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It was awesome to listen about books we never heard about. Wish you could have taught one of those stories in oates anthology. Since creative writing is an obsession with many people . Today people who couldn't try being anacrobat or try to fly a plane think they can write. So a class on creative writing could explain to these hopefuls how difficult it is to write a satisfying story. Wish you could do it with some of your great books too. Thanking you

I just bought the whole series on eBay. Nowhere near as good a deal as you got, but the information contained within is well worth what I paid. Especially since I am helping to homeschool my grandchildren. I will also be able to pass along the collection to my family when I'm gone which will hopefully ensure these "Great Ideas" don't fade into obscurity.

I have that volume. I need to reread the article on democracy as that subject is a central issue in the current election cycle

Thanks for the overview and for including a link to read it! I’m definitely interested in the additions to the Great Books library… I just love the idea of these books, before the age of internet, still being able to get access to such a variety of content, in one book!

I do wonder whether adults wish to continue any education at all. In fact, despite the innumerable number of readers out there, most adults, in my experience (granted, I live in an industrial town) have no interest in "improving themselves" in any way, and that the entirety of their education (they imagine) was little more than a waste of time. They, back in my day (I'm 60), would rather have engaged themselves in sports (playing or watching). Now, most adults I'm familiar with would rather play video games, scroll through social media without memory of what they'd consumed, and/or play/watch sports. Shallow pursuits, in other words. They are actually proud of their choice of pursuits. That is not entirely true, I imagine; but I do wonder whether people wish to live a deep, intellectual life, anymore; if indeed most people ever did, then or now. One wonders whether even most readers these days are interested in anything deeper than the most recent bestseller lists. We (society) have been dumbed down, made consumers and not thinkers.

Thank you for sharing your experience with these books. We inherited the 1952 set when my husband’s mom passed away. I started with Book 1 in April and am just now (mid Aug) up to “Prudence” in the Syntopicon. Very slow going indeed, but that’s mostly because I find myself rereading entire paragraphs just trying to “keep up” with the author of these discussion topics. I typically sit with a couple of pillows on my lap, and the book propped up on top to better read the tiny font. I keep a journal nearby to copy down favorite quotes and topics I want to look out for in the actual books, which I hope to get to before 2025. 😉 I also purchased a bottle of bookbinding glue because the spines are starting to crack as you demonstrated.

Hutchins would be less frightened than terrified by the internet, I imagine. Everyone has a voice, but not the education to use it wisely; or the understanding what is being told them. Few people have the wisdom to question the stream of misinformation being served them, or to follow up to see if any of it is accurate, or even truthful.

The artwork is stunning. Thank you so much for this informative and well-put together video!

Thanks Jim! I was aware about haiku but didn’t know much about it… but the Japanese love to elevate the everyday mundane things, so this style makes sense…

For anyone interested in the beautiful Heritage Press hardcover books, there is currently a listing on eBay with 300+ Heritage Press hardcover books for only $600. THAT'S $2 A BOOK, FOLKS! Unfortunately, it's local pickup only and they are in California and I live on the complete opposite side of the country. 😭

Thank you for sharing your experience Malachy, you are an inspiration for us to get our heads out of the "dumb" box. It felt like I was witnessing treasures from an ancient civilization. Schooling was such a waste of time.

Looking forward to your vid on haiku, I lived in Japan for 2 years, but never really got into them! I’m still slowly making my way through the Iliad & Seneca’s letters, plus tried reading R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface, but might dnf, just cannot stand the main character! 😅

I always had trouble getting into older literature until I learned a little trick. Read it out loud to yourself. It takes longer, but it ups my reading comprehension and my enjoyment. Before television and radio, people used to read aloud to each other, and books were kind of written to be consumed that way. My general rule of thumb is that if it's older than 100 years, read it out loud (this is for fiction). Two books I'm reading that way now are A Passage to India and Resurrection by Tolstoy. And I just finished O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. That's an example of a book that I'd read before, silently, and couldn't get into. Reading it out loud, I couldn't put it down.

I have all the numbered volumes (there are other volumes that aren't numbered). My parents got them at the grocery store but they were lost, along with a lot of other books, when they divorced in the 80s but I found the set again on ebay as I am trying to rebuild the library I grew up with. As for them being unabridged that's not quite true, A Study in Scarlett by AC Doyle had just about all the stuff about Mormons cut. Personally I think it actually made the story better

Hold the phone - no Milton - paradise Lost ? No crime and punishment ? No pascal Pensees?

