Like many people during the lockdown I was challenged to list ten books that I loved. Pft! That's like asking Giacomo Casanova to list the loves of his life!
I listed the books that changed my life and one of the first of them was the Vol.8 of "The Book of Knowledge", the set of encyclopedias that we had at home when I was in primary school. (Wierd, I know)
However it got me thinking about the Great Books of the Western World which I lusted after for years. A night's Googling (that was fun) found
this website that showed that most of the books were available from the University of Adelaide (that was good) but following their link I found that their online library has been closed down (that's TERRIBLE!).
Such a travesty cannot be allowed to go unchallenged! That gave me my next reading project. No I'm not going to read them all - I'm retired so I'm not sure I have ten years for a reading plan like that! - but I can at least find them, precis them, and record for others what I have found. I've started a Google Sites website for it but I'll hang fire on making it public for a while if you don't mind.
The good news is that...
- Archive.org has most if not all of the Great books available for download in multiple formats
- The Wayback Machine has most of the U of Adelaide downloads available
- Librivox has them as audiobooks
Who knows, perhaps I might move on from this to other "Great Books" collections like The Harvard Classics, or widen my eduction by looking for the great books of Eastern civilisation?
I might tap the collected expertise of this forum on some issues that have vexed me.
Cheers
K