Plato is a beast to read. If I'm remembering right, the style is to have paragraphs-long winding, complex tangents that take forever to loop back and make a point.
Like you need SO MUCH RAM while you're reading to keep that all in your mental stack before he actually starts using it.
I think of the "Great" books (for whomever's definition or list) like I do the AFI Top 100 Films list. So many of them are on there because they were significant influences on film, BUT... are they actually good / impressive / enjoyable to watch NOW? For so many of them, my answer is: nope nope nope.
It shouldn't be the "Top" film list. It should be the "Most Significant" or "Most Influential" film list.
In the typical American book canon, I have no idea why we make kids read Huck Finn. There are just so many better, richer, and more enjoyable books out there.
When I was going through my UCLA Lit courses, I loved loved loved Jane Austen. But I was also a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls fan (iykyk). Austen was right up my alley. I gave my sister a copy of "Pride & Prejudice" but I told her: If the first paragraph doesn't strike you as funny, put the book down and move on.
This is all a long way to say: I'm skeptical that any list of "great" or must-read "classics" can ever make sense. At best, you could say, "IF X or Y or Z appeal to you, THEN you should check out A or B or C."
"Dune" is one of my favorite books. I'd recommend it to almost no one.
Like you need SO MUCH RAM while you're reading to keep that all in your mental stack before he actually starts using it.
I think of the "Great" books (for whomever's definition or list) like I do the AFI Top 100 Films list. So many of them are on there because they were significant influences on film, BUT... are they actually good / impressive / enjoyable to watch NOW? For so many of them, my answer is: nope nope nope.
It shouldn't be the "Top" film list. It should be the "Most Significant" or "Most Influential" film list.
In the typical American book canon, I have no idea why we make kids read Huck Finn. There are just so many better, richer, and more enjoyable books out there.
When I was going through my UCLA Lit courses, I loved loved loved Jane Austen. But I was also a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls fan (iykyk). Austen was right up my alley. I gave my sister a copy of "Pride & Prejudice" but I told her: If the first paragraph doesn't strike you as funny, put the book down and move on.
This is all a long way to say: I'm skeptical that any list of "great" or must-read "classics" can ever make sense. At best, you could say, "IF X or Y or Z appeal to you, THEN you should check out A or B or C."
"Dune" is one of my favorite books. I'd recommend it to almost no one.