secular great books program?

[mo2]

I'm looking for a great books program that is secular in nature. Omnibus is the only great books program I hear much about, but that is most definitely Christian. I have looked at Great Books Academy but I can't find many reviews on it. Any other suggestions?

Just FYI, I won't have a high school student for many years, but I want to start reading the great books myself so thought I could follow a program that I intend to use for my children in the future.

[JennW in SoCal]

You don't need a program to tackle great books for yourself or with your children. You just need a little guidance to get started reading and thinking.

I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of SWB's Well Educated Mind. It is meant for adults who wish to tackle great literature but never learned how, and it is easily adapted for middle schoolers and high schoolers. The book describes how to tackle fiction, history and biography, poetry and drama, and there is a brief history of each genre along with an annotated reading list. If you need more for a particular work, then you hit a site such as Sparknotes.

The whole point of tackling the great books is to start thinking deeply about the topics and issues in these works, and, imho, any of literature program is going to have a bias or slant that will limit your thinking. Better to learn how to read and analyze for yourself than depend upon pre-set questions.

Some people like Adler's How to Read a Book or other similar works, but I found SWB's book was the one that finally switched on that literary light bulb for me!