the great books of literature, philosophy, history, science, mathematics, and social science. I am not alone. I have guides like Stringfellow Barr, Mortimer Adler, Robert Hutchins, Alan Jacobs, Os Guinness, Virginia Woolf, Matthew Arnold, Sainte-Beuve, Percy Shelley, Samuel Johnson, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, and many others. In addition to reading and offering thoughts and questions, I will also give lots and lots of tips on wisely reading all sorts of things. I invite you to join me in this making of a bucket reading list and participate in the active life of reading the great books.

NEXT BLOG: Virginia Woolf's How Should One Read a Book?