Bazaar Labs

About two days ago, The Great Ideas Program which is a set of ten volumes arrived. Yesterday I took the first step on my thousand miles journey of reading The Great Books of Western World.

It could be the initial excitement of starting something new, but I was charged up. A bit ironic expression charged up when one is talking about reading classics, however that’s how I felt.

There is plenty of information out there on reading plans for GBWW and I have looked at many. Most of them seem practical and worth following but I will start with the reading lists mentioned in The Great Ideas Program. After reading the preface and foreword of volume 1, I figured that the authors have clearly thought about how the books should be read and I am comfortable following their plan.

When I’m cooking, I watch a recipe or two and then improvise. I am able to do this because of the skills and expertise I have developed in cooking.

When it comes to reading the type of works included in GBWW, I consider myself a noob and it makes sense to go with a guided approach. After all that is the purpose of The Great Ideas Program; to be a guide.

My goal will be to get through the fifteen readings as mentioned in Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education in about a year.

The first reading is Apology by Plato.

I have read some of Plato’s works in the past. It was a long time ago and I had no skills in reading for understanding. Because of this, I do not remember anything from the works I read. Regardless, Plato is still somewhat familiar and I’m happy that it is the first reading.

On another but connected topic, I have been thinking about how to organize this website. I do want a blog where I can write posts which are about activity at a given time, I also want this website to be a tool which helps me form connections between different works and topics. I develop my understanding about something by making connections to what I already know and this method has worked well for me. I visualize knowledge as a tree in which everything is connected to everything else in some way or form. And I would like a similar structure for this website. Let’s see how it goes.

For now, I’m off to read Apology.