The Great Conversation is a reading group dedicated to reading the great works of Western civilization. The name and original inspiration of the group is Britannica Great Books of the Western World, edited by Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins. Adler and Hutchins believed the great books could be viewed as a dialog, a conversation. The goal of our group is to listen in on that conversation and even to begin to participate in it.

For more information, please review the group web page: http://www.greatconversation.org/

Our readings are taken from among the set of the authors in Adler's and Hutchins's Great Books anthology following a modified version Adler's ten year plan for reading. We use Britannica's ten year reading plan created by Adler and Hutchins as a guide for the selection of our readings. The goal is to read and discuss as many of the original texts of these authors directly and unfiltered.

Anyone is free to join and read. Having a copy of the Britannica Great Books is *not* required, as these books are also available in other formats by other publishers, such as Penguin.

When you apply for membership below, prior to approving your membership, I will subsequently email you, asking for a response back to me. Please make sure that you check your email (or spam box) for email from me so that you receive my email, otherwise, if I do not receive a reply from you, I will be unable to process your membership request. My email address starts with the following address, stripped of the asterisks:
d*w*y*e*r*m*z*@...

Next readings:
Sept Oct 2009: Aristotle- Metaphysics
Oct Nov 2009: Rabelais- Gargantua and Pantagruel
Dec 2009: Plutarch- Lives
Jan 2010: Machiavelli- The Prince
Feb 2010: Augustine: Confessions

The image is an illustration of a scene in Gargantua and Pantagruel by Gustave Doré showing Gargantua eating a Pilgrim Salad.