2010/2011 Schedule

Where: Main Library

When: From 7:30 - 9:00 PM on fifteen alternate Tuesdays between Columbus Day and Memorial Day, omitting a meeting during the winter holidays. An advanced schedule is published each fall (see above).

Reading Interests: This group reads primarily from anthologies that emphasize ancient and modern classics of literature, drama, philosophy, and social thought. Some of these anthologies are published by the Great Books Foundation; two Norton anthologies have also been used, and two short-story collections. In recent years the group has read selections from Genesis, Sophocles, Petronius, Chekhov, Hugo, Heine, Chopin, Wharton, and DeLillo; these may run from 20 to more than 100 pages. Additional books, chosen by the group, tend to be more contemporary. Those read in the last three years include Saramago's Blindness, Feynman's Six Easy Pieces, Faulkner's Absalom!, Absalom!, Eliot's The Waste Land, Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. A Shakespeare play is read every year.

There are only two requirements of participants: read the scheduled work and participate in the discussion. These requirements are waived for those attending their first meeting. Examples of the questions used to guide the discussions can be found on the group’s blog. Preregistration is not required but is encouraged, since the library will provide, in advance and at no charge, a copy of the reading for anyone planning to attend.

Contact: Hugh Crane, group leader <<hcrane@cambridgema.gov>>, or Martha Hamilton. (617-349-4044).

Great Books Read From 1987-2010

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