Self-Education: A Personal Library

Two awesome resources stand out for me when it comes to developing a personal library: the St. John’s College curriculum gives you a jumping off point for a Great Books/ Western classicist self-education, and the “Literature and History Podcast” is an excellent, interesting and comprehensive guide to literature through the ages. Dr. Metzger does approach the Bible as a literary text; as a counterpoint, I’ve mentioned before on the AAN podcast that I enjoy Jen Wilkin’s biblical studies, several of which are available for free online. [Edit Nov 2020: currently loving all the episodes by Dr. Spencer Klavan on his podcast “Young Heretics”- his series on TS Eliot is not to be missed!]

Also, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post, John Zhu is doing a great job of bringing some of the Chinese classics to life for English readers. As I explore more in the literature of other cultures and world traditions, I’ll post any resources I find that aid in understanding. [Edit Nov 2020: new podcast covering Dream of the Red Chamber (John Zhu’s podcast has covered Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Water Margin so far.) That’s 3/4 of the Chinese classics between these two shows!]

I should note that I have no particular feelings about whether you house physical books in your own home, keep digital copies on a device, or consider the local public library your own (my current m.o.). As far as I’m concerned, a personal library is the library contained within oneself. No matter where our books are stored, ultimately all that matters is that we read them. As the quote goes, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”

The St. John’s College curriculum

Literature and History podcast by Dr. Doug Metzger

Young Heretics by Dr. Spencer Klavan

Jen Wilkin: James; 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel; Matthew Pt 2

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin podcasts by John Zhu

Rereading the Stone by Dr. Kevin Wilson and William Jones (podcast about Dream of the Red Chamber)

Preferred translations or helpful supplemental reading:

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha (currently 5th edition)

The Iliad (Fagles trans.)

The Odyssey (Fagles trans.)

The Aeneid (Fagles trans.)

Homeric Moments by Dr. Eva Brann