Page 1 of 1

My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:48 am
by AnthonyP
Hi everyone,

My name is Anthony and I am from Trinidad and Tobago. Since 1998, I've dreamed of attending St. John's College because I think their great books program provides the best education anyone could hope for. However, due to financial, career and other reasons, I'm unable to attend at this time (but I'm still keeping the dream alive! :))

I joined BookTalk because I wanted to discuss and have a better understanding of these books which I'm about to start reading shortly.

I also joined BookTalk with the hope of forming an online discussion group along these guidelines.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to learning and sharing with you!

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:48 am
by Suzanne
Hello and welcome Anthony!

Although BookTalk does not have a structured “great books” forum, you can choose a book from your list and start a discussion. Most of these books are free on Project Gutenberg. You could post the link to the book in your thread and maybe attract members. Good luck to you and your dream.

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:17 am
by Dexter
I remember looking at the St. John's curriculum and thinking that was pretty cool.

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 9:20 am
by haviZsultan
Welcome to the community. :)

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:09 pm
by DWill
I once visited St. John's in Annapolis, MD (there's also a campus in Santa Fe, NM) and sat in on some classes. This was out of curiosity, but I too liked what I saw. The campus is right next to the Naval Academy, which provides an interesting contrast. Each spring the Johnnies and the Middies get together to play each other in croquet.

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 1:52 am
by AnthonyP
@Suzanne Thanks for the advice about starting with a book from St John's list. This is great because it will give the discussion's group members more time to digest these books as well as less pressure on us to finish all of these books by a given time. I'll have to start with sections of Iliad by Homer but I'll have to first get some thought provoking questions on these sections to get the conversation going (I'm currently having some trouble finding these questions). As for Project Gutenberg, this was the very first site I stumbled upon by accident just yesterday and discovered to my surprise that many of the books on St John's reading list were available there for free - I'm so happy about that. And for the books on the list that were not on Gutenberg, I managed to get them on sites like The Internet Classics Archive, Penn State University's Electronic Classics Site and other university sites. So I'm now happy to say that I downloaded all of the books on St. John's College reading list (except Aeschylus' Libation Bearers and Eumenides, which I'm still searching for).

@haviZsultan thanks!

@DWill I envy you - that must have been a great experience! And I saw the video about the long running croquet competitions - it was funny. Some years ago, I got an email out of the blue from one of St. John's students inviting me to come on campus and sit in on some of their classes. I really wished I could have attended. I believe they had my email in their database when I requested a brochure years prior to that (btw, the brochure was really cool, nothing like what I've seen before with other university/college brochures, very creative in terms of design and materials used!). I exchanged emails with the student and acting chair of the department. That was a really pleasant surprise.

@Dexter Cool is right! Have you seen St. John's Videos? Some of my favorite videos are below:




Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:28 am
by Chris OConnor
Welcome to BookTalk.org. :-)

Re: My "Great Books" Dream (St. John's College)

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:00 am
by AnthonyP
@Chris Thanks!