Reflecting on Reading the Great Books (Mid-Year Check-in) (Patreon)

Dear Book Club Readers ---

We are now midway through the year and you should be incredibly proud of what you have accomplished with your reading.

As reflection is an important part of deep reading, let’s take stock and consolidate what we have learnt from the Great Books so far this year.

Discussion topics include: our next literary adventures, how Tolkien helps us with our own hero’s journey, preparing to meet Shakespeare’s inexhaustible characters, sublimating pain, the power of positive thinking, and much more.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 mid-year reading reflections
• 3:00 celebrating our achievements
• 4:00 Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky
• 6:00 on being proud of your reading
• 5:00 the magical thing about big goals
• 7:00 the power of communal reading
• 8:00 The Count of Monte Cristo
• 9:00 our books for the year ahead
• 10:00 expressing my gratitude for you
• 11:00 preparing to meet Falstaff
• 12:00 lessons from living the great books
• 13:00 drawing guidance from Tolkien
• 14:00 how to choose your adventure
• 16:00 on the cave you fear to enter
• 17:00 mapping our your hero’s journey
• 18:00 how reading helps with our lives
• 20:00 our thoughts influence our lives
• 21:00 analysing the language we use
• 22:00 how to be a friend to yourself
• 23:00 how literature improves empathy
• 24:00 our paradigms of the world
• 25:00 Orlando and subjective reality
• 26:00 why discuss great literature?
• 28:00 death is a measure of love
• 29:00 The Brothers Karamazov & Hamlet
• 31:00 how to sublimate great pain
• 32:00 bargaining & the stages of grief
• 33:00 reflection questions for you
• 34:00 psychic residue from our reading
• 36:00 remember Tolstoy in nature
• 37:00 Zossima on our lofty hearts
• 38:00 on Alice Munro’s short stories
• 40:00 befriending William Shakespeare
• 42:00 favourite & least favourite characters
• 43:00 Dostoyevsky & Cormac McCarthy
• 44:00 an appreciation of Richard II
• 45:00 narrative devices that delight us
• 48:00 what are we most proud of?
• 49:00 why discussion counts as reading
• 50:00 what does being well read mean?
• 52:00 on setting exciting personal goals
• 54:00 questions about great literature
• 55:00 expressing my deep thanks for you

Great Literature Questions:

1) What makes a work ‘great’ literature?

2) How should one approach a great work?

3) What kinds of books make it into your personal canon?

4) Do different literary mediums have different rewards?

Personal Reflection Questions:

1) What ideas have resonated most with you from your reading this year?

2) Who was your favourite character? And least favourite character? Why?

3) What narrative/storytelling tricks most appealed to you?

4) What accomplishment are you feeling most proud of this year?

5) What would make the rest of the year great for you?

6) What has been the biggest reward from your reading?

Happy reading and reflecting, everybody!