The List

The List is a shared reading list encompassing the entirety of human civilizations in 20 years. The idea of The List came developed over a year’s time (2007) after Mariel mentioned to Sean that as part of organizing her massive reading list (over 40 pages), she intended to compress 50 000 years of human history and literature into a 15-20 year reading project. Sean, being who he is, insisted she actually do it, and that she share. Eventually they (meaning Mariel) sorted through The List, which is posted by year. This year, 2008, is the first year of The List.

This is a work in progress. While The List is organized in a (mostly) logical manner, neither of us have read these books. Many are included simply because they were recommended, or looked interesting, and so were sorted into their respective years. With this in mind, expect that The List will grow and evolve over time, as we actually begin reading the books, and deciding if they are truly worthy of inclusion.

Enjoy.

The List
* italicized implies that a book is recommended, but optional


Year 1: How to Use the List: Theories and Thought Exercises

The Philosophical: The Broader Concepts
Apollo’s Fire- Michael Sims
The Discoverers- Boorstin
The Elegant Universe
A Sideways Look at Time
Study of History- Toynbee

The Philosophical: The Human Mind
I Am a Strange Loop- Douglas Hofstadter
The Head Trip- Jeff Warren

[added 2.13.08: History of a Disturbance - Steven Millhauser. Published in The New Yorker on 3.5.07]

The Practical Aspects: How to Use the List
Biography: A Brief History- Nigel Hamilton
The Well-Educated Mind- Bauer
How to Read a Book- Mortimer Adler
The Rhetoric of Fiction
How We Think- Dewey
How to Read and Why- Bloom
How to Read Literature Like a Professor- Foster

[edited 2.13.08: The Case for Literature, to:
‘The Case for Literature’
Author’s ‘Preface to Without Isms’
‘Without Isms’
‘Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth’
(all from The Case for Literature- Gao Xingjian, trans. Mabel Lee)]


. . . . . .
Year 2: Roots of Society, Culture and Faith
[tentative]

Evolution and Natural History
Man Makes Himself- Childe
The Blind Watchmaker
Story of Us Humans, from Atoms to Today’s Civilization- Robert Dalling
World History- McNeill

Human Society
Stuff of Thought- Steven Pinker
Guns Germs and Steel
Collapse
Wisdom of Crowds

Religion and Philosophy
The History of God- Armstrong
Perennial Philosophy- Huxley
Religions of Man- Smith
Varieties of Religious Experience- James
World as Will and Idea- Schopenhauer
Ten Geographic Ideas that Changed the World
The Golden Bough- Frazer