Awesome video. You really got a great deal. There is nothing like the real thing. I am an obsessive encyclopedia hunter. Have six sets in physical format and numerous electronic PDF versions of rarer collections. The Britannica of 73/74 with the Macropaedia format is my all time favorite. Happy browsing with your 'new' old set.

Oh, man, I am sooooo jealous! Congratulations!

I collect encyclopedias too and I still read them

Wow, they’re in such amazing condition! That red reminds me a bit of the beautiful Harvard Classics (5-foot shelf) set… (you ever start reading any of those?) My Dutch grandpa had a Dutch encyclopaedia set, but when he passed last year I wasn’t able to bring it with me… tbh don’t have the shelf space for it! 😅 but I agree about the fun of hopping around, not knowing what you might stumble across, it’s very satisfying and rewarding, much more so than clicking on links in Wikipedia…

Another great video Jim. I may be one of the younger subscribers, I remember seeing The World Book collection in my library when I was growing up in the 90's (my local library still has a full set!) but my interest was only piqued when they came out on CD ROM. As I get older, I find myself gravitating more towards physical books and shunning using online resources as the only means of acquiring information. A few years ago I purchased a full set of The Encyclopedia Britannica (1987) and I go to that when I want to explore a topic for the first time, only then do I go online to supplement what I read. My approach may seem back to front, but I find it more rewarding, and I find the information sticks much better.

Unfortunately my father lost his eye sight this past year. But because of that he was finally willing to part with 1988 World Book set. There's also about a decade's worth of updates and some science books he had also bought through them. I'm about halfway through A right now, and I plan on reading the whole series.

What an awesome find Jim, congratulations!

Only way they should be selling these is large print.😐

Just stumbled on your channel - very nice conversations. Thanks!

Thanks for covering this extension to The Great Books. It really was a heroic effort to keep the great books relevant for modern times.

I love videos like this, but they - and the comments - make me feel ignorant. I have so much to learn, so much to read, but at 57, I feel I'm running out of time 😢

😄 I read Gerald Durrell

I really like Heritage Press editions - I try to pick them up whenever I find them.

For those not familiar with John Jakes; he's probably most famous for his Civil War series North and South that was turned into a mini series in the 80s starring Patrick Swayze (and others). The Rebels is part of a Revolutionary War series that was also turned into a mini series in the 70s. Not great, but William Shatner as Paul Revere is pretty cool. They're available on CZcams for free. If you see a John Jakes book laying around somewhere and you're in the mood for some brain candy, it's good stuff.

Well done Jim on finishing Plutarch!🎉 love these vids, even though they make my already huge TBR bigger! 😅 I love Stoicism (can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Epictetus!) think that’s how I eventually found your videos, from philosophy channels, to classics channels, to your vids on the GBotWW series…

Thanks for the video, Jim. I would love to see how these would have evolved to the current day. I can't think of anything comparable to these volumes for today's audience and I look forward to your future videos on the set .

You should absolutely take the time and get into Euclid. Memorize the definitions, postulates, and common notions. Work through each proposition, draw out the construction, recognize whether you’re working with a problem or a theorem, and attempt the demonstration on your own. The Elements is one of the most elegant examples of the art of reasoning ever written, using what Aristotle had just recently developed in that science as seen in the Prior and Posterior Analytics.

Looking forward to seeing a summary of each volume

I just got one in the mail about 20 minutes ago. 3 more to go! I started collecting them back in March. I bought most of mine from Thrift Books and Better World Books. I am finding them usually from $3-7. Thriftbooks is really bad about sending the wrong years but usually they are cheap enough that it doesn't matter much.

Have you seen this series with Mortimer Adler? czcams.com/play/PLtNeMaDFJdn_KrCyFcRt2fzggGuwDLiis.html&si=CA8uXZR5UHj8rQPz

I have a copy of Ulysses I bought at Hodges Figgis in Dublin and of course I also have some lemon soap from Sweny's

I have most of these and have read several of them but not all which you can see in my library. This is an old video and i have more shelves czcams.com/video/AysjFL4I4As/video.htmlsi=ZQm2LZSfo90rb3cm

Interesting! Looking forward to deep dives into these, especially to see what they didn’t include in the main set… the Internet really does seem to have been the death of these, but there is a revival generally in well-published individual books of classics, like the Penguin clothbound books… to produce whole sets now would probably be too costly… makes me wonder too how much these were previously, and if they really were affordable for the “every man” to get a liberal education… or maybe libraries became more popular and so a decline in people buying them in the 90’s? 🤔

While I completely understand Beam's criticisms of the typeset and dual-column layout where it may concern contemporary readers, readers with experience with older manuscripts are more comfortable with the layout design. As the cost of paper lowered within the history of book publishing, the cost-saving standard of the dual-column layout eventually faded. However, for the sake of the efficient use of my shelf space as a limited resource, I appreciate the publisher's decision to utilize the dual-column layout, thin paper, and reasonable font size. Thank you for your exploration of the typesetter - you've helped me gain a broader appreciation of the design elements involved!

