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Harvard Classics Bookshelf

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I've recently committed myself to reading all the books on that supposed "BBC book list" that has been floating around (largely as a facebook meme) recently.

http://fashionabroad.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/bbc-book-list-...

I'd already read 32 of 'em, but I'm working my way through two more (Brideshead Revisited, which I'm enjoying, and The Wasp Factory, which I'm really not [and I don't think you're supposed to]). There's some absolute crap on the list as well (Bridget Jones' Diary? The Five People You Meet In Heaven?) but most of it is pretty good, and I think it'll expose me to a lot of good stuff that I wouldn't have read otherwise.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that list is a pretty crappy list. As you probably figured out, it has nothing to do with the BBC-- it is actually a list that was voted on by readers of the Guardian, and it shows some serious evidence of being a user poll; besides the absolute crap you mentioned, there is a lot of things that are there only because they are on the British school curriculum (like all of that Thomas Hardy, which is mostly awful.)

There are some absolute gems on the list, don't get me wrong-- but if your goal is to read 100 good books you haven't read before, you could do a lot better. (And I say this as someone who has read 90 of the 100 titles listed.)

Is there a better list available that you'd recommend? Because the idea of a curated list of books to read appeals to the lazy side in me. I like reading but not researching what to read..

Well, here's a list proposed by Det Norske Bokklubben (who happens to be a competitor of mine, but I have to give credit where credit is due):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Best_Books_of_All_Time

You'll notice that it's much less heavily biased toward 20th Century English-language literature.

If you want to stick to things originally written in English, the Modern Library list is a pretty good one:

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

I mean "The Board's List", of course--comparing "The Board's List" to the "The Reader's List" is enough to make one cry.

The Reader's List is making me cry... tears of pure hilarity at Ayn Rand capturing not just first place but second place as well, at L. Ron Hubbard appearing not once but thrice on it, and at both Tom Clancy and Orson Scott Card each making an appearance. This is a breathtaking list.

The first link is a really good list. Much better than the original BBC list.

I can't remember where I originally found this list, but I've been slowly working my way through these books over the years:

http://www.hcpl.net/read/phobos-100-best-science-fiction-boo...

The Browser-site is the best when it comes to curated booklists http://thebrowser.com/

Check out their Five Books interviews, always good reads and great interviews :)

You're right, it's a pretty damn non-ideal list. Another problem is that some of the "books" are vast. I really have to read the whole goddamn Bible plus the complete works of William Shakespeare?

But that's okay. My goal isn't to read one hundred books I'll really like, it's to complete an arbitrary set of tasks. If all of the books are enjoyable then there's no sense of achievement when I get to the end. I figure that whatever happens, I'll know a lot more when I finish than when I started. (Do you know what "Timon of Athens" is like? I sure as hell don't...)

"Timon of Athens" is a play by Shakespeare. It's not among his strongest, by any means, but still significantly better than a lot of the crap on the list.

You'll definitely end up knowing a lot more when you finish than when you started, but I doubt that "Bridget Jones Diary" or a half-dozen separate works of Thomas Hardy are going to contribute much to that achievement.

For a first published novel The Wasp Factory is pretty amazing, but it hardly compares with the later works of Iain (M) Banks - particularly The Bridge (his personal favourite) and Use of Weapons.

Then there is Espedair Street, which is worth it simply for the opening:

"Two days ago I decided to kill myself. I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed.

Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive. Everything that follows is . . . just to try and explain."

I've got a few of these. Worth having, some of them, but they're not always the best translations or editions. Nice to dip into on short notice, but if you want to read any in full, better to pick up a newer edition or at least peep a few before committing to a bunk translation or poor annotation.

"compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot"

Could you imagine a university president of today doing something like this?

As opposed to serving on corporate boards, making speeches, raising money _full time_.

I whipped a little ruby script to download the kindle versions.

https://gist.github.com/1056111

The URLs are really, really, nice. You can substitute "kindle.noimages" for any other format you'd like.

The University of Buffalo publishes a list of books called "unrequired reading". The idea is to encourage an undergraduate student to read one book a month for the duration of the (assumed 4-year) course, totaling 48 books. I first came across this list in 1993. It is still being maintained; definitely worth checking out: http://library.buffalo.edu/48goodbooks/books/

In mobi format:

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Harvard_Classics_Available_a...

eBay has these for a really good price. I just picked up a nearly complete set of first editions in crazy good condition for $60. Most of the sets cost more, but they're usually complete (this one is missing 4-5 volumes of 51).

