Category Archives: The Great Books

What I’ve Been Reading

Posted on September 28, 2021 by Tommy Collison

I’m enjoying St. John’s, even though the math and science seminar is fairly difficult work. I  started with math because I knew it was the one that would give me the most grief, and I wasn’t wrong. We started with On … Continue reading →

Posted in Aristotle, On the Nature of Things, What I've Been Reading | 1 Comment

Why is Middlemarch so good?

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Tommy Collison

The author’s purpose was to be a generous rural historian, and this very redundancy of touch, born of abundant reminiscence, is one of the greatest charms of her work. It is as if her memory was crowded with antique figures, … Continue reading →

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Some more thoughts on the specificity of The Prince

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Early impressions here. The benefit to doing two discussion salons on the Great Books is that you read a book, discuss a book, and then discuss a book again a month later with the second group. This digestion period has been … Continue reading →

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Inchoate thoughts on Middlemarch, and fiction

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Ed. Note: If it weren’t already obvious, I’m sort of throwing my original book order out the window. Most of this has to do with making sure that I’m prepared for the Interintellect discussion series, but part of it is also not … Continue reading →

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What’s Overlooked in Frankenstein

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Tommy Collison

I first read Frankenstein as a college freshman, and I was excited to read it again for the discussion series I’m hosting with David McDougall. The novel has permeated pop culture such that the themes (hubris, scientific advancement gone awry, those funny … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and the 21st Century, Frankenstein | 1 Comment

Why They’ll Read Dante in Space

Posted on July 18, 2021 by Tommy Collison

(Previous thoughts on Dante here and here.) “Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third.” —T.S. Eliot. “At one point midway on our path in life, I came around and found myself now searching through … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and the 21st Century, Inferno | 1 Comment

Inchoate thoughts on Descartes’ Meditations

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Back when I read Euclid’s Elements*, I wrote (or maybe just thought) that some of these books were best read in person. Some of the Great Books (the novels, I think?) are easy to digest, while others require more grappling. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Meditations on First Philosophy, The Great Books | 1 Comment

Early Impressions of The Prince, Machiavelli

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Tommy Collison

The best parts of reading the Great Books is seeing the delta between what you think a book is about versus what the actual text says. I say “what the actual text says” because there really is no substitute to … Continue reading →

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A Quick Note About Talking About The Classics

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Reading classic books is enjoyable in and of itself, but something that I’ve found surprisingly enjoyable is to take part in the conversations around these books. Much like the actual reading of books, “Discussions around the Classics” is a subset … Continue reading →

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(Hopefully) Less inchoate thoughts on Dante’s Inferno

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Tommy Collison

Continued from here. Intellectuals say that Paradiso is for pious theologians, Purgatorio is for brilliant, exacting scholars of Medieval cosmology, but Inferno, Inferno is for filthy casuals. —Books in 150 Words. I finished Inferno over the weekend, and there’s something about … Continue reading →

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