2013 Reading Strategy

Recently I began reading a book that I had wished I knew about when I was a bit younger. That book is entitled How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren. It is a book that is designed to "instruct" one in the art of reading good books in order to understand and gain a deeper knowledge. It should be in my humblest of opinions the start to anyone's pursuits of a serious academic/intellectual study. I am still making my way through the book, and you can expect a full review and discussion to come some time this month. Also, reading this book has put a desire in me to revisit a lot of the "great books" of our world. Thus I will begin adding to my personal home library this year Mortimer J. Adler's The Great Books of the Western World published by Encyclopedia Britannica and reading the books from Volume I through to the end.

Also, I plan to read Charles Van Doren's book entitled The History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future-The Pivotal Events, People, and Achievements of World History. I will also be reading From Dawn to Decadence by the late cultural historian Jacques Barzun.

There is also the matter that as a Catholic and being that Pope Benedict XVI has called this year Anno Fides, the "Year of Faith" I will be planning to re-read the entirety of the Holy Bible; RSV Ignatius version of course! As well as the complete Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Further I have developed a "reading plan" for history books; one that I like to call The History of the World in Books. This year I will begin by reading a series of books that chronologically tell our human story. To give you an idea of how that plan will progress I present the following list:

"Antiquity: From the Birth of Sumerian Civilization to the Fall of the Roman Empire"

By: Norman F. Cantor

"Our Oriental Heritage"

Story of Civilzation: Vol. I

By Will Durant

"Ancient Greece"

By: Thomas Martin

"History of Rome"

By Michael Grant

"Inheritance of Rome"

By Chris Wickham

"Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization"

By: Lars Brownworth

"A Short History of Byzantium"

By: John Julius Norwich

"Civilization of the Middle Ages"

By Norman F. Cantor

"Mysteries of the Middle Ages"

By Thomas Cahill

"The Crusades: A History"

By; Jonathon Riley-Smith

"Religion and the Rise of Western Culture"

By: Christopher Dawson

"How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilzation"

By: Thomas C. Woods Jr.

"The Catholic Church: The First 2,000 Years"

By: Martha Rasmussen

"The Italian Renaissance"

By J.H. Plumb

"History of the American People"

By: Paul Johnson

Obviously the list leaves some gaps in history that need to be filled, but I will fill those as the reading continues. I will work on compiling a page here at the Blog that shows the list and which also details its progress. It should be a fun time and a great learning experience. I am looking forward to it, as that I hope you are as well.

Of course there are certain works of literature I want to accomplish this year as well. First on the list is Victor Hugo's Les Miserables not as result of the latest film adaptation. I have not yet seen it, and not sure if I will. However I have always wanted to tackle that book, but have never committed the time. Then there is Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War & Peace. There are more (such as Dickens), but as that those are all tomes of considerable weights and measure, I will refrain from adding any more in light that I may perhaps have bitten off more than I can chew in a single year.

However there is one more. It's more of a tradition of mine every couple of years or so, and that is that I plan to re-read my favorite book of all-time J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Well that's my reading list for the year 2013...or a plan at least. I suppose that I may not finish it all in which they will carry over to the next year, but that is a long way from now. So, what do you say? Are you ready to get reading?