Hi! I could really use some help deciding which books are particularily helpful in preparing students to read the Great Books. For example, I read from the LCC site that Norse Myths help with the reading of the Hobbit. I asked for 20 or so just to keep my list manageable. I would really appreciate any help! Thanks.

Does anyone have any resources for studying the great works that include non-western works? I'm thinking mainly of Chinese and Vedic works, but also African and other Asian and I would include early Slavic, Gaelic, and Nordic works as not being part of the so-called Western Tradition. I notice that the intermediate level reading lists here and in WTM the book, include overviews but what about direct study. Having an almost entirely Western focused classical study seems horribly parochial in the 21st Century.

Looking ahead to start planning for high school - We hope to follow the WTM plan for combining History and Literature. In TWTM (2009), it says to make a realistic assessment of how many books the student will be able to cover, and then choose 8, or 12, or 18. Of course this will vary depending on the student's reading skills and length/difficulty of the books read. But how to choose which will make up the book list? The shortest, so you can read more? Whatever looks interesting? A sampling from different time periods? Without being familiar with many of these books, we are not sure what to use as a deciding factor. Also, anyone who has followed this plan - any thoughts, suggestions, things you wish you'd done differently or that worked well? Thanks for your help!

SWB was interviewed on this podcast yesterday: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/04/04/podcast-189-the-classical-education-you-never-had/ It's a wonderful and encouraging talk, as always. One topic particularly struck me as I'm planning dd's 9th grade year: the issue of - dare I say it - depth vs. breadth. Specifically in terms of Great Books study, the issue of quantity (number of Great Books covered in a year/over high school) vs. quality. Quality of reading, depth of analysis, quality of wrestling with questions, thinking analytically, reading deeply, writing clearly. I love all thing things she says - You are never "done" with the Great Conversation, you're never done wrestling about questions of the human condition, you'll never read it all, and more important than which books you read or how many you read is the depth at which you engage with them. I love it. I agree with it. It makes sense. The last thing I want to do is rush through a book list with an "Ok, that's checked off, let's move on" mentality. But at the same time, there is the expectation/pressure/reality (?) that a certain number of books "should" be covered in a year and/or that you should make it through a whole textbook worth of material in science, history, whatever. I often have a hard time squaring the two expectations - to go deep, slow, and meaningful, vs. covering the quantity of material needed for a high school credit worthy class. Anybody else think about this? How do you handle the quantity of material vs. quality/depth of engagement issue in your homeschool?

Has anyone used the Norton Anthology of World Literature for high school world lit? There have been a number of discussions about Great Books literature, including following the WTM, but I haven't seen many or any discussions of using the Norton Anthology of World Literature (previously called Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces). The Norton Anthology, especially the shorter version, seems like a terrific basic text for a lot of the readings. We developed a reading list, but I don't have a lot of background in non-Western/non-Middle East ancient literature to pick particular works, translations, and provide brief background information for the literature of China, India, etc., but I wanted to provide a more global literature class (ancient in 9th grade). The Norton Anthology seems to provide all that, so I'm surprised that I don't read more about it here. Have others used it? How? What was your experience? Specifically, we're planning on using previous edition of the Norton Anthology, shorter version, Vol. 1, for the literature of China and India part of our ancient and medieval literature course (only 4 bucks including shipping). Does anyone have any suggestions to share? Thanks.