MomOfABunch Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/36-books-that-changed-the-world.html Has anyone used this before? I just saw it and thought that if its good, it may solve my literature issue. I was all ready for the Ancients next year but DS would like to not do the 4 year history cycle for HS. He's going to do Human Geography in the fall, so I need stand alone literature. How does this look as a backbone? I'd have him read the original works as appropriate and add in assignments. Is there anything absolutely essential for lit that is not on this list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 I was looking at that one, too. It's a newer GC offering, so people probably haven't used it, yet. It's a compilation of lectures from various other courses, but it does not include a course guidebook, which seems to be the reason for its low rating on the GC site. If I were doing a lit study using GC, I would select books to read for the year (possibly from this list) and then get the original lectures because they would come with guidebooks for the lectures (our library has many/most.) There is good information in the guidebooks, including an outline of each lecture, key points, and often thought-provoking questions that could be used as essay prompts. So, no, personally, I would not purchase this course if I were going to use it for lit study. (And my kids definitely would not be able to effectively study all those books in one year!) However, yes, I would use GC lectures to do lit study of books we'd chosen to read for a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 While they may be books that changed the world, I am not sure that I would want to read even three-quarters of them in one year. You are really looking at part literature, part history, and parts philosophy and science. My son is passionate about economics and I still wouldn't have him read all of The Wealth of Nations, unless he was really into it. If this would be for a freshman, I shudder. Better options would be to utilize one of the larger sets like Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition (picked up used is good) over several years. Do it chronologically or pick and choose what you want, leaving room for world literature. Another option, which we'll be using this year is A Day's Read. This is an opportunity to sample some of the world's greatest authors by reading shorter works of theirs. You don't have to commit to Madame Bovary or The Sound and the Fury to read Flaubert or Faulkner. So far, I've really enjoyed the selections and I think my reluctant, but sophisticated reader will be completely pulled in. However, the themes are fairly adult so an older student may be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfABunch Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Ok, thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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