I collect these with their original Harvard binding and soft leather covers from thrift stores, usually the Salvation Army, at a great killing. Really nicely prepared and bound books. And they look nice in the study.

> "See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop too--didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?"

I'm guessing most or all of these are available for free for the Kindle... Has anyone compiled a list of links for that?

I'm thinking his original premise was a little overstated--that list would take a lifetime at fifteen minutes a day.

I don't think that's true. There's 51 volumes of 400-450 pages, or ~23,000 pages. Let's say you can read half a page a minute, or 7.5 pages per day (at 15 minutes of reading per day).

(23,000 pages)/(7.5 pages / day) = ~3,000 days or a bit over 8 years.

Or to put it the other way around, supposing you have seventy years of reading (from the day you learn to read 'til the day your eyes give out), then you'd only have to read 0.89 pages per day to read the whole thing. If it takes you fifteen minutes to read less than a page then you really need to work on your reading speed.

Or, take 4 months out of your life, go somewhere remote with the collection, and spend about 4-5 months reading 6-8 hours a day to complete it.

Or, perhaps this could be a business -- host a Harvard Classics Resort where everything is taken care of. You supply the ideal environment for reading (whatever that may be), including a small community to discuss the books with.

You could teach a few speed-reading and self-study courses for an additional cost.

> Or, perhaps this could be a business -- host a Harvard Classics Resort where everything is taken care of.

St John's College has this angle covered.

http://stjohnscollege.edu/

Very interesting. Did you or do you know anyone who has attended St John's? Any idea if it's particularly successful in terms of students exiting with an impressive understanding of themselves and the world?

I'm friends with a girl that is currently enrolled.

In a lot of ways it's much like any other college or university in that it can be gamed and you can graduate without putting forth a great deal of effort. They do have interesting mechanisms to weed out those who truly don't belong there (Don Rags, enabling), but if you're willing to read and write you can make it through four years.

It's a great place to get a liberal arts degree if you take on the curriculum with the intention of absorbing the material and building the foundation that they're laying out for you. I've been told that post-graduation it is often necessary to complete undergrad credits elsewhere before most grad schools will look at you - not sure how accurate that is.

It's an extremely romantic idea. I'm satisfied with my current education, but I still find myself envious of the environment they are at least trying to create and what that has to offer.

I think the main filtering mechanism would be the structure of the degree itself. I think most of the people who turn up specifically want that kind of education.

Not much attraction for a kid wanting a job ticket.

A friend of mine went and thought it was very good, but couldn't afford to stay. He took a few years off, saved up, and went back to finish. Very smart guy, always had some really out-there question for you in lieu of hello. Made for really good and atypical convo.

I just had a quick look at the website. On some level it sounds tempting. On another level, paying forty-three thousand dollars a year to sit around reading Homer doesn't sound like that great a use of money and time.

The value isn't in knowing which books to read, but rather is in the Socratic classroom learning environment with 2 teachers per classroom and a 1-8 teacher-student ratio. Assuming the teachers are of good quality (and it sounds like they have the correct focus -- being "tutors" or discovery partners rather than lecturers, and don't have a well defined plan for each day), the amount of serious inquiry and a nearly ideal environment for feedback on your thoughts daily by knowledgeable and hopefully intelligent and wise individuals, would be massively awesome and beneficial for any person ENGAGED and caring to learn.

In the case of a person attending this university just because their parents made them -- I feel very sorry for both the parents and the students for the waste of money and lost hours of amazing opportunity.

It's not for everyone, I agree. But I'd like to go there because it looks like the education of a lifetime, over and above the education of a career or profession.

I've never been. It's pretty much my dream to go there after a successful startup.

It only takes a summer to do this? Suddenly I don't feel so depressed about the NPR article on the sad fact that we won't get the chance to read almost everything:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2464764

> You could teach a few speed-reading and self-study courses for an additional cost.

IMO, if a book is meant to be speed-read, then it's not a classic of literature. A classic should be tasted word by word, slowly. And reflected upon.

It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too — didn’t cut the pages.

A wonderful accomplish for people learning everywhere

Wow, 1909 was a long time ago, in literature!

I wonder why War and Peace was not included.

I'd say Anna Karenina is a good alternative. It's always been my personal favorite of his.

Anna Karenina is the better book.

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