Growing in knowledge one book at a time.
By Katie King How To Channel the Gadfly. Experiencing Writer’s Block? Need a Disruptor? Then Bite In. Before sitting down to write, address the following questions: What’s a “big” question about the text that interests you and why? In order to answer that question, what are 3-5 questions you need to address FIRST in […]
By Katie King A How-To Guide: Weaving Narrative Writing with The Great Books What Is It? These short, 5-minute reads are personal reflections and editorials from our staff and seminar leaders on some aspect of the books that they have been reading and discussing in seminars. As seminar leaders, they are explicitly instructed not to […]
By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host Here at Online Great Books, we have a problem. Sometimes, people do not attend their seminar. They keep paying and they keep receiving their books, but they don’t show up for the weekly seminar. This is problematic. Not only because they aren’t getting full value for their membership, but because […]
By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host I fell asleep reading Herodotus last week. I awoke in his study in Halicarnassus. He’s wide-eyed, insistent, takes me by the hand, and leads me into his study. Once there, he gets me a cup of tea. I’m more of a coffee guy, but it’s good tea. Herodotus shows me […]
By Ben McAllister Every era has a defining anxiety. Today, we live in an era of technological anxiety. We ask ourselves questions like: What are smartphones doing to us? Is social media making us miserable? Will automation lead to mass unemployment? We’ve been asking these kinds of questions since the industrial revolution. The early 20th-century […]
By Alex Fader “In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away. …You have a much better chance of understanding [the Great Book] on a second reading, but that requires you to have read the book […]
By Steven Roberts Steven Roberts has been a member of Online Great Books for a little under a year now. Steven graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in Classical Piano Performance and is attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York starting this August. Living on Long Island, he enjoys reading the Classics, […]
By Malachy Walsh, Seminar Host Books as Friends? There’s a definite logic to the old saying that we can be measured by the company we keep. One thing that makes us feel good and even a little proud about reading Great Books is that we are keeping great company. Of course, there’s a downside of […]
By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host I hate Medea. It’s so good. I hate reading that play. If you haven’t read it, you should stop reading right now. Ok. If you are still here, I need not worry about ruining the play for you. Medea kills her children. It’s a terrible deed done off-stage, with […]
By Karl Schudt, Seminar Host Notre Dame caught fire this week. It took a while for it to hit me, but it hit me hard. I’ve never been there, but I have rattled around a few cathedrals in Germany. I like to climb the towers, if they’ll let me. Why did it bother me? It’s […]