Getting an Education from Books, Part II
In keeping with the theme of getting an education from books, today I am focusing on the course, Invitation to World Literature. Although I really liked – Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life, I loved this course more, and I think a part of that has to do with the delivery. Invitation to World Literature consists of 30-minute videos based on 13 books – a video for each book – which is a much more manageable number. What I appreciated most of all is the diversity of people talking about the story and how the book impacted their lives. And where possible, the authors talk about their work. The people in the video also read from the book, and it is not plain reading, but dramatic reading. They do such a good job that you want to immediately rush to purchase the books. I think that people today will find these 13 books more accessible than many of the books covered in Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life.
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The videos are interesting and well done. Some of the guests on the video may have done a stage production based on the book, so the learner sees another interpretation of the work. For the books on the list that I have already read, it was meaningful to see how different my interpretation of the work is from others. Since taking the courses, Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life, and Invitation to World Literature, I have also taken Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. In the lecture on understanding and interpreting literary works, there are arguments on the author’s intention and motive. If we get insights into what the author intended when he or she was writing the book, we would also get insights into what the literary works mean. But this is not possible for many “great” books since the authors are dead.
To get a deeper understanding, and subsequently an education from books, it makes sense to review literary criticisms on literary works that are very difficult to interpret and understand. By doing this, you are penetrating the content of the book. In the end, education is a personal journey, and it is up to you what you take away from the experience. There is some overlap between the 13 and 35 books for both of the courses on “great” books.
Getting an Education from Books – 13 Books from Invitation to World Literature
- Gilgamesh: A New English Version
- My Name Is Red
- The Odyssey
- Bacchae
- The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics)
- The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
- Journey to the West (The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 1)
- The Popol Vuh (Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of The Mayan Book of The Dawn of Life and The Glories of Gods and Kings)
- Candide
- Things Fall Apart
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- The God of Small Things: A Novel
- The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (Modern Library Classics)
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Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people. Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.
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