The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by cravenco, Sep 26, 2010.

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  1. cravenco

    cravenco New Member

    Members-this is a good read. Please enjoy if you like reading on the computer, if not, you can purchase this via any well-known book seller.

    The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books


    A great idea at the time: the rise ... - Google Books

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 26, 2010
  2. cravenco

    cravenco New Member

    The Harvard Classics and the Great Books of the Western World have always been in battle with each other; selected professionals, at least from my understanding have tried to compare both volumes, and to this day never come to a consensus as to which works are greater in scope and educational level.

    Although I am stuck on the GBWW, the HC is indeed more in-tuned with the modern educational system. And as such serves better for the reader of books outside the academic walls.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I have both sets.....sadly they sit unread. One of these days.....
     
  4. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Many years ago, when Marina and I were consultants to Encyclopaedia Britannica, we had several lunches with Mortimer Adler. He loved the fact that Britannica was marketing his 'baby,' but annoyed that this wonderful product was mostly being sold by pushy door-to-door salespeople [who had the astonishing-to-us success rate of making one sale for every five doorbells pushed]. Adler told us this wonderful [or, perhaps, terrible] story. They had dozens sets of Great Books assembled with all blank pages, just for display at trade shows and the like, complete with the "free" bookcase. By some dreadful error, ten of these blank-page sets were sent out to people who had purchased the set. And, Adler said, four of the ten people never complained!
     
  5. cravenco

    cravenco New Member



    LOL. I bet!!!! :wink:
     
  6. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef


    You know though, the bindings are beautiful. I purchased my set of Great Books at a used book store ($20) and even if they are never read, they look fantastic :)
     

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