Great video explaining all of the qualities of the books! Thanks for your time and effort. Sometimes, I also struggle with the double column, especially if the topic is difficult. When I get a little tired of that format, I fold an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of copy paper in the width of a column and I just move that sheet around as a book mark. I cover the columns I don't want to see to make it easier to read. Other times, the double columns are fine. (edited: I hit post too soon)

I'm 56 and own an early edition set; I haven't had any problems reading the books. For anyone who may be concerned, Amazon sells book lights and page magnifiers at a very reasonable price.

Hi Jim. Thanks for another great video, and as always I love hearing your opinions on one of my favorite book collections. I'm clearly an outlier when it comes to the type font of this set in the sense that It has really never bothered me. I would argue in fact, that it has been a factor in making the reading of the books even more rewarding (although I can understand how this would turn some people off of reading past the first page). With such a small type font, these books pose a difficulty when trying to read them out in public, hence I find myself reading them at my desk most of the time where my concentration is solely upon the work. As you mentioned, one is forced to slow down and comprehend what they are reading. Those who wish to be able to get through these works at a similar rate to that of a novel need to look elsewhere; these works are to be chewed slowly and digested (Adler almost had an aneurysm in an interview when a caller claimed that he taught people to "speed read" the Great Books). Regarding the lack of space for annotation, I always found this to be a peculiar choice in the sense that Adler continuously stressed the importance of writing in and annotating books throughout his career. I on the other hand, found it to be beneficial overall. Rather than writing sentences on the pages, I would use symbols (argument, key point, a nice quote etc) and clarify these on post-it notes that I would leave in the book, alongside creating references to such in a separate notebook devoted to the work and its ideas. It gave me a chance to once again slow down, and think about what I had written, what I was thinking, and how the interweaving web was being modified by the new information. It was challenging, but that's the whole point. The thin paper never really was an issue for me, and justified my choice in refusing to use a highlighter. People may berate the layout but I think it's worth considering, I propose, that the decisions were largely a product of the times in order to make this set publicly available (and relatively affordable). If a larger type font and single column approach were implemented, I can only imagine the size of the collection becoming gargantuan and practically unwieldy, not to mention significantly more expensive (another possible reason why introductions and footnotes were omitted, which again I preferred to the dismay of my friends). PS. I agree regarding the condition of the 1st edition covers, my Plato volume has a significant crack in the spine, and a few of the other volumes show similar wear. Not the most aesthetic, but for me this set isn't furniture to give off a pseudo-intellectual vibe to guests.

I just started reading the Aeschylus works over the weekend and the first one was hard to read. I had attributed it to the layout of the text, but I found I had no problem reading the next play. The print is pretty tiny for me. I annotate frequently but have been using notecards with minimal writing in the books and it has been working fine for me.

I've read the entire Great Books of the Western World and all the Harvard Classics but it took me almost 30 years

I never had a problem problem reading them but then when I read anything I take off my glasses and hold the book about 2 inches from my face so I can block out the world 🤣

I would really like to get a set of these. They've been on my wish list for some time. I enjoy your discussions on this fine and valuable set of books.

These volumes are not easily accessible to me in the UK, so I got the ebook. When I finally saw one in person I was so glad that I didn’t need to read the tiny font. I do most of my reading in bed and it would have been so difficult. Plus I can take my kindle anywhere really easily and save the shelf space. Win win

Thanks for the overview! I’ve got these as pdfs, so I can just zoom in!😉 I haven’t got to any scientific ones yet, are they also double columns? I just can’t get over how they managed to cram in so much (isn’t all of Shakespeare included, War and Peace, Don Quixote? 🤯)

I own the 1990 2nd edition set, and I couldn't be happier! These books are meant to be savoured and slowly digested. I appreciate the black and gold covers and the slightly creamy appearance of the pages. As for marginalia, I can make notes and add comments when necessary. After all, we are meant to participate in The Great Conversation! These books are meant to be read thoroughly, and their content absorbed, not scarfed down like a $1.99 burger from McDonald's. Thank you for your channel. It's nice to see that the discussion around The Great Books set continues.

I have found that after about 10 minutes of reading, the font size and layout become easy to read. I am about half way through the set, and absolutely love these sets. When I find sets cheap, I buy them. when I find loose volumes for a steal ($1 each or so) I grab them.