Short post tonight since I got home late. I'm in the closing stretch of this little project. I've got to do at least one more general recap post, but I think even if I really ramble I'll be done by the end of the week. I'm still holding onto the every day streak for as long as I can, but I think I'll probably let it go by the end of the month. When I had an explicit, daily challenge it made sense, but as I move onto longer pieces I think once or twice a week will be more suitable. I have spent some time thinking about what to read next, so here's a list in order from what I think is least to most likely:
1. More Harvard Classics- 15MAD is only a small portion (my napkin math puts it about 15%) of the total collection, and that's not even counting the later fiction supplement. However, they're not exactly easy to find/work with, the translations are dated, and I think I'd prefer to broaden my horizons a bit.
2. Dig into the "to read" list- I made a list of about 50 (I think there are some doubles) things to read over the course of this year. I'd definitely like to read them (or I wouldn't have made the list!) but I think I want a little more organization than "pick the next thing that looks interesting off the list."
(These two are almost guaranteed not to be the plan, but they're reasonable ideas to consider.)
3. An organized classics/liberal ed course- There's a bunch out there, but many are on some kind of actual schedule, and I'd have to find one that I liked, aligned with my schedule, etc. I think this is a better plan for some other time, unless a great one falls into my lap.
4. Do one of the Great Books courses- Gateway To The Great Books is probably the most direct competitor to 15MAD released, and is much more modern (original date 1963, updated edition 1990?). It'd be kind of cool to see how they compare. On the other hand, it feels like it'd basically be a repeat of this year in theme, if not in content.
5. Casually Comparing Classics- I had a lot of fun with The Odyssey series, and I have a couple Beowulf translations I'd like to read sitting on my night stand. It'd be fun (and comparatively short/easy) to chunk through a section or two of each a week and compare them.
6. 15 Minute Classics: The World Tour- I got a copy of one of the current (shorter fifth) editions of the Norton World Lit anthology for my birthday. T5FSOB (and The Great Books) are heavily western focused, and I think I'd like to expand my range a little. Maybe I'll decide I really like southern Asian mythology and want to dig in on that for six months or something. This feels manageable (I think it's actually slightly less pages than this year's challenge), I have the books physically (and I think digitally, although I'm having some issues with my code. If not, I can yar har the 4th edition if nothing else), and it seems most likely to increase the breadth of my reading, if not depth. But I'm not one hundred percent locked in yet...
I think I probably have a handful of regular readers on this blog. According to Blogger, I'm averaging a ~100 hits a day. I'm sure most of those are from bots (and I really doubt the blog is as popular in Singapore as the stats suggest), but I think that there's gotta be at least one or two of you actually reading most of these posts. So, I'm going to ask for two things. First, leave LITERALLY ANY COMMENT. Even if it's just one letter. I just want to know someone actually exists and is looking at these. Second, if you care, feel free to talk about which of the above options you like/dislike. I'm open to any one of the six, and if someone is really engaged with one it'll probably be more fun to do that one.
At the end of the day, this blog is mostly a journal for me to help me organize my thoughts about the readings. This isn't a Fanfic.net "no updates until I get enough comments!" hostage situation, I will keep tooling along for the foreseeable future regardless. But I would like it more if I knew someone was actually alive on the other end of the ethernet cable.
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