Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Book Rec - The Well Educated Mind



The subtitle of this one - A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had - sums it up perfectly.

More, directly from the book jacket:

Have you lost the art of reading for pleasure? Are there books you know you should read but haven’t because they seem too daunting? The Well-Educated Mind , Susan Wise Bauer provides a welcome and encouraging antidote to the distractions of our age, electronic and otherwise. In her previous book, The Well-Trained Mind, the author provided a road map of classical education for parents wishing to homeschool their children. That book is now the premier resource for homeschoolers. In this new book, Bauer takes the same elements and techniques and adapts them for adult readers who want both enjoyment and self-improvement from the time they spend reading.

The Well-Educated Mind offers brief, entertaining histories of five literary genres — fiction, autobiography, history, drama, and poetry — accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The anotated lists at the end of each chapter — ranging from Cervantes to A. S. Byatt, Herodotus to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich — preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing.

For more on this one, please see the lengthy and well-educated post I wrote on its predecessor - Book Summary - The Well-Trained Mind.

It suffices to say that I've thoroughly enjoyed both of Susan Wise Bauer's books. Read them.

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